January 28, 1927

Hay Watson Smith, the liberal and outspoken minister of Second Presbyterian Church during the 1920s and 1930s, was one of a few witnesses who testified against a proposed bill in the Arkansas legislature to outlaw the teaching of the theory of evolution in any school that received state funding. The bill was killed in the Senate, but a subsequent drive to refer the matter for popular vote led to passage of a constitutional amendment making Arkansas the only state in the Union to outlaw the teaching of evolution by initiated act.