The Great Depression that occurred in the 1930s in the United States led not only to a severe socio-political crisis but also to an educational one. The situation was especially critical in the South since economic decline there was intensified by social tension. The crisis required changes on all levels, including the ideological one, and it triggered the formation of civic biology that became a basis for the antievolution movement, changed the worldview of students, and triggered racism.
Civic biology was a new educational approach that changed the way biology was taught to high-school students. The key scientific work that provided the basis for a new educational program was the work “Civic Biology” written by George W. Hunter. Generally, the book was approved by the community since it suggested a complex approach to the studies of biology. According to A. R. Shapiro, “the book “The Civic Biology” was the first of a new generation of textbooks that integrated the teaching of botany, zoology, and human psychology into a single coherent whole (Shapiro 416).” Among the key achievements of reforms in the sphere of education was “the expansion of compulsory high schooling into the rural South (Shapiro 413).” Public high schooling was under the control of the government that was expected to help the latter to prepare a new generation of students who will work for the unity and well-being of the state.
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At the same time, the book in civil biology suggested some ideas that triggered public outcry, especially in the state of Tennessee. The key among them was the theory of eugenics, according to which the genetic qualities of humans could be improved by means of birth rate control. The main idea of eugenics was as follows: people with “weak” genes, namely those having serious diseases, corporal and mental defects, had no right to reproduction. Such a theory was developed further, and some scholars suggested that a social approach could also be applied to it. In particular, they claimed that a significant number of people belonging to lower classes, including African Americans, did not have the right to live. Such statement escalated racial troubles in the South. In such a way, the educational reform that, initially, aimed at uniting the country brought mainly discord and violence.
- Shapiro, Adam R. “Civic Biology and the Origin of the School Antievolution Movement.” Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 41, 2008, pp. 409–433.
