William Louis Poteat (1856–1938), also known as "Doctor Billy", was a professor (–1905) and then the seventh president (1905–1927) of Wake Forest College (today,

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The Reynolda Campus, the un ...

). Poteat was conspicuous in many civic roles becoming a leader of the

Progressive Movement Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techn ...

in the South, and a champion of higher education. Though a Baptist, he defended the teaching of evolution as the "divine method of creation", arguing it was fully compatible with Christian beliefs.

Biography

Poteat was born in

Caswell County, North Carolina Caswell County is a county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is located in the Piedmont Triad region of the state. At the 2020 census, the population was 22,736. Its county seat is Yanceyville. Partially bordering the state of Virginia, ...

to a noted

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

, slave-owning family; among his siblings was

Ida Isabella Poteat Ida Isabella Poteat (December 15, 1858 – February 1, 1940) was an American artist and instructor. Poteat was born at Forest Home in Caswell County, North Carolina, near the community of Yanceyville. She was the daughter of James and Julia A. M ...

, who taught art at

Meredith College Meredith College is a private women's liberal arts college and coeducational graduate school in Raleigh, North Carolina. As of 2021 Meredith enrolls approximately 1,500 women in its undergraduate programs and 300 men and women in its graduate ...

for many years. His brother Edwin McNeill Poteat was a minister and educator, serving as president of Furman University from 1903 to 1918. William Louis Poteat went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wake Forest College (then located in

Wake Forest, North Carolina Wake Forest is a town in Franklin, Granville and Wake counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina; located almost entirely in Wake County, it lies just north of the state capital, Raleigh. At the 2020 census, the population was 47,601. That ...

) in 1877. Shortly after graduating, he was hired by his alma mater as a natural science instructor. He was a public intellectual and leading theological liberal among Baptists in the South.

Evolution

He first taught himself biology before studying at the University of Berlin. His studies convinced him of the

Darwinian Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that ...

concepts of natural selection and evolution. Poteat reconciled his scientific conclusions with a modernist or liberal form of Christianity. His beliefs were not shared by more conservative Baptists, who tried to remove him. Poteat fought back and survived, and helped persuade the North Carolina General Assembly to defeat a bill that would have banned the teaching of evolution (as other states had done; see Scopes Monkey Trial).

Presidency at Wake Forest College

He was the first layman to be elected president in Wake Forest College's history. "Dr. Billy" continued to promote growth, hired many outstanding professors, and expanded the

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

curriculum. He also stirred upheaval among North Carolina Baptists with his strong support of teaching the theory of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

but eventually won formal support from the Baptist State Convention for academic freedom at the college.

Biography

Evolution

Presidency at Wake Forest College

References

Further reading