William Louis Poteat


William Louis Poteat, also known as "Doctor Billy", was a professor and then the seventh president of Wake Forest College. Poteat was conspicuous in many civic roles becoming a leader of the Progressive Movement 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 Baptist beliefs.

Biography

Poteat was born in Caswell County, North Carolina to a noted Baptist, slave-owning family; among his siblings was Ida Isabella Poteat, who taught art at Meredith College 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 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 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.