It was thirty years ago this week that then-Alabama governor Forrest “Fob” James was making headlines for doing a “monkey act” to clarify his feelings about the theory of evolution. After some serious assertions about his thoughts at a press conference, James took the less-serious step of imitating a primate to prove his point. 

The issue at hand that day in November 1995 was a proposal to add an insert to an Alabama science textbook. It would note that the theory of evolution is just that: a theory, not a fact. The state’s Board of Education was considering action on the insert, and Governor James was on hand to comment in favor of it. The board meeting was long and had included more than two dozen people speaking on the issue. The insert declared that evolution was a “controversial theory some scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living things, such as plants, animals and humans.” Furthermore, “No one was present when life appeared on earth. Therefore, any statement about life origin’s should be considered as theory, not fact.” It then highlighted some “unanswered questions,” and in closing admonished students: “Study hard and keep an open mind.”

Outside the meeting, James’s remarks made his thoughts on the subject clear: one could find information on the beginnings of human life in the Book of Genesis. This statement received applause. Then, as The Montgomery Advertiser‘s Ann Sclater put it:

The governor lumbered across the front of the auditorium bent at the waist and dragging his arms to mimic a monkey, gradually standing upright as he moved around the room.

Shortly thereafter, the state’s Board of Education passed the resolution to add an insert by a vote of six-to-one. Then-state superintendent Ed Richardson was mentioned in Sclater’s coverage, saying that he had preferred a “milder” version of the wording. Ultimately, from among the five options, the approved version was “close to one offered by the conservative group Eagle Forum.” The insert was described by news outlets in the state as a compromise with Eagle Forum, which did not want that particular textbook approved for use at all.

At the time, some pundits and politicos tried to equate this brief episode in Alabama history with the 1925 Scopes Money Trial, made famous in Inherit the Wind. This was hardly that. Yet, it did come up again, three years later in 1998, when James was running for re-election. His opponent in the Republican primary, businessman Wynton Blount, called up the antic as a reminder to voters of what they had seen from the incumbent. Yet, GOP voters may have cared more about his stance than his posturing, since he beat Blount by several points. In the end, James lost to the Democratic candidate Don Siegelman in the general election.