Scopes Trial
The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, …
What was the “Monkey Trial”?
The Scopes “monkey trial” was the moniker journalist H. L. Mencken applied to the 1925 prosecution of a criminal action brought by the state of Tennessee against high school teacher John T. Scopes for violating the state’s Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools. In the case Scopes v.
What was the significance of the Scopes Trial?
Scopes Trial. Written By: Scopes Trial, also called Scopes Monkey Trial, (July 10–21, 1925, Dayton, Tennessee, U.S.), highly publicized trial (known as the “Monkey Trial”) of a Dayton, Tennessee, high-school teacher, John T. Scopes, charged with violating state law by teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Who was the defense attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial?
William Jennings Bryan led for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. The judge ruled out any test of the law’s constitutionality or argument on the validity of the theory, limiting the trial to the single question of whether John T. Scopes had taught evolution, which he admittedly had.
Why did John T Scopes get tried for teaching evolution?
…grew steadily until 1925, when John T. Scopes, a biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was tried for violating a law common to many Southern states prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution. Although Scopes was found guilty of breaking the law, both the law itself and fundamentalist beliefs were….
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What was the purpose of the Scopes Trial?
The trial’s proceedings helped to bring the scientific evidence for evolution into the public sphere while also stoking a national debate over the veracity of evolution that continues to the present day. Scopes Trial.
What was the climax of the trial?
The trial’s climax came on July 20, when Darrow called on Bryan to testify as an expert witness for the prosecution on the Bible. Raulston moved the trial to the courthouse lawn, citing the swell of spectators and stifling heat inside.
How much was Scopes fined?
With Raulston limiting the trial to the single question of whether Scopes had taught evolution, which he admittedly had, Scopes was convicted and fined $100 on July 21.
When did the jury selection begin in the Butler case?
Jury selection began on July 10 , and opening statements, which included Darrow’s impassioned speech about the constitutionality of the Butler law and his claim that the law violated freedom of religion, began on July 13. Judge John Raulston ruled out any test of the law’s constitutionality or argument on the validity of evolutionary theory on the basis that Scopes, rather than the Butler law, was on trial. Raulston determined that expert testimony from scientists would be inadmissible.
Who ruled out the validity of evolutionary theory?
Judge John Raulston ruled out any test of the law’s constitutionality or argument on the validity of evolutionary theory on the basis that Scopes, rather than the Butler law, was on trial. Raulston determined that expert testimony from scientists would be inadmissible.
When did Tennessee stop teaching evolution?
In the trial’s aftermath, Tennessee prevented the teaching of evolution in the classroom until the Butler Act’s repeal in 1967. Additionally, the state legislatures of Mississippiand Arkansaspassed their own bans on the teaching of evolution in 1926 and 1928, respectively, which also lasted for several decades before being repealed.
Who led the Butler case?
William Jennings Bryan led for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. Jury selection began on July 10, and opening statements, which included Darrow’s impassioned speech about the constitutionality of the Butler law and his claim that the law violated freedom of religion, began on July 13. Judge John Raulston ruled out any test of the ...
Why did Scopes lose the trial?
Scopes lost the trial, but fundamentalists lost the broader culture war. Because there was no doubt that Scopes had taught evolution, this was never about his guilt. The jury quickly determined that Scopes was guilty of breaking the law and was subsequently fined $100. This fine was later overturned on appeal. However, for the fundamentalist movement, this trial served to humiliate them on the national stage, largely due to the writing of journalist H.L Mencken. After being cast as uneducated rubes, many chose to retreat and create their own institutions and subculture rather than interact with broader society.
What was the significance of the Tennessee vs John Thomas Scopes trial?
So what attracted so much attention? The trial was a visible clash of the fight raging within Christian denominations at the time between modernist and fundamentalists centered around the teaching of evolution.
Who was the journalist who portrayed the Bryan trial?
H.L. Mencken: Mencken, journalist for the Baltimore Sun, is perhaps the person best known for describing the trial to the outside world. His columns portrayed the Bryan and the fundamentalists, not to mention Southerners in general, as backwoods yokels. His writing and depiction of Southern fundamentalists was what helped the modernists win the larger culture war, even as they lost the specific court case.
Was Scopes guilty of teaching evolution?
At the heart of the trial was not a question of guilt. Scopes did not hide that he had taught evolution. He was guilty under the Butler Act. However, the ACLU argued that the law itself was unconstitutional because it violated Scopes’ free-speech. Bryan, arguing for the prosecution, asserted that the people of Tennessee who paid for the school and Scopes’ salary had a right to dictate what was taught, especially when it was something like evolution, which he claimed undermined the Christian faith. However, both sides, especially Darrow and Bryan, came to see the court case as unconcerned with free speech and a death match between science and religion.
Why did the scopes monkey trial start?
The Scopes Monkey Trial started as an effort by the ACLU to challenge the constitutionality of a Tennessee law that forbade teaching the theory of evolution in public schools. The Tennessee Supreme Court found the law forbidding the teaching of evolution to be constitutional.
What did Scopes challenge?
Scopes challenged Tennessee law forbidding the teaching of evolution. The case arose when, seeking to test the constitutional validity of the Butler Act, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) placed advertisements in Tennessee newspapers offering to pay the expenses of any teacher willing to challenge the law.
Why did Bryan join the prosecution team?
Yet Bryan volunteered to join the prosecution team because he opposed the theory of evolution for its association with eugenics and with social Darwinism.
How long did it take to find Scopes guilty?
Reporters assembled from as far away as London and Hong Kong. H. L. Mencken chronicled the trial for the Baltimore Sun. The jury needed only nine minutes to find Scopes guilty.
What was the Supreme Court's decision in Scopes v. State?
State (1925), Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, but, on appeal, the Supreme Court of Tennessee, pointing to a technicality in the issuance of the fine, overturned Scopes’s conviction, while finding the Butler Act constitutional.
How many spectators were in the courtroom in 1925?
(AP Photo, used with permission from the Associated Press) More than six hundred spectators shoehorned themselves into the courtroom.
What did Hunter's endorsement of evolution mean?
Second, Hunter’s endorsement of evolution — a doctrine championed by Scopes’s supporters as the enlightened view — was derived from his embrace of eugenics as a means of protecting the white race, which he deemed superior, through hereditary selection.
What was the scopes trial?
The leadership of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in New York City initiated the Scopes trial. The ACLU became alarmed over “antievolution” bills that were being introduced in the legislatures of 20 states in the early 1920s. These bills were all very similar and forbade public schools to teach the evolution of man ...
Where did the Scopes trial take place?
The Scopes Trial. The Scopes trial 1 took place during a hot July in 1925 in the little town of Dayton, nestled in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee.
What was Clarence Darrow's purpose in the Scopes trial?
In his autobiography, The Story of My Life, Darrow explained his purpose for participating in the Scopes trial: “My object and my only object, was to focus the attention of the country on the program of Mr. Bryan and the other Fundamentalists in America.”
What was William Jennings Bryan's goal in the Scopes trial?
In his autobiography, The Memoirs of William Jennings Bryan, Bryan said that his objectives in the Scopes trial were to “establish the right of taxpayers to control what is taught in their schools” and to “draw a line between teaching evolution as a fact and teaching it as a theory.”. Clarence Darrow.
What did the ACLU hope would overthrow the Butler Act?
The ACLU hoped that a test case might overthrow these bills or at least make them unenforceable. They chose to pursue their case in Tennessee, where the state legislature had unanimously passed the Butler Act. This act declared that it shall be “unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals, and all other public schools of the state which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.”
Did John Scopes violate the Butler Act?
Technically, the only legal issue in the Scopes trial was: did John Scopes violate the Butler Act by teaching that man descended from a lower order of animals? For both Bryan and Darrow, however, the real issue wasn’t Scopes’s guilt or innocence, but rather should evolution be taught as fact in the public schools? Darrow had hoped to have a number of evolutionist scientists testify in the court to the “fact” of evolution, but this wasn’t permitted by the judge because the evidence for evolution was technically not at issue in the trial, and Darrow refused to allow his evolutionists to be cross-examined by the prosecution. As a result, most of the testimony by the scientists at the trial was written and filed into record—none was heard by the jury.
When did the Ten Commandments monument get removed?
In 2003, news reports featured many people demonstrating in front of the Alabama court building after the decision to remove the Ten Commandments monument as a public display. Some were lying prostrate on the ground, crying out to the Lord to stop this from happening. But how many of these people really understood the foundational nature of this battle?
How long did it take for Scopes to be found guilty?
His teachings, and His teachings alone, can solve the problems that vex the heart and perplex the world. After eight days of trial, it took the jury only nine minutes to deliberate. Scopes was found guilty on July 21 and ordered by Raulston to pay a $100 fine (equivalent to $1,500 in 2020).
What was the Scopes v. State case?
John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee 's Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in ...
How long did the confrontation between Bryan and Darrow last?
The confrontation between Bryan and Darrow lasted approximately two hours on the afternoon of the seventh day of the trial. It is likely that it would have continued the following morning but for Judge Raulston's announcement that he considered the whole examination irrelevant to the case and his decision that it should be "expunged" from the record. Thus Bryan was denied the chance to cross-examine the defense lawyers in return, although after the trial Bryan would distribute nine questions to the press to bring out Darrow's "religious attitude". The questions and Darrow's short answers were published in newspapers the day after the trial ended, with The New York Times characterizing Darrow as answering Bryan's questions "with his agnostic's creed, 'I don't know,' except where he could deny them with his belief in natural, immutable law".
How much was Scopes fined?
Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 (equivalent to $1,500 in 2020), but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. The trial served its purpose of drawing intense national publicity, as national reporters flocked to Dayton to cover the big-name lawyers who had agreed to represent each side.
Why did the ACLU oppose the Butler Act?
The ACLU had originally intended to oppose the Butler Act on the grounds that it violated the teacher's individual rights and academic freedom , and was therefore unconstitutional. Principally because of Clarence Darrow, this strategy changed as the trial progressed. The earliest argument proposed by the defense once the trial had begun was that there was actually no conflict between evolution and the creation account in the Bible; later, this viewpoint would be called theistic evolution. In support of this claim, they brought in eight experts on evolution. But other than Dr. Maynard Metcalf, a zoologist from Johns Hopkins University, the judge would not allow these experts to testify in person. Instead, they were allowed to submit written statements so their evidence could be used at the appeal. In response to this decision, Darrow made a sarcastic comment to Judge Raulston (as he often did throughout the trial) on how he had been agreeable only on the prosecution's suggestions. Darrow apologized the next day, keeping himself from being found in contempt of court.
What did the jury foreman call the violation of the Act?
He also warned the jury not to judge the merit of the law (which would become the focus of the trial) but on the violation of the Act, which he called a 'high misdemeanor' . The jury foreman himself was unconvinced of the merit of the Act but he acted, as did most of the jury, on the instructions of the judge.
What did the trial of the Fundamentalists and Modernists show?
The trial publicized the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, which set Modernists, who said evolution was not inconsistent with religion, against Fundamentalists, who said the Word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority over all human knowledge.
What can we learn from the scopes monkey trial?
The Scopes Monkey Trial; what we can learn about the communication of science. In 1925, an American school teacher was put on trial for teaching evolution. This was global news and an important moment in the ever-changing relationship between science and religion. The 2020 Innes Lecture told the story of the Scopes Monkey Trial and highlighted ...
How long did the trail run in 1925?
The trail runs for a week and a half during the hot summer of 1925, with barristers for these two sides fighting their case. Most of it was dry legal procedure, but there were some moments of great oratory, and a few spirited clashes made headlines.
What did the judge choose to interpret the case narrowly?
The judge chose to interpret the case narrowly (focusing on whether the law was broken), which the jury found Scopes guilty of. The defence always expected to lose, so their strategy was to pack the trial with material they wanted to use on appeal.
Why did evolution disappear from the curriculum?
Some historians think the teaching of evolution disappeared from state schools across America as a result of the trial’s “chilling effect”, but recent work shows evolution was only minimally present in the curriculum before the trial – most biology in most schools emphasised practical things, such as nutrition, health, ecology, agriculture, and disease.
What is Joe Cain's research?
About Professor Joe Cain. A historian of science in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Professor Cain’s research focuses on evolution, both as a science and as a subject of public study. Examples of his research include the creation of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in the 1850s, the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, ...
When was the anti-evolution law repealed in Tennessee?
The anti-evolution law was effective in Tennessee until repealed in 1968.
Was the trial of the trial a circus?
At the start, it’s choreographed on all sides and was more than a courtroom event. Instead, it was a circus come to town. The trial occurred in the quiet “silly season” for the press and built into media frenzy. Celebrities flocked to the event for the light of publicity. Everyday folk headed to the trial for entertainment in the summer holiday. It was a great commercial success for the town, too.
Why was John Scopes charged with teaching evolution?
The state charged the teacher with this crime because it was unlawful for such professionals to teach human evolution to students (mostly in public schools).
What major Conflicts of the Time does the Trial Represent?
The Scopes monkey trial was a landmark case that represented the clash between modernism ( science) and religion. Conservative Christians believed that the bible was the ultimate authority that explained human existence. Stated differently, they believed that God created plants and human beings on the sixth day of creation. Modernists contradicted these beliefs by saying that human beings evolved from monkeys. Christian fundamentalists said such assertions contradicted their faith (Derstine 2). In fact, although some religious fundamentalists wanted the state to prosecute John Scopes for teaching evolution to his students, they did not know much about it (Derstine 2).
What did Darwin's theory of evolution suggest?
When science revealed to the world about Darwin’s evolution theory, it suggested that human beings evolved from apes. Based on this assertion, there was widespread public uproar because many people thought this fact was far-fetched (Derstine 1). In the years after this revelation, different religious groups debated how such scientific ideologies affected biblical teachings about human existence (Age of the Sage 1). Mainly, they debated whether it was necessary for the church to endorse such evidences, or support their faith, as they knew it. Although some sections of the Christian faith reconciled the evolution theory with mainstream religious teachings, some fundamental religious groups (mainly Protestants) preferred to adopt a strict position against evolution theories (US History 1). In 1925, religious fundamentalists pushed legislators to enact an anti-evolution law as a solution to what they perceived as an increasingly materialistic (scientific) world. This law was the Butler Act (US History 1).
Background
Important Figures
- John Thomas Scopes:Scopes was the defendant in the court case and a high school biology teacher and football coach. As a young, unmarried man who was not a local in the area, he had little to lose in being the ACLU’s test case. Also, there was never a question of his guilt. Scopes would go on to lose the trial and eventually receive a fine of $100 ...
Events of The Trial
- At the heart of the trial was not a question of guilt. Scopes did not hide that he had taught evolution. He was guilty under the Butler Act. However, the ACLU argued that the law itself was unconstitutional because it violated Scopes’ free-speech. Bryan, arguing for the prosecution, asserted that the people of Tennessee who paid for the school and Scopes’ salary had a right to …
Lasting Influence
- Scopes lost the trial, but fundamentalists lost the broader culture war. Because there was no doubt that Scopes had taught evolution, this was never about his guilt. The jury quickly determined that Scopes was guilty of breaking the law and was subsequently fined $100. This fine was later overturned on appeal. However, for the fundamentalist movement, this trial served to h…
Further Reading
- Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religionby Edward J. Larson: Larson’s Pulitzer winning book is one of the most thorough and readable accounts of the trial and its enduring impact on the role that science and religion play in the public square, as well as evangelicalism’s relationship to science and education. Jesus and …