What was the scopes trial

More than six hundred spectators shoehorned themselves into the courtroom. The presiding judge, John T. Raulston, had proposed holding the trial outdoors in a tent that would accommodate twenty thousand. Reporters assembled from as far away as London and Hong Kong. Mencken chronicled the trial for the Baltimore Sun. Years later, the U. Supreme Court struck down a similar Arkansas law in Epperson v.

Arkansas , finding that it violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment. This article was originally published in James C. And he believed the Bible should be interpreted literally.

The weather was stiflingly hot and the rhetoric equally heated in this "trial of the century" attended by hundreds of reporters and others who crowded the Rhea County Courthouse in July Rather than the validity of the law under which Scopes was being charged, the authority of the Bible versus the soundness of Darwin's theory became the focus of the arguments.

Bryan and the anti-evolutionists claimed victory, and the Tennessee law would stand for another 42 years. But Clarence Darrow and the ACLU had succeeded in publicizing scientific evidence for evolution, and the press reported that though Bryan had won the case, he had lost the argument.

The verdict did have a chilling effect on teaching evolution in the classroom, however, and not until the s did it reappear in schoolbooks. Rainy weather moved the trial back into the courtroom. Another reason for this move may have been a secret visit by Sheriff Harris and other officials to the judge, urging him to bring the trial to a conclusion as soon as possible in order to avoid injury, for emotions were running high, and both Darrow and Bryan had received threats de Camp ; Harris.

This move prepared the way for an appeal to a higher court, spared Darrow from having to be questioned by Bryan, and circumvented the summation arguments and the threat posed by the concluding address that Bryan had been working on Scopes Since there were indications that some of the jury were getting feisty over being excluded from so much of the trial, and others were showing sympathy for Scopes, there was reason to suspect that the jury might find Scopes innocent.

Stewart, Raulston, and Darrow consulted together. After Raulston gave a lengthy charge to the jury, Darrow was permitted to explain to the jury that they should not worry about their verdict, for it could enable the defense to take the matter to a higher court.

Neal, asked Scopes if he had anything to say de Camp ; Trial I will continue in the future, as I have in the past, to oppose this law in any way I can. Any other action would be in violation of my ideal of academic freedom — that is, to teach the truth as guaranteed in our constitution, of personal and religious freedom.

I think that the fine is unjust. For five days following the trial, Bryan stayed in Tennessee. On Sunday, July 26th, Bryan drove from Chattanooga to Dayton, was called upon to deliver the morning prayer at the First Southern Methodist Church, and that afternoon died in his sleep.

Haggard and B. John Thomas Scopes rejected F. On 31 May , the appeal hearing finally began. Scopes did not attend any of the legal sessions after the Dayton trial Scopes The prosecution was represented by E. And the spirit of William Jennings Bryan was there in the form of quotations from his undelivered Last Message, which the State used Ginger On the contrary we think the peace and dignity of the State.

Such a course is suggested to the Attorney-General. Supreme Court de Camp The next year, George W. Hunter published A New Civic Biology , updating the textbook Scopes supposedly used and presenting a very cautious treatment of evolution that did not even name the term. Arthur Garfield Hays resumed his law practice, continuing to champion the underdog, and he died in Dudley Field Malone returned to his divorce law office, got divorced himself, remarried, and when his practice declined, became a Hollywood bit-part actor for about ten years, dying in Sue Hicks went on in law, got elected to the state legislature, and later became a judge.

Robinson continued to hustle as a druggist, opened up a second store in Spring City, and before his death in , aided in the development at Bryan College, serving as a founder, incorporator, and chairman of the Board of Trustees. Clarence Darrow took on two more cases and then retired to write, lecture, and travel. Senate in Neal, eccentric until his death in , ran unsuccessfully for senator or governor and one year for both in the same primary.

Mencken lived to see his American Mercury magazine taken over by ultra-conservative Christian Fundamentalists.

After a stroke in , which made him unable to read or write, he died in In , the Butler Act was repealed de Camp , , Then in , Tennessee became the first state to pass an equal-time law which stipulated that evolution should be labeled as a theory and not a scientific fact and provided that alongside of evolution other theories, including the Genesis account, should be taught.

Ironically, in the fiftieth anniversary year of the Scopes Trial this so-called Genesis Bill was declared unconstitutional. The entrepreneurship spirit of Dayton which initiated the Scopes Trial has survived the unfittest of situations and sparkles periodically.

When Hollywood made the play Inherit the Wind into a movie, Dayton agreed to host the world premiere in A Scopes Trial Day was sponsored. John T. Scopes returned and was given the key to the city. Twelve years later the city played host to another film premiere: The Darwin Adventure , with Francis Darwin, a descendant of Charles, as special guest. Participating on the panel were professors of law, history, and biology.

Several times Inherit the Wind has been dramatized at the courthouse. Since , Bryan College and the Dayton community have cooperated in organizing a four-day Scopes Trial Festival whose main feature is a documentary drama based almost entirely on the transcript of the trial and performed in the Scopes Trial courtroom. Allem, Warren. Davidson, Donald. The Tennessee. New York: Rinehart, The Great Monkey Trial. Garden City: Doubleday, Fenwick W.

Fecher, Charles A. Mencken: A Study of His Thought. New York: Knopf, Ginger, Ray. Six Days or Forever? Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. New York: New American Library. Gorman, Laurel, and Kate Staiger. The trial featured two of the best-known orators of the era, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, as opposing attorneys. The theory of evolution, as presented by Charles Darwin and others, was a controversial concept in many quarters, even into the 20th century.

Concerted anti-evolutionist efforts in Tennessee succeeded when in , the Tennessee House of Representatives was offered a bill by John W. Butler making teaching evolution a misdemeanor. The so-called Butler Act was passed six days later almost unanimously with no amendments. What became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial began as a publicity stunt for the town of Dayton, Tennessee.

A local businessman met with the school superintendent and a lawyer to discuss using the ACLU offer to get newspapers to write about the town. The group asked if high school science teacher John Scopes would admit to teaching evolution for the purposes of prosecution.

It was announced to newspapers the next day that Scopes had been charged with violating the Butler Act, and the town wired the ACLU to procure its services. The Tennessee press roundly criticized the town, accusing it of staging a trial for publicity. Three-time presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan volunteered to present for the prosecution.

The politician was already well-known as an anti-evolution activist, almost single-handedly creating the national controversy over the teaching of evolution and making his name inseparable from the issue. Author H. Wells was approached early on to present the case for evolution, but he turned down the offer. Clarence Darrow — a famous attorney who had recently acted for the defense in the notorious Leopold and Loeb murder trial — found out about the Scopes trial through journalist H.

Mencken , who suggested Darrow should defend Scopes. Darrow and Bryan already had a history of butting heads over evolution and the concept of taking the Bible literally, sparring in the press and public debates.

It was the only time in his career he offered to give free legal aid. Bryan and Darrow set the tone by immediately attacking each other in the press. The ACLU attempted to remove Darrow from the case, fearing they would lose control, but none of these efforts worked. The grand jury met on May 9, In preparation, Scopes recruited and coached students to testify against him.

Three of the seven students attending were called to testify, each showing a sketchy understanding of evolution. The case was pushed forward and a trial set for July