Scope trial facts

AP Photo, used with permission from the Associated Press. Mencken applied to the prosecution of a criminal action brought by the state of Tennessee against high school teacher John T. In the case Scopes v. 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.

George W. Scopes also taught math and general science, and, on occasion, substituted for the principal in biology. Among the many ironies at the Scopes trial, two surrounded the textbook at the center of the controversy.

First, Tennessee mandated that George W. Yet Bryan volunteered to join the prosecution team because he opposed the theory of evolution for its association with eugenics and with social Darwinism. Darrow was a legendary lawyer. Labor leaders Eugene V. Debs and William D. Loeb known more commonly as Leopold and Loeb , and Henry Sweet, a Detroit African American accused of murder in a civil rights upheaval, numbered among his most well-known clients. The trial began on July 10, Rosenwasser, the court recessed for lunch.

Judge Raulston inspected cracks in the first-floor ceiling caused by the weight of the crowd upstairs. Stewart conferred with the defense and arranged for Darrow to apologize to the court. After the recess, Darrow apologized grudgingly but sufficiently to satisfy the big-hearted judge, who quoted Scripture and forgave Darrow. Because of the building stress, the heat, and the crowd, Judge Raulston reconvened the court on a platform in the courtyard below.

The heat, the boredom of the expert testimonials being read by Hays, and the dim prospects of anything important or exciting happening from this point on tempted all but a half dozen of the more than one hundred reporters either to go back home or seek cooler, more inviting surroundings that afternoon.

As a result they missed not only the cooler court setup of being out under the trees but also one of the hottest exchanges of the entire trial. Because so few reporters were present when Bryan took the stand to be interrogated by Darrow, Scopes was conscripted to write covering news stories for the delinquent newsmen Scopes Much of the Scopes Trial news coverage in and ever since leaves a great deal to be desired.

On the lowest level there was character assassination. On a level not much higher was the one-sided, biased reporting which presented the remarks of Darrow, Malone, and Hays as virtually flawless but described the utterances of Bryan as vividly faulty.

In addition to the inexcusable bias, the press also did a poor job on the level of the trial issues. Also largely ignored was the fact that Bryan was not against the teaching of evolution — if it were taught as a theory rather than as a true fact — and if equal time were given to other major options, such as creationism. Another overlooked point was that Bryan did not ask that religion be taught in the public schools. What he objected to was religion being attacked in the public schools Smith ; Levine , , Bryan as a witness.

The highly irregular procedure of calling an opposition lawyer as a witness was objected to by Attorney General Stewart but permitted by Judge Raulston and agreed to by Bryan — with the understanding that he would be allowed to put Darrow, Malone, and Hays on the stand Trial , , ; de Camp , Reactions by reporters and subsequently by historians ranged the gamut.

A few were positive. The above-mentioned conflicting evaluations necessitate an examination of the trial transcript. And so it went for almost two hours, ranging over some fifty topics with several related questions each. Bryan was careful to define terms, adhere to known facts, distinguish between literal and figurative language, and frankly admit when he did not know the answer.

From time to time Stewart questioned the legality of the proceedings, especially when Darrow cross-examined his own witness. And they disclosed that Bryan was flexible enough to allow for the days of creation being longer than twenty-four hours each and perhaps as long as millions of years. The eighth and final day of the trial, Tuesday, July 21, was opened in prayer by the Reverend Dr. Camper of Chattanooga.

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. The next day, the judge ruled that any experts on the stands could be cross-examined. That night, Darrow quietly prepared to call Bryan as an expert witness on the Bible. Calling Bryan to the stand was a shock for the court. Darrow interrogated him on interpreting the Bible literally, which undercut his earlier sweeping religious speeches.

This prevented Bryan from making a closing statement. After the trial, Bryan immediately began to prepare his unused closing statement as a speech for his rallies. He never got to use that speech, since he died in his sleep in Dayton the following Sunday. Scopes was offered a new teaching contract but chose to leave Dayton and study geology at the University of Chicago graduate school. He eventually became a petroleum engineer. Supporters of both sides claimed victory following the trial, but the Butler Act was upheld, and the anti-evolution movement continued.

Mississippi passed a similar law months later, and in Texas banned the theory of evolution from high school textbooks. Twenty-two other states made similar efforts but were defeated. The controversy over the teaching of science and evolution has continued into the 21st century.

In , the case of Kitzmiller v. The court ruled against intelligent design — now largely discredited as a pseudoscience — as a legitimate topic suitable for education. Summer For The Gods. Edward J. The Legend of the Scopes Trial. Scientific American. The Scopes Trial. University of Minnesota. State of Tennessee v. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.

John T. That law, passed in March , In the scorching summer heat of small-town Dayton, TN, in July of Born into a freethinking family of English physicians in , Charles Darwin suffered from a host of conditions Darwin was born on the same day as Abraham Lincoln. Both Darwin and Lincoln were born on February 12, , but in much different settings.

Held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, the Nuremberg trials were a series of 13 trials carried out in Nuremberg, Germany, between and The defendants, who included Nazi Party officials and high-ranking military officers along with German