The Scopes Trial, 1925

American Decades | Date: 2001

THE SCOPES TRIAL, 1925

The Issue

One of the most incendiary issues facing Americans in the 1920s was the teaching of the theory of evolution. The clash between religious fundamentalism and science resulted in the widely publicized trial of John T. Scopes. On 21 March 1925 the Tennessee legislature had enacted a law prohibiting the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution in public schools. During the Scopes trial the right of teachers to convey to their students findings of biological science about the origins of human life rather than imparting the biblical account found in Genesis attracted worldwide attention.

DARROW IN DAYTON

In 1925 Joseph Wood Krutch, later an influential literary scholar, was a young reporter covering the Scopes Trial. The following excerpt presents his impressions of Darrow's courtroom presence and of Dayton, Tennessee:

"In Tennessee, as I said in a previous article, intellectual courage is almost dead. Whatever is done in the name of patriotism or religion may consider itself as exempt from any but the most respectful criticism, and anything like a vigorous liberal opinion seemed as unreal and remote in Dayton as the Daytonian psychology seems to a man who has spent his life in intellectual society. Even the State University had given the acquiescence of silence, but he, who came from afar, was a man who dared to do what no Tennessean had done—hold up a mirror that she might see herself as the world saw her—and the effect was electric. That Dayton was converted I should be far from maintaining, but she recognized courage and she respected it. For the first time the insolence of ignorance was shallow because for the first time it was questioned.

"What Darrow's speech would look like in cold print I do not know, but there was unquestionable greatness beheld in the passion with which it was uttered and in the calculation of the moment for utterance; and when he concluded with the solemn warning that 'with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious age of the sixteenth century when bigots lighted faggots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind' even Dayton stopped to think. However much or little it may have directly accomplished, it gave to Tennessee an invaluable example of the only possible way in which she can face the bigotry which is drawing her back into barbarism."

Source:

Joseph Wood Krutch, "Darrow vs. Bryan," Nation, 121 (29 July 1925): 136.

The Players

In defiance of the new law prohibiting the teaching of Darwin's theory, John T. Scopes, a young, popular teacher in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, presented evolutionary theory to his highschool class. Some of the leaders in the community decided to test the Tennessee law by putting Scopes on trial and enlisting the services of two of the best-known figures in the United States, William Jennings Bryan, who would direct the prosecution, and Clarence S. Darrow, who would lead Scopes's defense team.

The Decision

Between 10 July and 21 July 1925, in the one-hundred-degree heat of the Dayton, Tennessee, courtroom, Bryan and Darrow waged a fierce battle over Scopes's right to teach Darwin's theory. Scopes was ultimately convicted and given a $100 fine, but a Tennessee appeals court overturned the verdict on a technicality. Scopes's conviction by the jury revealed that science and religion were still regarded as antithetical, especially in rural areas of America during the 1920s. In those areas fundamentalism impacted seriously upon the freedoms that teachers and educational administrators had.

Sources:

Mary Lee Settle, The Scopes Trial: The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes (New York: Watts, 1972);

Jerry R. Tompkins, ed., D-days at Dayton: Reflections on the Scopes Trial (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1965).

Copyright 2001, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.