Scopes trial

Scopes trial Tennessee legal case involving the teaching of evolution in public schools. A statute was passed (Mar., 1925) in Tennessee that prohibited the teaching in public schools of theories contrary to accepted interpretation of the biblical account of human creation. John T. Scopes, a biology teacher, was tried (July, 1925) for teaching Darwinism in a Dayton, Tenn., public school. Clarence Darrow was one of Scopes's attorneys, while William Jennings Bryan aided the state prosecutor. Darrow argued that academic freedom was being violated and claimed that the legislature had indicated a religious preference, violating the separation of church and state. He also maintained that the evolutionary theory was consistent with certain interpretations of the Bible, and in an especially dramatic session he sharply questioned Bryan on the latter's literal interpretation. Scopes was convicted, partly because of the defense, which refused to plead any of the technical defenses available, fearing an acquittal on a technical rather than a constitutional basis. Scopes was, however, later released by the state supreme court on a technicality. Although the outcry over the case tended to discourage enactment of similar legislation in other states, the law was not repealed until 1967.

Bibliography: See R. Ginger, Six Days or Forever? (1958, repr. 1969); S. N. Grebstein, Monkey Trial (1960); J. T. Scopes, Center of the Storm (1967); L. S. de Camp, The Great Monkey Trial (1968); E. J. Larson, The Summer for the Gods (1997).

Scopes Trial, celebrated 1925 case involving the teaching of evolution in public schools. By 1920, Protestant fundamentalism had coalesced from various conservative religious traditions into an organized movement fighting the spread of the religious modernism and cultural secularism. Fundamentalist leaders viewed evolutionary naturalism, propounded by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species (1859), as a root cause of both developments. Joined by William Jennings Bryan, they launched a national crusade against Darwinism. Their first major legal victory came in 1925, when Tennessee outlawed teaching about human evolution in public schools. The American Civil Liberties Union invited local teachers to challenge the law. John Scopes, a young science teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, accepted the challenge at the urging of local school and civic leaders, who sought to promote their town.

The case resulted in a highly publicized clash of ideas rather than a serious prosecution of Scopes, who was never threatened with jail or loss of job. Bryan joined the prosecution, which vigorously asserted popular and parental control over public education. Clarence Darrow, a famed Chicago lawyer, led a team of prominent attorneys and scientists in defense of Scopes and the concept of academic freedom. H.L. Mencken and many other journalists covered the trial, which was also carried live on a Chicago radio station.

Throughout the eight‐day trial (10–21 July 1925), Bryan and Darrow sparred over the validity of evolutionary science and revealed religion. The jury convicted Scopes, but not before Darrow exposed Bryan to ridicule as an “expert witness” on the Bible. Bryan died a week later, and the crusade against Darwinism gradually lost momentum over the next few years. In 1927, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed Scopes’ conviction on a technicality but upheld the law. Several southern states adopted similar restrictions, though none was enforced in court.

Although the Scopes trial had little impact on popular religious or scientific beliefs, it passed into folklore as a object lesson in the danger of intolerance in a democratic society. The defense theory of individual freedom and strict separation of church and state was later adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court in a series of decisions, most notably McCollum v. Board of Education (1948), barring public‐school religious instruction; Abington Township School District v. Schempp (1963), against officially sponsored prayer in public schools; and Epperson v. Arkansas (1968), overturning a state statute based on the Tennessee antievolution law.
See also Evolution, Theory of; Fundamentalist Movement; Journalism; Modernist Culture; Science: Revolutionary War to World War I; Science: From 1914 to 1945; Science: Science and Religion; Secularization; South, The; Twenties, The.

Bibliography

Edward J. Larson , Summer of the Gods, 1997.
Ronald L. Numbers , Darwinism Comes to America, 1998.

Edward J. Larson