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The Scopes Trial of 1925 pitted William Jennings Bryan against Clarence Darrow and teacher John T. Scopes in an American court case that tested a law passed on March 13, 1925, forbidding the teaching of evolution in Tennessee public schools. It has often been called the "Scopes Monkey Trial".
Testing the Butler Act
At issue was the Butler Act, which had been passed a few months earlier by the Tennessee State legislature. In its preface, it described itself as "An act prohibiting the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, and to provide penalties for the violations thereof."
The American Civil Liberties Union had offered to defend anyone accused of teaching evolution in defiance of the law. The leaders of Dayton, Tennessee, then a town of less than 3,000, thought that the controversy of such a trial would put Dayton on the map. They asked a 24-year-old science teacher and athletic coach named John T. Scopes, who agreed. The original prosecutors were his friends Herbert and Sue Hicks.
Hoping to attract major Press coverage, George Rappalyea, naively wrote to the British novelist H. G. Wells asking him to join the defense team. Wells replied that he had no legal training in Britain, let alone in America, and declined the offer. However, John Neal, a law school dean from Knoxville, volunteered. William Jennings Bryan, a fundamentalist preacher and three-time presidential candidate for the United States Democratic Party, offered to join the prosecution team. In response, Clarence Darrow, an atheist, volunteered his services to the defense. After much toing and froing, the defense team consisted of Darrow, Arthur Garfield Hays and Dudley Field Malone. The prosecution team was rounded out by A. T. Stewart, Ben B. McKenzie, and William Jennings Bryan, Jr. The trial was covered by journalists from around the world, including H. L. Mencken for The Baltimore Sun, which was also paying part of the defense's expenses. It was the first US trial to broadcast on national radio.
The defense strategy was to have the charges thrown out on the grounds that there was actually no conflict between evolutionist ideas and the account in the Bible, though by the time it went to appeal, the defense was claiming that the case was invalid because the law was essentially designed to benefit a particular religious group, which would be unconstitutional. They brought in eight "experts" on evolution, who did not testify in person but were allowed to submit evidence in the form of affidavits. Much, if not all, of this so-called "evidence" would be regarded as very quaint indeed, not to say highly inaccurate, by today's standards. Having failed in that, immediately after questioning Bryan, Darrow suddenly asked the judge to instruct the jury to find his client guilty and closed the case for the defense. Scopes never testified, as there was never a legal issue as to whether he had taught evolution. (There seems to have been some question about whether he really did ever teach evolution, but the point was not contested at trial.) The law itself was on trial.
After eight days of trial, during which Darrow was charged with contempt but later apologized, Scopes was found guilty on July 21 and ordered to pay a $100 fine for defying the ban against teaching evolution. The Tennessee Supreme Court set aside the decision on appeal due to a technical issue: the jury should have decided the fine, not the judge. The prosecution did not seek a retrial.
Not until 1968 did the US Supreme Court rule in Epperson vs. Arkansas that such bans contravene the Establishment Clause because their primary purpose is religious.
H. L. Mencken's trial reports were heavily slanted against the prosecution. He mocked the town's inhabitants as "yokels" and "morons". He called Bryan a "buffoon" and his speeches "theologic bilge". In contrast, he called the defense "eloquent" and "magnificent". Some evolutionists have claimed that Mencken's trial reports turned public opinion against creationism, though few people seem to have actually noticed this at the time.
The trial is described in detail in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Summer for the Gods, by Edward J. Larson (ISBN 0465075096); also useful is Ray Ginger's Six Days or Forever? (ISBN 0195197844). Another detailed resource is The Great Monkey Trial by L. Sprague de Camp. Although the play "Inherit the Wind", written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee is very loosely based on the events it is important to note that this was a "literary device" since the play was actually about Senator Joseph McCarthy and the proceedings of the notorious House Committe on Un-American Activities. See also The World's Most Famous Court Trial, State of Tennessee V. John Thomas Scopes: Complete Stenographic Report of the Court, by John Scopes (ISBN 0306719754)
Publicity and drama
Publicity
The trial also brought publicity to the town of Dayton, Tennessee, leading some to speculate that it was a publicity stunt. From The Salem Republican, June 11, 1925:
- "The whole matter has assumed the portion of Dayton and her merchants endeavoring to secure a large amount of notoriety and publicity with an open question as whether Scopes is a party to the plot or not."
Inherit the Wind
Main article: Inherit the Wind
The stage play Inherit the Wind (1955) by Lawrence and Lee, later adapted into a film in 1960 by Stanley Kramer, was (very loosely) based on this trial. It was not intended to depict the trial accurately, but rather to decry the excesses of the Joseph McCarthy era in 1950s politics. It starred Spencer Tracy as Henry Drummond/Darrow, Fredric March as Matthew Harrison Brady/Bryan and Gene Kelly as Mencken. In 1988, a rewrite of the Kramer movie shown on NBC starred Jason Robards as Drummond and Kirk Douglas as Brady. To the film's credit, the scene where Darrow cross-examines Bryan does stick very closely to what actually happened at trial.
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