| Tennessee v. Scopes | |
|---|---|
_(2898243103)_crop.jpg) On the trial's seventh day, proceedings were moved outdoors because of excessive heat. William Jennings Bryan (seated, left) is being questioned by Clarence Darrow. | |
| Court | Criminal Court of Tennessee |
| Full case name | The State of Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes |
| Decided | July 21, 1925 |
| Verdict | Guilty (overturned on technicality) |
| Citation | None |
| Case history | |
| Subsequent action | Scopes v. State (1926) |
| Court membership | |
| Judge sitting | John Tate Raulston |
The Scopes trial, formally The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case from July 10 to July 21, 1925, in which a high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which had made it illegal for teachers to teach human evolution in any state-funded school.[1] The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he incriminated himself deliberately so the case could have a defendant.[2][3]
Scopes was found guilty and was fined $100 (equivalent to $1,700 in 2023), but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. The trial served its purpose of drawing intense national publicity, as national reporters flocked to Dayton to cover the high-profile lawyers who had agreed to represent each side. William Jennings Bryan, three-time presidential candidate and former secretary of state, argued for the prosecution, while Clarence Darrow served as the defense attorney for Scopes. The trial publicized the fundamentalist–modernist controversy, which set modernists, who said evolution could be consistent with religion,[4] against fundamentalists, who said the word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority over all human knowledge. The case was thus seen both as a theological contest and as a trial on whether evolution should be taught in schools.
- ^ "Tennessee Anti-evolution Statute—UMKC School of Law". umkc.edu. Archived from the original on May 20, 2009.
- ^ Mark Paxton (2013). Media Perspectives on Intelligent Design and Evolution. ABC-CLIO. p. 105. ISBN 9780313380648.
- ^ Charles Alan Israel (2004). Before Scopes: Evangelicalism, Education, and Evolution in Tennessee, 1870–1925. U of Georgia Press. p. 161. ISBN 9780820326450.
- ^ Cotkin, George (2004) [1992]. Reluctant Modernism: American Thought and Culture, 1880–1900. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 7–14. ISBN 978-0-7425-3746-0. Retrieved October 5, 2013.