Today in History: Teacher fined for teaching evolution
The trial challenged the fundamentalist beliefs of Christianity and the theory surrounding evolution.
What became known as the ‘Monkey Trial’ ended on this day in 1925 with John Scopes being convicted of teaching evolution in violation of Tennessee law and ordered to pay a fine of $100, the minimum the law allowed.
In March 1925, the Tennessee legislature had passed an anti-evolution law, making it a misdemeanour punishable by a fine to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.”
With local businessman George Rappalyea, Scopes conspired to be charged with this violation, and after his arrest, the pair enlisted the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union (Aclu) to organise a defence.
Hearing of this coordinated attack on Christian fundamentalism, William Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate and a fundamentalist hero, volunteered to assist the Prosecution. Soon after, the great attorney, Clarence Darrow, agreed to join the Aclu in the Defence, and the stage was set for one of the most famous trials in US history.
The trial got underway on 10 July, and within a few days, hordes of spectators and reporters had descended on Dayton, Tennessee, as preachers set up revival tents along the city’s main street to keep the faithful stirred up.
Inside the Rhea County Courthouse, the Defence suffered early setbacks when Judge John Raulston ruled against their attempt to prove the law unconstitutional and then refused to end his practice of opening each day’s proceedings with prayer.
In the courtroom, Judge Raulston destroyed the Defence’s strategy by ruling that expert scientific testimony on evolution was inadmissible – on the grounds that it was Scopes who was on trial, not the law he had violated. The next day, Raulston ordered the trial moved to the courthouse lawn, fearing that the weight of the crowd inside was in danger of collapsing the floor.
In front of several thousand spectators in the open air, Darrow changed his tactics and as his sole witness called Bryan to the stand in an attempt to discredit Bryan’s literal interpretation of the Bible. In a searching examination, Bryan was subjected to severe ridicule and forced to make ignorant and contradictory statements, much to the amusement of the crowd.
On 21 July, in his closing speech, Darrow asked the jury to return a verdict of guilty, in order that the case might be appealed. Under Tennessee law, Bryan was thereby denied the opportunity to deliver the closing speech he had been preparing for weeks. After eight minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict, and Raulston ordered Scopes to pay a fine of $100.
Although Bryan had won the case, he had been publicly humiliated and his fundamentalist beliefs had been disgraced. Five days later, on 26 July, he lay down for a Sunday afternoon nap and never woke up.
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