The setting: an idyllic small town in the American Bible Belt, 1925. Conservative as they come. The plot: in a divided America, the hot topics of religion and science are pitted against one another in a once-in-a-lifetime court case. The players were one of the denizens of said small town and two celebrity lawyers each with a pedigree of his own.
It was a trial that was deadly serious but seemed to have novelty value, as it became a media circus and featured the spectacle of live monkeys in full dress, lemonade vendors, huge crowds, quotable quips, suspenseful moments, and bibles for sale. Much it seemed was at stake, but unfortunately, this conversation plagues America to this day. We're talking about the Scopes "monkey" trial, and we'll go into more detail in this explanation.
Fig. 1 William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, 1925
Inherit the Wind
The play Inherit the Wind was a fictionalized account of the Scopes monkey trial written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. There were many contrasts between the play and what actually occurred, with many details being exaggerated or invented. the Clarence Darrow figure in the play was referred to as Henry Drummond, and the William Jennings Bryan character was renamed Matthew Harrison Brady.
Fig. 2 Inherit the wind trailer snapshot
Some critics claimed that the play and subsequent film with Spencer Tracey (1957) played hard and fast with the truth. Even the townsfolk of Dayton complained that the movie made them look like idiots or simpletons. However, an author's note was included at the beginning stating that the play was not based on the actual trial. The playwrights insisted it was a statement against McCarthyism, which was running rampant in the arts, and for freedom of speech.
Scopes Trial Summary
In 1925, the theories of Charles Darwin postulated in 1859's Origin of Species, and 1871's Descent of Man had found their way into American classrooms via its textbooks. What was the crux of Darwin's argument, known as the theory of evolution?
Fig. 3 Statue of Charles Darwin
Evolution: theory by Charles Darwin that rejects the idea that each species was created separately, but rather evolved slowly over time out of other species, developing new traits as it adapted to its environment.
This theory was particularly controversial and contentious in the Bible Belt, whose fundamentalist views meant that they took the bible literally and that the world was created in seven days by a patriarchal omnipotent God. These folks took the reductive view that to assert that man "came from monkeys" and hairy tree-dwellers was ridiculous and insulting to their dearly-held beliefs.
The state-approved textbook used by John Scopes that raised the ire of the fundamentalists was entitled A Civic Biology. The book was written by George William Hunter and was published in 1914.
By 1925, teaching evolution had been outlawed in Tennessee public schools. The ban made the national news, and in a New York Times article, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced it was looking for a schoolteacher to test this new law. The town elders of Dayton, Tennessee, were looking for publicity for their little burg, and so they engineered the situation so that the trial would be held there.
John Scopes, a football coach, and substitute teacher in the Dayton school district was willing to take on the challenge, agreeing to be arrested. On the day he came to substitute teach, he used the state-supplied textbook to teach evolution, and soon after appeared in a staged-looking photo being apprehended.
Scopes's trial was set to take place at the Dayton courthouse, which would later prove a dubious choice. Both attorneys were well-known, established brands, and agreed to render their service pro bono, or without any cost to Scopes. On the prosecution side was Clarence Darrow, 68, famed attorney, dynamic public speaker, and confirmed atheist. At the defense table would sit William Jennings Bryan, 65, Democrat, fundamentalist, and anti-Darwinist. He was a former Secretary of State and self-described man of the people who became known as "the Great Commoner." Bryan had also won several cases regarding the teaching of evolution in the classroom.
The media was abuzz as, with two celebrity lawyers and a hot-button issue, this would be the first trial in America to be nationally broadcast via radio. The proceedings rapidly evolved into a media circus, with a crowd of thousands, vendors selling bibles and lemonade, and performing monkeys.
This is bigotry equal to anything in the Middle Ages."
–Clarence Darrow, 1925
The question "Did Scopes teach evolution?" was soon brought to the court. The courthouse was packed to the gills with hundreds of spectators. The trial began with a prayer, which was not contested. The jury was made up of local farmers and churchgoers. Both prosecution and defense were eloquent and passionate. "Scopes isn't on trial–civilization is on trial," said Darrow. "If evolution wins, Christianity goes," rejoined Bryan. The trial was full of such sound bites.
Fig. 4 The Scopes Trial Cartoon
By the seventh day, the crowd had swelled to massive proportions, to the extent that the judge moved the proceedings outside to the courthouse lawn. Darrow had brought in a witness to argue for the validity of evolution. However, the judge prevented this testimony from being admitted into evidence on the grounds that Scopes was the one who was on trial here, not the theory of evolution.
To everyone's surprise, Darrow's team then requested that Bryan appear as a witness for the defense, as an expert on the Bible. Bryan agreed, but faltered under Darrow's line of questioning, unable to resolve the inconsistencies in his literal interpretation of the bible. The whole humiliating experience took place in front of 5000 people, who at times roared with laughter.
Scopes Trial Outcome
Finally, the trial was cut short as Darrow's team asked the court for a guilty verdict for Scopes so that he would be able to appeal it later. The court agreed and Scopes was fined $100. Though Bryan had won his case as the jury had delivered the requested guilty verdict on July 21, he was seemingly broken by the experience. Bryan never got to deliver his final statement, which had been planned as a passionate tour de force. He died just six weeks later, having never woken up after lying down for a nap.
The ruling was stricken down one year later and reversed on a technicality. In 2002 a similar attempt to ban the teaching of evolution in schools failed in Arkansas. The judge, in that case, cited a violation of the first amendment.
Fig. 5 Skeleton illustration
Scopes Trial Date
The Scopes trial lasted little more than a week, taking place on July 10, 1925. This was during the decade known as the Roaring Twenties, a period of great prosperity and positivity in American culture. What were some of the other important events in 1925? Let's have a look.
Important Events in History - 1925 |
Mount Rushmore was dedicated in October. |
Sears Roebuck opened its first store in Chicago. |
The first issue of The New Yorker was published. |
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published. |
Scopes Trial Impact
The impact of the Scopes Trial was seismic. Though the trial may have ended with more of a whimper than a bang, its effects have reverberated through the 20th and 21st centuries. Is America a religious country based on faith, tradition, and superstitious belief? Or is it a liberal country that embraces progress and worships science and logic? The answer has remained unresolved. Tensions seem only to reach greater heights as cases regarding fundamental rights such as abortion, sexuality, and control of one's own life choices cannot escape the political influence of the religious and uneducated.
The dichotomy of religion and science and the discussion around it is far from settled, plaguing the American population to this day. So many of the same hot buttons are being pushed today: it's not only religion vs. science, but intellectualism vs. ignorance, rural vs. urban, and red vs. blue.
The trial also heralded an age of the trial as a media circus, with two celebrity lawyers. Its lineage can be seen in the OJ Simpson murder trial in 1995 as well as the defamation trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in 2022.
The Scopes Trial (1925) - Key takeaways
- The Scopes "monkey" trial took place from July 10-21, 1925 in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee.
- The question at stake was whether substitute teacher and football coach John Scopes taught evolution in one of his classes, breaking a newly minted law that forbade teaching the subject in public schools.
- This was a "test trial" set up by the ACLU, which had announced in The New York Times that it was looking for a teacher willing to be "arrested". The town planners of Dayton were more than willing to have the trial take place there.
- The lawyers in the case were the famous Clarence Darrow for the defense and William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution.
- The trial became a media circus with over 5,000 attendees. It was especially unusual in that William Jennings Bryan was called to the stand as an expert on the bible. He was humiliated under questioning by Darrow and died six days after the trial. Scopes was found guilty at the request of his attorneys, and he was fined $100, though the case was later overturned.
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