When Evolution Went to Court - The Scopes Trial Explained

Here's the story of the trial/publicity stunt that pinned Darwinists versus fundamentalists- The Scopes Trial. All images found in the public domain. Music by Electric Needle Room. Produced by Matt Beat.

I also released a podcast about this event:    • The Scopes Trial - Mr. Beat Presents:...  

#apush #1920s #evolution
Once upon a time an English naturalist and geologist named Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution. Evolution, now widely accepted as a theory, used to be very controversial. It rocked the entire world, as matter of fact. It argued that all life had a common ancestor and that all life with better genetic traits adapted and reproduced so that those better traits would live on. Hey, go easy on me, I’m not a science teacher. This theory holds that humans share a common ancestor with apes and chimpanzees, and many Christian fundamentalists, who believed the Bible was literal, just couldn’t accept that explanation. Throughout the late 1800s and into the 1900s, Darwin’s theory of evolution pinned religious fundamentalists against modernists, or those who were sympathetic to the Enlightenment and a interpreting the Bible using reason.

On March 21, 1925, the Butler Act was passed, a Tennessee law prohibiting public school teachers from teaching about evolution and denying the Biblical account of the origin of human beings. It was named after John Butler, a farmer and head of the World Christian Fundamentals Association, who helped get the law to pass. In response, a new organization called the American Civil Liberties Union got a dude named John Scopes, a Tennessee high school science teacher, to break the law. Scopes was charged on May 5, 1925, for teaching about evolution.

Scopes got a pretty good and well-known lawyer to defend him named Clarence Darrow. An even more famous lawyer named William Jennings Bryan led the prosecution. The two lawyers were quite different. Darrow went around questioning the existence of God, while Bryan was a devout Christian who was troubled by Darwin’s theory of evolution. Oh yeah, and Bryan was also a three-time presidential nominee and former Secretary of State for crying out loud.

The trial took place in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, for 12 hot days in July, and it was pretty much a publicity stunt. The press came out in droves, and so did thousands of spectators. It was a carnival-like atmosphere where vendors sold hot dogs, soda, and even Bibles. Every single trial update was on the front page of tabloids across the country, and it was the first trial to be nationally broadcast on the radio.

The trial judge prevented the defense from using scientists as witnesses. In response, the defense team decided to call William Jennings Bryan himself to testify as an expert on the Bible. Most would conclude that Clarence Darrow made Bryan sound like an idiot on the witness stand that day, as Bryan stumbled over words as he tried to justify the Bible.

Scopes was found guilty, but his only punishment was a fine of $100. However, the conviction was thrown out by the Tennessee Supreme Court on a technicality. In 1968, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Epperson v. Arkansas that anti-evolution laws violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Bryan may have won the case, but Darrow won the war. Bryan died just five days after the trial was over.

The Scopes Trial showed that, although the majority of Christians said evolution was wrong at the time, there was a growing divide among Christians about finding the truth, one of fundamentalists, who believed in a literal reading of the Bible, and Darwinists, who believed in applying modern science. In the end, it helped promote the idea that laws should respect academic freedom, even if ideas clash with mainstream religious beliefs.

#apush #ushistory #americanhistory