The '''Scopes Trial''', sometimes known as the "Scopes monkey trial," which took place in [[Tennessee]] in 1925. It , was engineered as a challenge to widely publicized trial that challenged the legality of a state's Butler Act which prohibited law prohibiting [[public schools school]]s from teaching the theory that man had somehow evolved from more primitive life forms. The willing defendant was , John T. Scopes (1900- 1970), a teacher who had volunteered for the challenge. Scopes was convictedof violating the law, and the conviction was soon overturned but won on a technicality and never appealed. The trial was one of the most watched epsiodes in the history of American religious and American educationon appeal.
The dramatic highlight This case illustrated the problem of [[fake news]], as the [[atheist]], bigoted reporter [[H.L. Mencken]] distorted what happened at the trial was when and misled the world about it. A review of the transcript reveals that [[William Jennings Bryan]] got the better of [[Clarence Darrow]] agreed , and yet Mencken reported the opposite in an extreme manner. Indeed, Darrow himself gave up and asked the jury to testify as a find his client John Scopes guilty, so that the cowardly Darrow could renege on his promise to take the witness if stand himself in exchange for cross-examining Bryan. Uncommondescent.com declared: "It is a little known fact that [[William Jennings Bryan]] would also testify. First agreed to be interrogated by [[Clarence Darrow]] only if Bryan testified before a huge crowd, but when could in turn interrogate Darrow's turn came he instead reneged on his deal views of [[evolution]]. Darrow agreed, but then right after interrogating Bryan, [Darrow] directed the judge to find Scopes guilty, thereby closing the evidence and ended thus preventing Bryan from interrogating Darrow."<ref>http://www.uncommondescent.com/evolution/the -vise-strategy-squeezing-the-truth-out-of-darwinists/</ref> Generally speaking, [[Atheism and Debate|leading evolutionists generally no longer debate creation scientists]] as the evolutionists tend to lose the debates.<ref>https://www.icr.org/article/811/</ref> The trial by asking gained notoriety after it was dramatized in a grossly false manner for both stage (1955) and screen (1960), bizarrely entitled ''[[Inherit the jury Wind]]''. Both of these false dramatizations were promoted to find his client guiltytry to smear [[Christianity]].<ref>"'Inherit the Wind' relentlessly distorts what happened in Dayton, Tenn., in 1925."[http://www.beliefnet.com/story/2/story_226_1.html]</ref><ref>As recently as April 17, 2007, which ended the ''Village Voice'' endorsed a new Broadway rendition of ''Inherit the Wind'' as "a dramatization of the 1925 [Scopes] trial."[http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0716,feingold,76394,11.html]</ref> In the real trial Bryan made a fool of Darrow, not vice-versa, as demonstrated by the publicly available transcript that includes notations of laughter by the gallery, as quoted below.<ref>https://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111scopes.html</ref>
== Publicity Motivation ==
The impetus for the Scopes trial began in a meeting among town leaders at a drugstore in Dayton, Tennessee, in response to a newspaper advertisement placed by the American Civil Liberties Union ([[ACLU]]) offering to provide legal services to anyone willing to be prosecuted under the Butler Act.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006}}, {{hnb|Linder|2002}}. See also {{hnb|Coulter|2006}}</ref> Town leaders agreed that a trial would provide publicity to the town,<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006}}</ref> whose population had dwindled to 1,800.<ref>{{hnb|Linder|2002}}</ref> The town leaders found a willing defendant in John Scopes, a gym teacher and football coach who also substituted (sometimes as a biology teacher), though Scopes could not recall ever teaching evolution.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006}}. See also {{hnb|Coulter|2006}}</ref> John Scopes told the town leaders, "If you can prove that I've taught evolution and that I can qualify as a defendant, then I'll be willing to stand trial."
[[Fundamentalism|Fundamentalists]] took up the challenge, led by theologian [[William Bell Riley]], who signed up Bryan to assist the local county prosecutor. The national media rushed to Dayton.
== Grand Jury ==
Racing other Tennessee towns, Judge John T. Raulston accelerated the convening of the grand jury and "...all but instructed the grand jury to indict Scopes, despite the meager evidence against him and the widely reported stories questioning whether the willing defendant had ever taught evolution in the classroom."<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006|p=108}}</ref> He was indicted on May 25, after three students testified against Scopes at the Grand Jury, at Scopes' behest.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006|p=89, 107}}</ref>
== The Trial ==
The trial in 1925 of [[John Scopes]] for teaching evolution in Tennessee was a defeat of [[Darwinism]]. The [[ACLU]] and [[liberal]] trial lawyer [[Clarence Darrow]] brought the Scopes case in the hopes of winning a public relations and legal victory. Historians typically believe in evolution and declare victory for Darrow, but in fact [[William Jennings Bryan]], Darrow and the evangelical [[Christian]] who had been Secretary of State in ACLU lost the Wilson Administration, won a legal victory in the trial. The [[ACLU]] challenged a case badly and Tennessee statute, continued to limit the Butler Act, that imposed a fine for teaching of evolution in government [[schoolpublic schools]]s that man descended from more primitive life forms. The statute did not prohibit teaching most aspects of [[evolution]]. The textbook at issue in the case taught eugenics, including that man supposedly descended from lower life forms and that some racial groups had evolved to more advanced levels than othersfor roughly another 50 years.
The textbook also featured the fraudulent [[Piltdown ManACLU]]. At challenged a Tennessee statute, the timeButler Act, Darwinists claimed that this and imposed a fine for teaching in government schools that man descended from more primitive life forms. The statute did not prohibit teaching most aspects of [[eugenicsevolution]] were indisputable science to be taught to students. The textbook at issue in the case suggested indirectly (through a tree-like diagram) that man descended from lower life forms.
Bryan quoted for the attacked Darrow in court , noting how Darrow had previously claimed that murder defendants Leopold and Loeb were driven to crime by what they were taught, which was [[Nietzsche]]'s atheistic philosophy. Bryan quoted Darrow as saying that "Is there any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsche's philosophy seriously and fashioned his life on it? ... The university would be more to blame than he is. ... Your honor, it is hardly fair to hang a 19-year-old boy for the philosophy that was taught him at the university."
Bryan was an extraordinary speaker, recognized to be among the best in American history. Darrow wanted to prevent Bryan from making a persuasive closing argument to the jury, and Darrow searched for another way to try to score points for his side.
So Darrow stunned the court by requesting to cross-examine Bryan, in the hope that Bryan, like many attorneys, would be a poor witness. Darrow's attempt was unprecedented, because trial attorneys almost never take the witness stand in their own cases. Bryan agreed only on the condition that he could cross-examine Darrow. Based on that agreement, Bryan took the witness stand.
A witness in a trial is always at a disadvantage on cross-examination, because he can only answer questions that are posed by a hostile adversary. On cross-examination, Attorneys are allowed to ask leading(yes or no) questions to force the desired response, unlike on direct examination. Attorneys are particularly vulnerable, because their knowledge of the law and tendency to speak in legalese hinder their performance.
:Darrow--Or ever thought of it?
:Bryan--I have been too busy on thinks things that I thought were of more importance than that.
A later exchange ended, once again, with the audience laughing:
===The conclusion===
The next day, it was Darrow's turn to be cross-examined. But instead of upholding his end of the bargain, Darrow stunned took the public by taking the unprecedented step of asking the jury for a guilty verdict against his client, the defendant teacher John Scopes.<ref>http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/day8.htm</ref>
After 8 days of trial, the jury gave Darrow exactly what he requested, after and 9 minutes of deliberation. , Scopes was found guilty on July 21 and ordered to pay a fine of $100, which . The conviction was eliminated overtuned on appeal by a technicality on appeal. <ref>The Tennessee Constitution had a clause that any fine that high must be set by a jury, not by the judge. The state's Supreme Court vacated the verdict due to that, and then ruled that because Scopes no longer lived in the state, the case was moot.</ref> == Aftermath ==Bryan, a 65-year-old diabetic lacking in modern treatments, died peacefully in his sleep during his afternoon nap after church five days after the conclusion of the Scopes trial.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006|p=199}}</ref> Bryan's victory in the Scopes trial was a fitting end to a principled, illustrious career.<ref>http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/side/bryan.html</ref> Scopes never had to pay the fine - the judge had set the amount but Tennessee law at the time prohibited judges from setting fines over $50. The law challenged by the [[ACLU]] in the Scopes Trial remained in effect for over 50 more years. In 1967, Tennessee repealed the Butler Act, and in 1968, the Supreme Court ruled in ''Epperson v. Arkansas'', 393 U.S. 97, that such bans on teaching are unconstitutional if they are primarily religious in intent. Tennessee continued to downplay evolution in its schools until 2005.<ref>http://www.edexcellence.net/institute/publication/publication.cfm?id=352&pubsubid=1169#1169</ref>==Image and memory== The trial gained renewed attention after it was dramatized for both stage (1955) and screen (1960). Titled ''[[Inherit the Wind]]'', both dramatizations distorted the facts of the case and were promoted to harm [[Christianity]].<ref>"'Inherit the Wind' relentlessly distorts what happened in Dayton, Tenn., in 1925."[http://www.beliefnet.com/story/2/story_226_1.html]</ref><ref>As recently as April 17, 2007, the ''Village Voice'' endorsed a new Broadway rendition of ''Inherit the Wind'' as "a dramatization of the 1925 [Scopes] trial."[http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0716,feingold,76394,11.html]</ref>
== The movie and play ==
The movie portrayed the character based on Bryan as a complete buffoon. Bryan's death was also portrayed as happening in the courthouse, when in fact he was an elderly man suffering from diabetes who died peacefully in his sleep.
American history books often usually describe this case as a catalyst major defeat for evolution supportersFundamentalists.<ref>The trial "marked a decisive setback for fundamentalism," says ''The Enduring Vision, Fifth Edition, '' Chapter 23: The 1920s: Coping with Change, Paul S. Boyer, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Clifford E. Clark, Jr., Carleton College; et al. (a commonly used American history textbook for Advanced Placement US History classes).</ref>In fact, the successful defense of the law enabled Tennessee to keep the racist evolutionary textbook out of its schools, to avoid teaching the falsehoods of evolution (such as the [[Piltdown Man]] featured in the trial textbook) to schoolchildren, and to permit the State (which still rejects a state income tax) to grow in [[conservatism]] to this day. Liberals [[Al Gore]], [[John Kerry]] and [[Barack Obama]] all failed to carry the state in recent presidential elections.
== Aftermath ==
Bryan, a 65-year-old diabetic lacking in modern treatments, died peacefully in his sleep during his afternoon nap after church five days after the conclusion of the Scopes trial.<ref>{{hnb|Larson|2006|p=199}}</ref> Bryan's victory in the Scopes trial was a fitting end to a principled, illustrious career.<ref> http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/side/bryan.html</ref> Scopes never had to pay the fine - the judge had set the amount but Tennessee law at the time prohibited judges from setting fines over $50.
The law challenged by the [[ACLU]] in the Scopes Trial remained in effect for over 50 more years. In 1967, Tennessee repealed the Butler Act, and in 1968, the Supreme Court ruled in ''Epperson v. Arkansas'', 393 U.S. 97, that such bans on teaching are unconstitutional if they are primarily religious in intent.
Tennessee continued to downplay evolution in its schools until 2005.<ref>http://www.edexcellence.net/institute/publication/publication.cfm?id=352&pubsubid=1169#1169</ref>
==Image and memory==
The trial gained renewed attention after it was dramatized for both stage (1955) and screen (1960). Titled ''[[Inherit the Wind]]'', both dramatizations distorted the facts of the case and were promoted to harm [[Christianity]].<ref>"'Inherit the Wind' relentlessly distorts what happened in Dayton, Tenn., in 1925."[http://www.beliefnet.com/story/2/story_226_1.html]</ref><ref>As recently as April 17, 2007, the ''Village Voice'' endorsed a new Broadway rendition of ''Inherit the Wind'' as "a dramatization of the 1925 [Scopes] trial."[http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0716,feingold,76394,11.html]</ref>
==References==
<references/>
==SourcesBibliography==* Clark, Constance Areson. "Evolution for John Doe: Pictures, The Public, and the Scopes Trial Debate." ''Journal of American History'' 2000 87(4): 1275-1303. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2674729 in JSTOR]* Conkin, Paul K. ''When All the Gods Trembled: Darwinism, Scopes, and American Intellectuals.'' (1998). 185 pp.
*{{Harvard reference
| Surname = Coulter
| ID = ISBN 978-1400054206
}}
* Edwards, Mark. "Rethinking the Failure of Fundamentalist Political Antievolutionism after 1925". ''Fides Et Historia'' 2000 32(2): 89-106. 0884-5379
* Folsom, Burton W., Jr. "The Scopes Trial Reconsidered." ''Continuity'' 1988 (12): 103-127. 0277-1446, by a leading conservative scholar
* Gatewood, Willard B., Jr., ed. ''Controversy in the Twenties: Fundamentalism, Modernism, & Evolution'' (1969)
* Harding, Susan. "Representing Fundamentalism: The Problem of the Repugnant Cultural Other." ''Social Research'' 1991 58(2): 373-393.
*{{Harvard reference
| Surname = Larson
| Publisher = Basic Books
| ID = ISBN 978-0465075102
}}[http://www.questia.com/library/book/summer-for-the-gods-the-scopes-trial-and-americas-continuing-debate-over-science-and-religion-by-edward-j-larson.jsp online edition]* Lienesch Michael. ''In the Beginning: Fundamentalism, the Scopes Trial, and the Making of the Antievolution Movement.'' University of North Carolina Press, 2007. 350pp
*{{Harvard reference
| Surname = Linder
| Publisher = University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
| URL = http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/evolut.htm
}} Retrieved on 05-11-2007* Moran, Jeffrey P. ''The Scopes Trial: A Brief History with Documents'', Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002. 240pp* Moran, Jeffrey P. "The Scopes Trial and Southern Fundamentalism in Black and White: Race, Region, and Religion." ''Journal of Southern History''. Volume: 70. Issue: 1. 2004. pp 95+. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5005987461 online edition]* Smout, Kary Doyle. ''The Creation/Evolution Controversy: A Battle for Cultural Power.'' (1998). 210 pp.
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