FACTS ABOUT THE SCOPES TRIAL

Today in 1925, Tennessee became the first state to outlaw the teaching of evolution.  This led to the famous Scopes Trial in July.

1. The Butler Act had been passed earlier in 1925. It forbade the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools.  The American Civil Liberties Union immediately put out a press release asking for someone to challenge the law.  George Rappelyea of Dayton, Tn. felt a trial would bring recognition to his city and increase tourism.  He and other civic leaders convinced the local prosecutor to go along with the scheme and all they had to do was find someone who was willing to violate the law.
2. John Scopes was not a biology teacher, he was the football coach and was substituting for the regular biology teacher. He reluctantly agreed to break the law.  The textbook was Civic Biology by George William Hunter which was pretty standard except for his including his beliefs in eugenics and white supremacy.  He also spouted about his dislike for people with disabilities and disdain for charity for the “inferior”.
3. The ACLU wanted H.G. Wells to be the defense attorney, but he was not interested. Scopes suggested Clarence Darrow because he was famous.  William Jennings Bryan was brought in as the assistant prosecutor.  He and Scopes knew each other and Scopes was a big fan.  He said Bryan was “the greatest man produced in the U.S. since the days of Thomas Jefferson”.
4. It was so hot in the courtroom that some of the witnesses appeared on a special stage erected outside. The trial was broadcast on the radio and was a national sensation.
5. Darrow’s calling Bryan as a witness was not a surprise. In fact, two years earlier Darrow had written a newspaper article where he had posed similar questions to Bryan.  Bryan actually held his own pretty well, but he drew the ire of the fundamentalist community when he answered a question about God creating the world in seven days that a day in this case could refer to a period of time.
6. Darrow asked for a verdict of guilty so the case could be appealed to the state supreme court. (This was not a stretch because Scopes was clearly guilty of violating the law.)  The jury agreed and the judge fined Scopes $100.  The fine was paid by famous anti-fundamentalist H.L. Mencken who had covered the trial for the Baltimore Sun.
7. One year later, the Tennessee Supreme Court declared a mistrial based on a technicality due to the fact that the judge imposed the fine when that was the job of the jury.
8. In the 1968 Epperson v. Arkansas case, the Supreme Court declared the Butler Act to be unconstitutional due to it violating the Establishment Clause of the 1^st Amendment.
9. The play, and later film, “Inherit the Wind” was not meant as a commentary on science versus religion. In fact, it was a thinly veiled attack on McCarthyism.

https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/10-fascinating-facts-about-the-most-famous-scene-in-legal-history