scopes monkey trial who was scopes attorney

by Mr. Rogers Rempel PhD 8 min read

Clarence Darrow

Why was the Scopes Trial so controversial?

The Scopes “monkey trial” was the moniker journalist H. L. Mencken applied to the 1925 prosecution of a criminal action brought by the state of Tennessee against high school teacher John T. Scopes for violating the state’s Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools. In the case Scopes v.

What happened to scopes after his trial?

Scopes trial lawyers Summary Photograph shows William Jennings Bryan (seated, left, with fan) and Clarence Darrow (standing, center, with arms folded) at an outdoor courtroom during Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee. Created / Published

What are facts about the Scopes Monkey Trial?

The prosecution was led by William Jennings Bryan, a former Secretary of State, presidential candidate, and the most famous fundamentalist Christian spokesperson in the country. His strategy was quite simple: to prove John Scopes guilty of violating Tennessee law.

What was the result of the Scopes Monkey Trial?

Jun 12, 2006 · The prosecution included Bryan, Circuit Attorney General Arthur Thomas Stewart, and Bryan’s son, William Jennings Bryan, Jr., a Los Angeles lawyer. For the defense were Darrow, New York lawyer and co-counsel Dudley Field Malone, ACLU attorney Arthur Garfield Hays, and Scopes’ local lawyer, John Randolph Neal.

image

How long did it take for Scopes to be found guilty?

His teachings, and His teachings alone, can solve the problems that vex the heart and perplex the world. After eight days of trial, it took the jury only nine minutes to deliberate. Scopes was found guilty on July 21 and ordered by Raulston to pay a $100 fine (equivalent to $1,500 in 2020).

How long did the confrontation between Bryan and Darrow last?

The confrontation between Bryan and Darrow lasted approximately two hours on the afternoon of the seventh day of the trial. It is likely that it would have continued the following morning but for Judge Raulston's announcement that he considered the whole examination irrelevant to the case and his decision that it should be "expunged" from the record. Thus Bryan was denied the chance to cross-examine the defense lawyers in return, although after the trial Bryan would distribute nine questions to the press to bring out Darrow's "religious attitude". The questions and Darrow's short answers were published in newspapers the day after the trial ended, with The New York Times characterizing Darrow as answering Bryan's questions "with his agnostic's creed, 'I don't know,' except where he could deny them with his belief in natural, immutable law".

How much was Scopes fined?

Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 (equivalent to $1,500 in 2020), but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. The trial served its purpose of drawing intense national publicity, as national reporters flocked to Dayton to cover the big-name lawyers who had agreed to represent each side.

What was the Scopes v. State case?

John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee 's Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in ...

Why did the ACLU oppose the Butler Act?

The ACLU had originally intended to oppose the Butler Act on the grounds that it violated the teacher's individual rights and academic freedom , and was therefore unconstitutional. Principally because of Clarence Darrow, this strategy changed as the trial progressed. The earliest argument proposed by the defense once the trial had begun was that there was actually no conflict between evolution and the creation account in the Bible; later, this viewpoint would be called theistic evolution. In support of this claim, they brought in eight experts on evolution. But other than Dr. Maynard Metcalf, a zoologist from Johns Hopkins University, the judge would not allow these experts to testify in person. Instead, they were allowed to submit written statements so their evidence could be used at the appeal. In response to this decision, Darrow made a sarcastic comment to Judge Raulston (as he often did throughout the trial) on how he had been agreeable only on the prosecution's suggestions. Darrow apologized the next day, keeping himself from being found in contempt of court.

What did Darrow say about the Bible?

Darrow responded for the defense in a speech that was universally considered the oratorical climax of the trial. Arousing fears of "inquisitions", Darrow argued that the Bible should be preserved in the realm of theology and morality and not put into a course of science.

When was the Rhea County Courthouse restored?

The Rhea County Courthouse is a National Historic Landmark. In a $1 million restoration of the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, completed in 1979, the second-floor courtroom was restored to its appearance during the Scopes trial.

Why did the scopes monkey trial start?

The Scopes Monkey Trial started as an effort by the ACLU to challenge the constitutionality of a Tennessee law that forbade teaching the theory of evolution in public schools. The Tennessee Supreme Court found the law forbidding the teaching of evolution to be constitutional.

Who were the two lawyers who were in the monkey trial?

Into the tempest that was soon to become a cause célèbre stepped famed attorneys William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow. Clarence Darrow, left, and William Jennings Bryan speak with each other at the "monkey trial" in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925. Darrow was one of three lawyers sent to Dayton by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Why did Bryan Darrow volunteer to serve as John Scopes's attorney?

Darrow was a legendary lawyer. Before volunteering to serve as John Scopes’s attorney, Darrow had built a national practice by losing only a single murder defense.

How long did it take to find Scopes guilty?

Reporters assembled from as far away as London and Hong Kong. H. L. Mencken chronicled the trial for the Baltimore Sun. The jury needed only nine minutes to find Scopes guilty.

What did Scopes challenge?

Scopes challenged Tennessee law forbidding the teaching of evolution. The case arose when, seeking to test the constitutional validity of the Butler Act, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) placed advertisements in Tennessee newspapers offering to pay the expenses of any teacher willing to challenge the law.

What was the Supreme Court's decision in Scopes v. State?

State (1925), Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, but, on appeal, the Supreme Court of Tennessee, pointing to a technicality in the issuance of the fine, overturned Scopes’s conviction, while finding the Butler Act constitutional.

How many spectators were in the courtroom in 1925?

(AP Photo, used with permission from the Associated Press) More than six hundred spectators shoehorned themselves into the courtroom.

What was the purpose of the monkey trial?

ACLU History: The Scopes 'Monkey Trial'. In March 1925, the Tennessee state legislature passed a bill that banned the teaching of evolution in all educational institutions throughout the state. The Butler Act set off alarm bells around the country. The ACLU responded immediately with an offer to defend any teacher prosecuted under the law.

What was John Scopes' strategy?

His strategy was quite simple: to prove John Scopes guilty of violating Tennessee law. The Scopes trial turned out to be one of the most sensational cases in 20th century America; it riveted public attention and made millions of Americans aware of the ACLU for the first time.

How much was John Scopes fined?

John Scopes was fined $100. The ACLU hoped to use the opportunity as a chance to take the issue all the way to the Supreme Court, but the verdict was reversed by state supreme court on a technicality.

How many states did the Butler Act fail?

Nonetheless, the ultimate result of the trial was pronounced and far-reaching: the Butler Act was never again enforced and over the next two years, laws prohibiting the teaching of evolution were defeated in 22 states.

Who was Susan Epperson?

An opportunity finally arose, more than four decades later, when the ACLU filed an amicus brief on behalf of Susan Epperson, a Zoology teacher in Arkansas, who challenged a state ban on teaching 'that mankind ascended or descended from a lower order of animals.'. In 1968, the Supreme Court, in Epperson v.

Who was John Scopes?

John Scopes, a young popular high school science teacher, agreed to stand as defendant in a test case to challenge the law. He was arrested on May 7, 1925, and charged with teaching the theory of evolution. Clarence Darrow, an exceptionally competent, experienced, and nationally renowned criminal defense attorney led the defense along ...

What was the purpose of the 1923 PCUSA General Assembly?

The 1923 PCUSA General Assembly voted to reaffirm the Five Fundamentals adopted at previous assemblies; it also instructed the Presbytery of New York to make sure that the teachings of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City were in line with the Westminster Confession.

What was the battle between Fundamentalists and Modernists?

By the mid 1920s, the battle between Fundamentalists, who believed in the literal truth of the Bible, and Modernists, who believed religion should progress with modern society, embroiled most Protestant denominations. It was particularly divisive among Presbyterians, contributing to the formation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1936.

How long did Bryan die?

Bryan died on July 26, five days after the end of the trial--a defeated man to some, to others an unbowed champion of common people everywhere. The Scopes Trial did not settle the debate between Fundamentalists and Modernists. Ninety years later, that theological and cultural dispute continues.

Where was the Bryan Bible Talk broadcast?

The trial was the first to be broadcast on radio. A "Bryan Bible Talk" in Miami, n.d. (Image No. 4726) Blocked by the judge from allowing most of his witnesses to testify in person, Darrow called Bryan to the stand as a Bible expert. How Bryan conducted himself depends on your source.

Who was the first Presbyterian minister to give a sermon in 1921?

It was particularly divisive among Presbyterians, contributing to the formation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1936. Harry Emerson Fosdick struck the first blow in the controversy in May 1921 when he gave the most famous sermon of his career at the First Presbyterian Church in New York City.

Who was the secretary of state under Woodrow Wilson?

Charles Wishart, RG 414. (Image No. 4725) A convert to Presbyterianism, Bryan had served as Secretary of State under fellow Presbyterian Woodrow Wilson.

Who was John Thomas Scopes?

Defending substitute high school teacher John Thomas Scopes was Clarence Darrow, one of the celebrity lawyers of the day. William Jennings Bryan—the “Great Commoner,” three-time Democratic nominee for President, and Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. ruling elder—argued for the prosecution, the State of Tennessee, ...

What was the fine for Scopes?

Scopes was found guilty and ordered to pay the minimum fine of $100. A year later, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Dayton court on a procedural technicality—not on constitutional grounds, as Darrow had hoped. According to the court, the fine should have been set by the jury, not Raulston.

How long did John Caverly sentence Leopold and Loeb?

Darrow succeeded. Caverly sentenced Leopold and Loeb to life in prison plus 99 years.

When was Attorney for the Damned published?

"Attorney for the Damned" (Arthur Weinberg, ed), published by University of Chicago Press in 2012 ; Simon and Schuster in 1957; provides Darrow's most influential summations and includes scene-setting explanations and comprehensive notes; on NYT best seller list 19 weeks.

Who was the first person to be executed for murder?

Also in 1894, Darrow took on the first murder case of his career, defending Patrick Eugene Prendergast, the "mentally deranged drifter" who had confessed to murdering Chicago mayor Carter Harrison, Sr. Darrow's "insanity defense" failed and Prendergast was executed that same year.

Who is Ruby Hammerstrom?

( m. 1903) ​. Children. 1. Relatives. J. Howard Moore (brother-in-law) Clarence Seward Darrow ( / ˈdæroʊ /; April 18, 1857 – March 13, 1938) was an American lawyer who became famous in the early 20th century for his involvement in the Leopold and Loeb murder trial and the Scopes "Monkey" Trial.

What happened to John Scopes?

Whatever Happened to John Scopes, the ‘Monkey-Trial Man’? 'The monkey trials' reached a fervor of national attention in April 1925, but for a man so hated and vilified during the trial, John Scopes strangely disappeared into obscurity immediately after the verdict. Jeff Nilsson.

What was John Scopes arrested for?

In 1925, John T. Scopes was arrested in Dayton, Tennessee, for the crime of teaching evolution in the local high school.

How much was the fine for the scopes case?

The judge set a fine of $100. Scopes’ lawyers appealed the verdict to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which supported the lower court’s verdict. However, the higher court—perhaps eager to get rid of the case—noted that the judge, not the jury, had set the amount of the fine.

How many members of the Ku Klux Klan were in the Great Gatsby parade?

That summer, newspapers had given lurid coverage to the ongoing troubles with bootleggers, the excesses of jazz-crazed youth, critical response to Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, and the meaning of a parade by 40,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan through Washington, D.C.

Where did John Scopes live?

He wound up in Shreveport, Louisiana, studying oil reserves until his retirement in 1963. “I’m just an ordinary man now, working to support a fine family,” he told the Post in October 1943. “Occasionally people will ask if I am ‘the John Scopes,’ but usually I just don’t think about it.

When did Tennessee's Butler Act end?

Tennessee’s Butler Act remained in effect until 1967, at which point the state’s teachers were free to incorporate the theory of evolution into their biology curricula. In 2012, a new state law required science teachers to present evolution as a “controversial” and questionable theory.

Who was the monkey trial man?

John T. Scopes agreed to be the subject of the case. He was charged with having taught evolution on April 25, 1925, and quickly released on $500 bail posted by a Baltimore newspaper. “Whatever Became of John Scopes, the Dayton ‘Monkey Trial’ Man? October 9, 1943. © SEPS 2014.

image

Overview

The Scopes Trial, formally The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case from July 10 to July 21, 1925 in which a high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolutionin any state-funded school. The trial was deliberately st…

Origins

State Representative John Washington Butler, a Tennessee farmer and head of the World Christian Fundamentals Association, lobbied state legislatures to pass anti-evolution laws. He succeeded when the Butler Act was passed in Tennessee, on March 25, 1925. Butler later stated, "I didn't know anything about evolution ... I'd read in the papers that boys and girls were coming home from school and telling their fathers and mothers that the Bible was all nonsense." Tennessee governor Austin …

Dayton, Tennessee

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) offered to defend anyone accused of teaching the theory of evolution in defiance of the Butler Act. On April 5, 1925, George Rappleyea, local manager for the Cumberland Coal and Iron Company, arranged a meeting with county superintendent of schools Walter White and local attorney Sue K. Hicksat Robinson's Drug Store, convincing them that the c…

Proceedings

The ACLU had originally intended to oppose the Butler Act on the grounds that it violated the teacher's individual rights and academic freedom, and was therefore unconstitutional. Principally because of Clarence Darrow, this strategy changed as the trial progressed. The earliest argument proposed by the defense once the trial had begun was that there was actually no conflict between evolution and t…

Appeal to the Supreme Court of Tennessee

Scopes' lawyers appealed, challenging the conviction on several grounds. First, they argued that the statute was overly vague because it prohibited the teaching of "evolution", a very broad term. The court rejected that argument, holding:
Evolution, like prohibition, is a broad term. In recent bickering, however, evolution has been understood to mean the theory which holds that man has developed from some pre-existing low…

Aftermath

The trial revealed a growing chasm in American Christianity and two ways of finding truth, one "biblical" and one "evolutionist". Author David Goetz writes that the majority of Christians denounced evolution at the time.
Author Mark Edwards contests the conventional view that in the wake of the Scopes trial, a humiliated fundamentalism retreated into the political and cultural background, a viewpoint whic…

Publicity

Edward J. Larson, a historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for History for his book Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion (2004), notes: "Like so many archetypal American events, the trial itself began as a publicity stunt." The press coverage of the "Monkey Trial" was overwhelming. The front pages of newspapers like The New York Timeswere dominated by the case for days. More than 200 newspaper reporters from all p…

Courthouse

In a $1 million restoration of the Rhea County Courthousein Dayton, completed in 1979, the second-floor courtroom was restored to its appearance during the Scopes trial. A museum of trial events in its basement contains such memorabilia as the microphone used to broadcast the trial, trial records, photographs, and an audiovisual history. Every July, local people re-enact key …