who was the prosecuting attorney in the scopes trial

by Claud Klein 6 min read

William Jennings Bryan

Who was the lawyer in the Scopes Monkey Trial?

Apr 19, 2010 · Who were the major people involved in the scopes trial? Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan was prosecuting attorney, Clarence Darrow was the defense attorney.

Who defended John Thomas Scopes in the Scopes 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.

What are the most important events that happened during the Scopes Trial?

Oct 08, 2017 · The prosecution included Tennessee Attorney General Thomas Stewart and a local lawyer S. K. Hicks, but the most famous member of the team was William Jennings Bryan, who had been invited as a special prosecutor.

What was the significance of the Scopes Monkey Trial?

Jun 12, 2015 · July 2015 marks the 90 th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial, one of the most famous court cases in American history. 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 …

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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 was the Scopes trial?

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 any ...

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.

Who was William Jennings Bryan?

On the seventh day of the trial, Clarence Darrow took the unorthodox step of calling William Jennings Bryan, counsel for the prosecution, to the stand as a witness in an effort to demonstrate that belief in the historicity of the Bible and its many accounts of miracles was unreasonable.

What was the Dayton trial?

The trial escalated the political and legal conflict in which strict creationists and scientists struggled over the teaching of evolution in Arizona and California science classes. Before the Dayton trial only the South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Kentucky legislatures had dealt with anti-evolution laws or riders to educational appropriations bills.

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 did the Scopes trial affect science?

Though often portrayed as influencing public opinion against fundamentalism , the victory was not complete. Though the ACLU had taken on the trial as a cause, in the wake of Scopes' conviction they were unable to find more volunteers to take on the Butler law and, by 1932, had given up. The anti-evolutionary legislation was not challenged again until 1965, and in the meantime, William Jennings Bryan's cause was taken up by a number of organizations, including the Bryan Bible League and the Defenders of the Christian Faith.

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, ...

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.

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.

Why was Scopes arrested?

The ACLU was notified of the plan, and Scopes was arrested for violating the Butler Act on May 7, 1925. Scopes appeared before the Rhea County justice of the peace on May 9, 1925, and was formally charged with having violated the Butler Act—a misdemeanor. He was released on bond, paid for by local businessmen.

What was the name of the trial in Tennessee?

The Scopes "Monkey" Trial (official name is State of Tennessee v John Thomas Scopes) began on July 10, 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee. On trial was science teacher John T. Scopes, charged with violating the Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in Tennessee public schools. Known in its day as "the trial of the century," ...

Who is Patricia Daniels?

A battle between creationism and evolution in public schools. Patricia Daniels is a former managing editor for Time-Life Books. She holds a degree in history from the College of William & Mary. The Scopes "Monkey" Trial (official name is State of Tennessee v John Thomas Scopes) began on July 10, 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee.

Did Scopes teach evolution?

Scopes, in fact, usually taught math and chemistry, but had substituted for the regular biology teacher earlier that spring. He was not entirely certain that he had even taught evolution but agreed to be arrested.

What was the scopes trial?

On July 21, Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, but the fine was revoked a year later during the appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court. As the first trial was broadcast live on radio in the United States, the Scopes trial brought widespread attention to the controversy over creationism versus evolution .

Who was John Scopes?

John Scopes returned to college and studied to become a geologist. He worked in the oil industry and never taught high school again. Scopes died in 1970 at the age of 70. Clarence Darrow returned to his law practice, where he worked on several more high-profile cases.

Did Scopes violate Tennessee law?

Bryan's team set out to prove that Scopes had indeed violated Tennessee law by teaching evolution. Witnesses for the prosecution included the county school superintendent, who confirmed that Scopes had taught evolution out of A Civic Biology, the state-sponsored textbook cited in the case.

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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 …