Not Even from American Monkeys, but from Old World Monkeys!

Today in 1925, tradition and modernity ended their run in court with end of the Scopes Monkey Trial.

In March 1925, Tennessee passed a law that forbade the teaching of “any theory that denies the story of Divine Creation of Man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals” in any state funded institution. Immediately the Butler Law, as it was known, faced opponents, namely the ACLU.

The ACLU found John T Scopes, a high school science teacher, willing to challenge the legality of the new law. At only 24, Dayton county authorities arrested him for teaching evolution. Both Scopes and the ACLU expected that at the very worst, Scopes would face a minor fine for breaking the new law. Instead, they endured a lengthy and well publicized trial.

Clarence Darrow, a well-known defense lawyer, represented Scopes and the ACLU. William Jennings Bryan (three-time presidential nominee, former Secretary of State, leader of the Populist movement, and an intensely faithfully man) led the prosecution. From the beginning, the judge displayed bias against Darrow and Scopes. He refused to allow most of Darrow’s witnesses to testify on evolution or the Bible. He declared the defense’s expert witness on the Bible to be unfit and Bryan volunteered to serve as an expert on the Bible, to which the judge consented! After intense questioning, Bryan finally consented that the 7 days referenced in Genesis did not represent the literal definition of days but instead alluded to a longer period of time.

At one point during the trial, in an exasperated response the defense’s scientific claims, Bryan declared that scientific theory was neither competent nor proper and criticized evolution for teaching children that humans were one of 350,000 types of mammal and that they descended “not even from American monkeys, but from Old World monkeys.”

Due to the defense’s inability to present most of its information, the jury had no choice but to find Scopes guilty. Later the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the ruling. However, public opinion made the more important decision in this case. Most Americans found the prosecution and fundamentalism’s literal interpretation of the Bible antiquated and found that they identified more strongly with the defense and modernity. In response, fundamental Christianity fell out public sphere, not to reappear until the 1970s.

That Humans Have Evolved from Not Even American Monkeys, but From Old World Monkeys!

Today in 1925, 24-year-old John T. Scopes was indicted for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school’s science class.
The very public case represented the growing divide between fundamental Christians, who believed in the literal interpretation of the Bible, and liberal Christians and non-believers who followed science. Through the 1920s, the country seemed to divide further between such fundamentalists and liberals.
On March 21, 1925 the state of Tennessee had passed a law that forbade the teaching of any theory that denied the creation story as described by the Bible in any state funded school.
John T. Scopes was accused of teaching evolution, and ultimately refused to deny that he did. The newly formed ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) used this as an opportunity to demonstrate this was a violation of freedom, which they interpreted as the right to independent thought and individual self-expression. Led by Clarence Darrow, ACLU lawyers defended Scopes in the case. They claimed that there was no conflict between evolution and creation theories and brought in eight expert witnesses to testify in the case. However, the judge refused to allow them to testify in court. The judge, obviously biased in the state’s favor, also refused to allow scientists to testify on the theory of evolution, considering their testimony hearsay because they had not been present at the time of creation!
William Jennings Bryan, who by this point had run for president three times, served as the lead prosecutor. Bryan was known for strong religious beliefs, but had not been in open court as an attorney in over two decades. For the prosecution, he argued that scientific theory was neither competent nor proper. He continued by criticizing evolution for teaching children that humans were one of several thousand types of mammals and that humans were descended from “not even American monkeys, but from old world monkeys!”
The defense attempted to offer testimony on the Bible, but the judge denied their “expert witnesses.” Darrow, the lead defense attorney, demanded where he was supposed to find an expert witness. In response, Bryan (the prosecutor!!) offered himself as just that expert witness. And, yes, the judge allowed this. Bryan was questioned for two hours and eventually contradicted himself when he admitted that it was possible that length of a day in the book of Genesis might actually be longer than twenty-four hours. The judge then ruled that this testimony was also irrelevant and had it expunged from the record.
Without hearing the majority of the defense’s witnesses and with Scopes admitting he had taught evolution in the school, the jury had no choice but to find him guilty. In the foreman’s statement, the jury also recommended that the case be carried to a higher court, which would be able to determine if the law itself was actually legal.
After several appeals, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the decision due to a technicality that the jury should have determined Scopes’ fine, not the judge. Tennessee would repeal this state law forty years later in 1967. The following year, 1968, the Supreme Court ruled in Epperson v. Arkansas that states could not prohibit evolution from being taught in public schools due to the violation of the First Amendment.