Scopes Monkey Trial
What is the "Monkey" Trial?
In 1925, the Tennessee legislature passed the BUTLER LAW, which forbade the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution in any public school or university. Other Southern states followed suit.
The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes
The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butlers Act which made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. The trial was deliberately staged to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he purposely incriminated himself so that the case could have a defendant.
Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 (equivalent to $1,349 in 2016)
Clarence Darrow
He was best known for defending teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks (1924). Some of his other notable cases included defending Ossian Sweets, and John T. Scopes in the Scopes "Monkey" Trial(1925), in which he opposed William Jennings Bryan (statesman, noted orator, and three-time presidential candidate). Called a "sophisticated country lawyer", he remains notable for his wit, which marked him as one of the most famous American lawyers and civil libertarians.
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. Bryan accepted, on the understanding that Darrow would in turn submit to questioning by Bryan. Although Hays would claim in his autobiography that the cross-examination of Bryan was unplanned, Thus Bryan was denied the chance to cross-examine the defense lawyers in return.
Political Cartoon
This picture shows how the jury reacts to this trial. The picture shows a monkey (jury member) hoping that scopes is not guilty because of the fear of being from a monkeys decent.