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Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan during the trialPhoto Credit: CORBIS/Bettmann

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An Introduction by Douglas Linder (c) 2002

The early 1920's found social patterns in chaos. Traditionalists, the older Victorians,worried that everything valuable was ending. Younger modernists no longer asked whethersociety would approve of their behavior, only whether their behavior met the approval of theirintellect. Intellectual experimentation flourished. Americans danced to the sound of the JazzAge, showed their contempt for alcoholic prohibition, debated abstract art and Freudiantheories. In a response to the new social patterns set in motion by modernism, a wave ofrevivalism developed, becoming especially strong in the American South. Who would dominate American culture--the modernists or the traditionalists?Journalists were looking for a showdown, and they found one in a Dayton, Tennesseecourtroom in the summer of 1925....[CONTINUED]

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Tennessee Evolution Statutes

PUBLIC ACTS

OF THE

STATE OF TENNESSEE

PASSED BY THE

SIXTY - FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1925

________

CHAPTER NO. 27

House Bill No. 185

(By Mr. Butler)

AN ACT prohibiting the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, Normals and all otherpublic schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of theState, and to provide penalties for the violations thereof.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That it shall be unlawful forany teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which aresupported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies thestory of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descendedfrom a lower order of animals.

Section 2. Be it further enacted, That any teacher found guilty of the violation of this Act, Shall be guiltyof a misdemeanor and upon conviction, shall be fined not less than One Hundred $ (100.00) Dollars normore than Five Hundred ($ 500.00) Dollars for each offense.

Section 3. Be it further enacted, That this Act take effect from and after its passage, the public welfarerequiring it.

Passed March 13, 1925

W. F. Barry,

Speaker of the House of Representatives

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L. D. Hill,

Speaker of the Senate

Approved March 21, 1925.

Austin Peay,

Governor.

PUBLIC ACTS

OF THE

STATE OF TENNESSEE

PASSED BY THE

EIGHTY - FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1967

________

CHAPTER NO. 237

House Bill No. 48

(By Smith, Galbreath, Bradley)

SUBSTITUTED FOR : SENATE BILL NO. 46

(By Elam)

AN ACT to repeal Section 498 - 1922, Tennessee Code Annotated, prohibiting the teaching of evolution.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee :

Section 1. Section 49 - 1922, Tennessee Code Annotated, is repealed.

Section 2. This Act shall take effect September 1, 1967.

Passed : May 13, 1967

James H. Cummings,

Speaker of the House of Representatives

Frank C. Gorrell,

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Speaker of the Senate

Approved : May 17, 1967.

Buford Ellington,

Governor.

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FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and earth."And the earth was without form, and void; anddarkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. "AndGod said, let there be light: and there was light. "And God saw the light, that it was good; And dividedthe light from darkness. "And God Called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And theevening and the morning were the first day. "And God said let there be a firmament in the midst of thewaters, and let it divide the waters. "Ands God made the firmament, and divided the waters which wereunder the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; And it was so.

"And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

"And God said, let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry landappear, and it was so.

"And God called the dry land earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the seas: And Godsaw that it was good.

"And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit trees yielding fruitafter his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: And it was so.

"And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding, fruit,whose seed was in itself, after his kind; and God saw that it was good.

"And the evening and the morning were the third day.

"And God said let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and letthem be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.

"And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth; and it was so.

"And God made two great lights: The greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night: Hemade the stars also.

"And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.

"And to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw thatit was good.

"And the evening, and the morning were the fourth day.

"And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowls thatmay fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

"And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forthabundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good.

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"And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowlmultiply in the earth.

"And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

"And God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping things, andbeasts of the earth after his kind: And it was so.

"And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything thatcreepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: And let them have dominion over thefish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over everycreeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

"So God created man in His own image, in the image of God, He created him; male and female Hecreated them.

"And God blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdueit; and have dominion over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earthand every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

"And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon theearth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meal; and it was so.

"And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and themorning were the sixth day."

SCOPES TRIAL HOMEPAGE

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Impressions of the Scopes Trialby Marcet Haldeman-Julius

(excerpts from Clarence Darrow's Two Great Trials, a pamphlet published in 1927)

Arrival in Dayton

It was just a few minutes of three on the morning of the first day of the trial when we rolled into the trim,neatly-paved little town that nestles at the base of Walden's ridge in the Cumberland mountains. Well-lighted and festively bedecked as it was with many banners, not a soul stirred in the streets; a fewhounds in front of the stores lay, heads on paws, tails neatly indrawn, eyes closed; for once since he hadentered Tennessee the garrulous William Jennings Bryan had ceased to talk. Dayton was sound asleep.

Everywhere signs were posted hit and miss on buildings and fences:"Read your BIBLE.""God Is Love.""Read your BIBLE for a Week.""You Need God in Your Business.""Where Will You Spend Eternity?"

Little stands, newly built, with the usual hot-dog and sandwich or soft drinks equipment lined thesidewalks and directly across from the court house stood an anti-evolution book-stand on which largeplacards announced "Hell and the High Schools," "Mr. Bryan's Books." I felt as if I had stepped bymistake into a Methodist camp-meeting. Evidently the case of the State of Tennessee versus JohnThomas Scopes was to be tried in the super-heated, jazzy atmosphere of a Billy Sunday revival.

Aqua Hotel Lobby Scene

In and out of the Aqua lobby come and go continually a galaxy of men whose names, in the newspaperand magazine world, are ones with which to conjure. Practically every journal of importance isrepresented--from those in the neighboring towns of Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama to the LondonDaily News, the correspondent of which cables, each afternoon, five hundred words to England. Neverbut once before--at the Arms Conference in Washington--has there been, in this country, such aconcentration of high pressure talent. Even the big prize fights and national conventions have beencovered both by a lesser number and by a lesser caliber of writers. All give an impression of having theirsleeves rolled up for action. Quite literally, too, many sleeves are rolled to the elbow, light suite of everymaterial predominate, fully two-thirds of the men are coatless, many go without collars, palm leaf fanssteadily flutter, handkerchiefs mop, for the bright, lovely tenth of July morning is breezeless and hot.

Mansion House (Defense Headquarters) Scene

And now, with the general scene clearly in you minds, let us drive out--as E. H.-J. and I did immediatelyafter breakfast--to the Mansion House. It is situated about a mile from town and there the Defense isdomiciled. An old, faded yellow with brown trim frame house is the Mansion, so-called because it is thelargest residence in Rhea (pronounced Ray) County, and has been, in its day, a very proud and hospitablehome. In architecture is suggests the early eighties. Set on a little hill, surrounded by the same beautifulmountains that surround Dayton, approached by a gravel driveway and shaded by majestic trees, desertedfor all of these ten years past and believed by many of the mountain folks to be "haunted," it stands, atpresent, stark empty, without screens, without lights, and with a plumbing system so long disused that it

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refuses to function.

The Mansion was selected by Scopes and Rappleyea for Darrow's headquarters because it was the oneplace big enough to accommodate including expert witnesses, the entire battle line of the Defense, andalso because it appeared to offer to them comparative coolness and moderate seclusion. But, as it turnedout, on the eve of an epoch-making battle, Darrow, his associates, Dr. John R. Neal and Dudley FieldMalone--a gentleman who looks as if he were accustomed to every luxurious nicety, although, for all Iknow to the contrary, he may quite genuinely enjoy roughing it--Arthur Garfield Hays (the lawyer sentfrom New York City by the Civil Liberties Union), the Modernist Unitarian minister, Dr. Charles F.Potter and his wife, not to mention others with whose names I am not familiar--one and all had beenobliged to retire by the soft but inadequate light of candles, and had been awakened by the friendlytap-tap of woodpeckers to a choir of song birds and waterless faucets. Shaving and washing were out ofthe question; food not even remotely on the horizon.

G. W. Rappleyea

Dr. G. W. Rappleyea, as many people now know, is the young chemical and mining engineer who,impatient and disgusted with the anti-evolution law, arranged with what seems to be his characteristicinitiative, for the present trial. He is an untidy little person with rather ill-tended teeth, thirty-one yearsold, short (not more than five feet six at the most) and in complexion olive to the point of swarthiness. His dark brown eyes, behind horn-rimmed spectacles, are fine and alert, his thick, bushy, jet black hair isliberally sprinkled with grey which, with his youthful face, gives a bizarre and striking note to hisappearance. He looks Jewish, but is not. On the contrary he is of French descent, although his peoplehave lived for over three centuries in this country, chiefly in and around New York City, whereRappleyea, when a youngster, was a newsboy. He speaks with the accent of Third Avenue.

In charge of six coal and iron mines with four hundred men under his direction, he is, so all agree,thoroughly equal to his really heavy and detailed responsibilities. In point of fact, I find himconsiderably more interesting in his job than in his philosophical meanderings. His mind is essentially ascientific one, clear, disciplined; his mental integrity and intrinsic sincerity obvious. Lively and friendly,he trots here, trots there, interested in everything, seeing to everyone, obeying one controllingimpulse--to be in effective action; ubiquitous, pugnacious, unusual, likeable. He is the impresario--andinordinately proud of his artists. This is his show.

Clarence Darrow

I shall never forget my first impression of Clarence Darrow. As he and Emanuel emerged from theMansion and came toward me I thought to myself: Taller than I supposed; a noble head; big broad,slightly-stooped shoulders; a kindly face with deep-set blue eyes--they twinkle--a face like creasedleather, scarred with the lines of a long and exciting lifetime; long-palmed hands with sensitive fingers;rather thin, not too carefully brushed, only slightly grey hair--it was all as swift as that and then he was inthe car with us. An average man meeting Darrow, knowing nothing about him, would be hard put to it toplace him. And he would not be very wrong; there is in him so much of all kinds of men, such a vastsympathy with them, such a complete understanding of all their needs and problems.

He loves, not mankind nor humanity, but the individual man. His pity is the disillusioned, cynical,profound pity of Anatole France; his wit the pungent, devastating humor of the man who dares, both inword and in thought, to be fearlessly truthful. Above all, he is everlastingly honest.

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"I have never," he said to me in his gruff growly voice, "taken a case in which I did not believe. That iswhy I don't prosecute. I can't help putting myself in the other fellow's place. I have, of course, takencases where I knew the man was guilty, but where I believed he should have a lower sentence."

We were in a drug store, Mr. Darrow, his friend Mr. Thompson, Emanuel and myself, having a colddrink. It was directly after the session in which (on Monday, July 13), Darrow had made his great speechurging the judge to quash the indictment. A speech of which Mencken wrote, "It blew up like a wind andfinished with a flourish of bugles." Much of Darrow's pugnacity is expressed in those eloquent shouldersof his. I assure you that in one of his great leisurely shrugs--a shrug in which, thumbs in gallusesmeanwhile, his whole torso participates--he can put more contempt, more combativeness, more sense ofreserve power, than anyone else can express in a dozen gestures. A master of crescendo in argument, hepunctuates his theme with short, staccato slaps of his right hand on the palm of his left--a movementwhich, varying with the intensity and importance of his thought, increases in vigor from a mere wristmovement it--to a sweeping swing of his arm.. With his right hand he expresses, his mood and with hisindex finger emphasizes the high points of his thought. His unction is the unction of a veteran. I canthink of only one man who has it to a similar degree--that man is Otis Skinner.

He is not a noisy speaker, Darrow, but he is a forceful one. Beside the white flame of his sincerity, eventhe eloquence of Malone seems unsubstantial, even a bit theatrical. Never, for instance, would Darrowbe betrayed, even by his own eloquence, into saying as did Malone: "There is never a duel with thetruth. The truth always wins. The truth does not need the law. The truth does not need the forces ofgovernment. The truth is imperishable and immortal and needs no human agency to support it." Never, Isubmit, even under the greatest pitch of excitement could Darrow be capable of such an obviousmistatement of facts.

He is, to put it squarely, the most debunked person I have ever met. Undoubtedly he has his ownillusions. (What human being is entirely free from them?) But utterly unshackled by superstitions, fearsor idle hopes, he stands a giant among mental pygmies.

He is pessimist in theory--if I understand his position--but if he really were one surely he would not haveto come to Dayton to engage in that maddening, discouraging battle against bigotry and ignorance. Tomy mind only an optimist of sorts could have thought it worth while in the first place, and, in the secondplace, have found the courage to go through with it. Yet Darrow obviously did think it very worth while,and quite as obviously he was neither beaten nor discouraged. He has a vast patience--a patience notunlike that of a wise mother, who knows her children's shortcomings and faults, but also knows the goodthat is in them. Knows, too, that they must be punished--and how Darrow can punish with words!--butfeels them all the while infinite tenderness. No one speaks in more scathing terms than did Darrow of theignorance now rampant in Tennessee. Yet no one, I am convinced, understood better than he the reasonsfor this ignorance or felt a greater pity for the people struggling in its meshes.

Atmosphere and Attitudes in Dayton

This one fact you must understand if you are to grasp the importance of the trial: the ignorance andbigotry against which Darrow and his associates struggled was too real, too armored in widespreadpublic opinion to make the conflict waged in that Dayton court room anything less than high drama. Never, even in its most humorous moments and, fortunately, such moments were many, never was therean element of farce. The convictions involved were too deep-rooted, too passionately held. Although it probably will stretch your powers of credulity to credit this statement, the majority of men

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and women in Tennessee think of God as a being who resembles man in appearance. "Doesn't the Biblesay," demands the Fundamentalist, "that God created man in His own image? That's plain enough." Furthermore, they are sure, these Southern Baptists, Methodists and Campbellites, that God took up dustfrom the ground and then and there (apparently much as a boy would roll up a spit-ball) created Adam,from whose ribs he presently proceeded to make Eve. They believe it in precisely the same way and withprecisely the same "but there can be no argument about it" feeling that you believe the world is round. Insuch an atmosphere of simple acceptance of the literal world of the Bible was raised the judge beforewhom this case was tried.

Judge Raulston

Perhaps this is proper a moment as any in which to introduce to you his honor, Judge John T. Raulston. Frankly, I have conceived for him such a thorough dislike that I find it difficult to write calmly abouthim. He is large, florid man; always and forever smiling; six feet tall and broad shouldered; about fiftyyears old, born and raised in this part of Tennessee--as he himself puts it "jist a reg'lar mountain'eerJedge." Taken by and large, I imagine that he is, under ordinary circumstances, a decent enough sort ofperson. Local report has it that he is a devoted husband and father--he has two daughters in their middleteens--is a pillar of his church and is universally liked in this part of the state where he is Judge of acircuit that includes seven countries. I surmise, too, that in this own way among local cases, he probablysucceeds fairly well in being just, although even then he must be sub-consciously influenced by his veryreactionary prejudices.

"What are your cases, mostly, Judge?" I asked him during our first conversation.

"Well, I hear damage suits, of course, and mudah cases, and cases of crimes against women--the usualrun that come up before a crim'nal Jedge. I've only (with a bland smile) sentenced one man to the deathpenalty. (Another smile.) His case is now pending in a higher court. I only gave his accomplice (still athird smile) thirty years. For mudah."

It is entirely possible that the man was a dangerous character from whom society needed to be protected,but the complacent, almost merry tone in which Judge Raulston tossed off the "thirty years" for all theworld as if it had been thirty minutes, made me shiver. . . .

Judge Raulston is a vain man; also he is an ambitious one. There is no doubt at all in my mind but that abitter conflict was waged in his Methodist soul. Anyone who observed him closely the evening after thegreat speech in which Malone urged that expert witnesses be permitted to testify, anyone who watchedhim closely could see that he was undecided, torn.

Isn't it terrible," he said to me, all smilingly, however, be it noted, "to have so much responsibility restingon one poor finite mind?"

"It is," I agreed. Within fifteen minutes, I heard him make exactly the same remark to two other people.

The plain fact was that he sincerely longed to appear before the world as a great and nobly generousjudge. But even more than he wished this, he wanted to be re-elected. As the crude phrase has it he wellknew on which side his bread was buttered.

W. J. Bryan

Needless to say, I studied Bryan with greater interest than anyone except Darrow, connected with the

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trial. In their attitude toward him, people divided, roughly, into two groups: to the first he was a hero, aman who dared to speak out boldly for Christ while the world scoffed, a man sent by God to rally thescattered forces of the Protestant churches; to the second group he was a mountebank, a hypocrite, anout-an-out fraud.

As he sat there in the court room, day after day, silent, fanning, fanning, his face set I was appalled by thehardness, the malice in it. No one who has watched the fanatical light in those hard, glittering black eyesof Bryan's can doubt but that he believes both in a heaven and in a hell. At the same time the cruel linesof his thin, tight-pressed mouth proclaim, it seems to me, that he would stop at nothing to attain his ownends. It is anything but a weak face--Bryan's. But it is a face from which one could expect neitherunderstanding nor pity. My own opinion is that he is sincere enough in his religion. Also that in it isincluded the doctrine Paul so frankly taught--that a lie told for the glory of God is justified. . . .

The man doesn't read. As he himself put it, "I don't think about what I don't think about." (Even so!) The question is what does he think about? There are many who answer promptly: himself; and what hecan get out of this Fundamentalist movement; how far he can project it into politics and there capitalizeit.

Myself, I think that while there is more than a little truth in this judgement, on the whole it is too harsh. Human motives are seldom so clean-cut, so simple. His is the slowly accumulated bitterness, the bleaktragedy of the man who never has quite achieved what he has set out to do. Failure seldom sweetenscharacter. To William Jennings Bryan's it has added gall. He is full of malice toward all who are hissuperiors. His love for the ignorant man, for the masses is, I am convinced, utterly genuine and asinstinctive as is Mencken's admiration for the mental aristocrat. It is the scholar whom Bryan dislikes. He knows only too well how thoroughly intellectual people have come to despise him as, slowly but asinevitably as in one of the old Greek dramas, he has lost prestige of real leadership, he must contenthimself with a following limited even within the church. Broken, he is on his way to a last defeat.

Opening Day Scene

One was hard put to it on the tenth of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred andtwenty-five, to know whether Dayton was holding a camp meeting, a Chautauqua, a street fair, acarnival, or a belated Fourth of July celebration. Literally, it was drunk on religious excitement.

"Be a sweet angel," was the beginning of a long exhortation printed on a large signboard posted at theentrance of the court house door. Evangelists' shouts mingled with those of vendors; the mournful notesof the hymns of a blind singer who accompanied himself on a little portable organ, stentorian tonesshouting, "For I say unto you, except ye repent and be baptized," "Ice cream and hot dogs here!"--allpoured into one's ear in a conglomerate stream. The entire courthouse yard literally was given over topreachers who peddled their creeds as if they were so many barbecue sandwiches. Against the north wallof the courthouse a platform, surrounded by benches, had been arranged for their greater convenience. On the second floor of the old brick court house one entered a wide, spacious, freshly-painted courtroom with a normal seating capacity of about four or five hundred. I felt as if I had stepped intopandemonium. Men and women jostled each other; a battalion of newspaper photographers and moviemen literally wrestled for advantageous positions; just outside the bar enclosure muffled telegraphinstruments ticked and reporters for the big dailies, Associated Press, and similar services, sat drippingwith sweat, writing in pencil or on typewriters as if for their very lives; people stood in aisles and threedeep against the back walls; in spite of the big open windows the air was stifling. . . .

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Interview with John Butler, Author of Anti-Evolution Act

Boiling with the particular rage which only unfairness can arouse in me--in this case an unfairness soflagrant, so brazen, so pleased with itself that even to contemplate it was maddening--I rose from my seatand started, with the surging throng, to leave the court house. Directly in front of me stood abroad-shouldered, six-foot man who had been pointed out to me as "the author of the law"--Mr. Butler.

I knew, of course, that you would want to hear about him, so, drawing a long breath, I took myself inhand, so to speak, smoothed down my ruffled temper, and addressed him: "Are you Mr. Butler?"

"Yes"

"I should like to interview you."

A smile, so good-humored that one could not refuse one in return, broke over his kindly face. Aggravatingly enough, I began to like him. "All right," he agreed, "I suppose you think I ought to behung."

"I want to know how you came to think of this law in the first place--why you decided it was needed."

"All right. Let's go out in the shade where it is cool and then we can talk easy."

I agreed and followed cheerfully in the wake of his huge form as, in the midst of the press, we leisurelydescended the stairs. On the courthouse lawn, under the wide-spreading branches of a hard maple, we satdown. Mr. Butler hailed a passing boy and bought two ice-cold bottles of Coca Cola. And thus, insociable mood, we begun to chat.

He is a type of man with whom I am thoroughly familiar and for whom long experience has taught me tohave a genuine regard. I have dozens of farmer neighbors--and so, I am sure, have many of you--cut offprecisely the same piece of cloth. As he sat before me, this big Indian-brown six-footer, with his keengray eyes and good, even teeth, so frequently revealed by his pleasant smile, I felt that the man wassincere and straight-forward through and through. . . .

I had heard many and various tales of Mr. Butler before I met him and, as I have said, I was in anythingbut a sympathetic mood when the meeting took place. But as he talked in his pleasant voice with itsstrong southern accent, I summed him up to myself in something like this fashion: Uncultivated, butvery far from illiterate; uneducated in the narrower sense, but in the broader one anything but an ignorantman; simple-hearted, obviously country-bred and provincial, but full of an innate courtesy andkindliness; unsophisticated, but not uncouth.

"You like fair play, I gather," I smiled.

"Yes, I do," he returned firmly. "I used to be a great baseball player--not in any of the big leagues, ofcourse, but in our own part of the country here. Anyone who has played baseball likes to see things donefair. And I think the 'Jedge' should have let those experts testify if Darrow wanted 'em. I am not afraidof expert testimony." (This was said convincingly and without the slightest touch of braggadocio.) "Darrow could have put 'em on and made his points and then Bryan could have cross-questioned 'em andbrought on expert Bible witnesses too and made his points. That would have been fair to everybody."

"When did you first think of this law--or did something suggest it to you?"

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"I'll tell you," he said, and this, condensed is the gist of his story:

About four years ago a preacher who came around once a month to Butler's church alluded, though notby name, to the fact that a young women whom the community knew had, after a university course,returned believing in evolution and disbelieving in God. This set Butler to thinking. What might happento his own boys? (He has three; his two daughters are married.) To his neighbor's children? Come tothat, they didn't need to go as far away as universities. Evolution was taught in the high schools. It wasnot right that they should raise up their children to be God-fearing and then have the schools teach themsomething that took that faith away. Thus Butler mediated long and earnestly upon the preacher'scomments.

In 1922 he was urged to run for Representative of his district. There are three counties in it: Macon,Sumner and Trousdale. Sumner County, thanks to a good creamery trade, does dairying and in the lowerend of it Southdown sheep are raised, as also in Trousdale County. Butler agreed to run, and in hiscirculars stated the necessity of a law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the schools. "Ninety-ninepeople out of a hundred in my district thought just like I did, too," he explained. "I say ninety-nine out ofa hundred because there may be some hold different from what I think they do, but so far as I know thereisn't a one in the whole district that thinks evolution--of man, that is--can be the way the scientists tell it."

"Do you mean," I questioned, "that they believe evolution and the Bible conflict?"

"Yes."

"Do you know that lots of good Baptists believe in both--that they think that to God ages are but a day?"

"Mr. Butler considered this. "Yes," he answered. "I know they do." Then, after a pause, "I reckon it's agood deal like politics, the way you've been raised."

Darrow in Contempt

To begin with, the court room was crowded as on no other morning. It was almost literally impossible toget through the jam on the stairs. In the hallway I found the policeman firmly blocking the door, hisusually smiling face quite taciturn. I ducked under his arm and through the packed aisle saw E. H.-J.valiantly holding my seat. "What's all the excitement?" I demanded. "Why is everybody so nervous?" At that moment the Judge stalked into the court room. There was no smile on his face either. On thecontrary, his expression was grim and determined.

"He looks mad," declared E. H.-J. "The rumor is that he is going to cite Darrow for contempt." Onecould positively feel the tension tighten. Suddenly there was a sputter and smoke rose from one of theelectric wires. "Shut off that switch outside," shouted someone. Panic hovered in the air. The thought ofwhat might happen if that throng tried to get through the one door made my tongue feel dry.

The short circuit was soon remedied, however, but the human currents continued. The rap that broughtthe court to order had a peremptory sound and after a mild prayer by an oldish clergyman, the bailiff , tohis usual chant of "Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes, this Honorable Circuit Court is now open pursuant toadjournment," and his equally usual "Set down," now added in a surly tone, "This ain't no circus."

"Immediately the Judge began to read in a singsong voice his lengthy reasons for citing Darrow, the firstof them being that in his--the Judge's--person, a great and noble state had been insulted. Slowly he

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intoned the whole conversation that had occurred the preceding Friday between himself and Darrow. The latter, he announced, was to appear before the court on Tuesday morning and meanwhile his bailwas fixed at $5,000. Some expressed their opinion of this absurd amount in a low, derisive ripple oflaughter, but returned quickly to a grim silence. Grim was the Judge too, and grim was Darrow. Forperhaps the first time the entire atmosphere became hostile; the bar enclosure had become two battlecamps when Hays rose to read the statements of Bible and Science experts. Stewart was at once on hisfeet. "Is this court," he demanded, "to be turned into a Chautauqua, a Summer normal course?" Haysinsisted that he might persuade the court to reverse his opinion. "I will sit here," Raulston announcednaively enough, "and, of course, I will hear what's read and, of course, I never hesitate to reverse myself. But I have already ruled on this matter."

Trial Moved to Lawn

Exciting as the morning session had been, however, the one in the afternoon was to be more so. Even aswe came out of the court room at twelve o'clock people who had been unable to get standing room in theforenoon had eaten early lunches and were now pushing their way to seats. Others, seeing this, decidedto go dinnerless and promptly turned back to join those who, foreseeing, had come supplied withsandwiches and thermos bottles. I found the hotel packed as never before, and although I went backdirectly to hold our seats, the court house was already jammed. There must have been well over 1,000people in the room. This time the Judge was convincing in his exhortations. "The floor may give way,"he insisted. "The plaster is cracking downstairs. This floor was never intended to hold so many people. I told you that yesterday. When we begin to argue we will go out on the lawn. You better get your seatsnow." This warning was well timed. The crowd, that had been waiting so patiently for over an hour,arose, and, annoyed and petulant, joined the jubilant incoming one; together they began surging andpushing out of the door.

Darrow Apologizes to Judge

Darrow arose and made an apology, simple, complete and convincing The moment was obviously notone in which to cloud the issue and no one realized this better than Darrow, ever the wise and cautiousgeneral. Moreover, his flash of biting truth and his sarcasm, unpremeditated as they had been, had neatlyserved their purpose. Now, with a master hand, he cleared the deck of trifles as he prepared for thevictory that was to be his, literally within the hour. The crowd wet out to him. Majestic was his apology; amusing was the Judge's answer. Here was a man who had been rude andwas admitting it in plain language. To him His Honor replied with a long and touching sermon on thebeauty of forgiveness. Those of us who stayed to listen lost all hope of a decent seat out of doors, but wecounted the ten minutes of his harangue quite worth the ensuing discomfort.

Darrow Examines Bryan

Instead, Darrow put Bryan on the stand as a witness. In view of the trouncing he was to receive, therewas something pathetically humorous in Bryan's easy, almost gleeful acquiescence to the request. Evenso has many an unsuspecting child climbed into the dentist's chair to descend from it later sadder andwiser. Not that Bryan realized fully at the time, even as Darrow's questioning quite what was being doneto him. The frequent and enthusiastic applause--not to mention fervent amens--from the Tennesseeportion of the audience acted as an anesthetic. Perhaps to a cynical eye one of the most deliciouslyamusing spectacles of the whole Dayton drama was the delighted, purring expressions of the Judge as hewatched the duel which, in his abysmal ignorance, he, like the other Bryanites, believed their hero was

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winning.

A duel the meeting of those two men was, Darrow, the apostle of knowledge and tolerance, and Bryan,the arch advocate of ignorance and bigotry, had engaged at last in single-handed combat. This was whatthe crowd had been hoping for; for this it had patiently waited through long sweltering hours of technicaldiscussions. Now it gave a long sigh of delighted expectation. It was satisfied. And no wonder! Fewwho witnessed that dramatic moment in the history of this country's thought ever will forget it. Even thephysical aspects of the scene carved themselves on one's memory.

Picture to yourself that vast throng. Imagine yourself to be a part of it. Before you the branches of twogreat maples, intertwining, form a natural proscenium arch, and behind it, in the ring, the two antagonistsmeet--Bryan, assured, pompous, his face half turned to the audience which, rather than the Judge, hefrankly addresses, and Darrow, standing a few feet away, his eyes on his opponent, his mindconcentrated on the task before him, vigilant, relentless.

So easily he began! Almost as if he were questioning a child. . . .

Scopes Trial Homepage

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H.L. Mencken's Account

"THE MONKEY TRIAL":A Reporter's Account

July 9On the eve of the great contest Dayton is full of sickening surges and tremors of doubt. Five or six weeksago, when the infidel Scopes was first laid by the heels, there was no uncertainty in all this smilingvalley. The town bloomers leaped to the assault as one man. Here was an unexampled, almost amiraculous chance to get Dayton upon the front pages, to make it talked about, to put it upon the map.But how now?

Today, with the curtain barely rung up and the worst buffooneries to come, it is obvious to even townboomers that getting upon the map, like patriotism, is not enough. The getting there must be manageddiscreetly, adroitly, with careful regard to psychological niceties. The boomers of Dayton, alas, had noskill at such things, and the experts they called in were all quacks. The result now turns the communalliver to water. Two months ago the town was obscure and happy. Today it is a universal joke.

I have been attending the permanent town meeting that goes on in Robinson's drug store, trying to findout what the town optimists have saved from the wreck. All I can find is a sort of mystical confidencethat God will somehow come to the rescue to reward His old and faithful partisans as they deserve--thatgood will flow eventually out of what now seems to be heavily evil. More specifically, it is believed thatsettlers will be attracted to the town as to some refuge from the atheism of the great urban Sodoms andGomorrah.

But will these refugees bring any money with them? Will they buy lots and build houses? Will they lightthe fires of the cold and silent blast furnace down the railroad tracks? On these points, I regret to report,optimism has to call in theology to aid it. Prayer can accomplish a lot. It can cure diabetes, find lostpocketbooks and retain husbands from beating their wives. But is prayer made any more officious bygiving a circus first? Coming to this thought, Dayton begins to sweat.

The town, I confess, greatly surprised me. I expected to find a squalid Southern village, with darkiessnoozing on the horse blocks, pigs rooting under the houses and the inhabitants full of hookworm and

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malaria. What I found was a country town of charm and even beauty....

July 10 (the first day)The town boomers have banqueted Darrow as well as Bryan, but there is no mistaking which of the twohas the crowd, which means the venire of tried and true men. Bryan has been oozing around the countrysince his first day here, addressing this organization and that, presenting the indubitable Word of God inhis caressing, ingratiating way, and so making unanimity doubly unanimous. From the defense yesterdaycame hints that he was making hay before the sun had legally begun to shine--even that it was a sort ofcontempt of court. But no Daytonian believes anything of the sort. What Bryan says doesn't seem tothese congenial Baptists and Methodists to be argument; it seems to be a mere graceful statement to theobvious....

July 11The selection of a jury to try Scopes, which went on all yesterday afternoon in the atmosphere of a blastfurnace, showed to what extreme lengths the salvation of the local primates has been pushed. It wasobvious after a few rounds that the jury would be unanimously hot for Genesis. The most that Mr.Darrow could hope for was to sneak in a few bold enough to declare publicly that they would have tohear the evidence against Scopes before condemning him. The slightest sign of anything further broughtforth a peremptory challenge from the State. Once a man was challenged without examination for simplyadmitting that he did not belong formally to any church. Another time a panel man who confessed that hewas prejudiced against evolution got a hearty round of applause from the crowd....

In brief this is a strictly Christian community, and such is its notion of fairness, justice and due process oflaw. Try to picture a town made up wholly of Dr. Crabbes and Dr. Kellys, and you will have a reasonablyaccurate image of it. Its people are simply unable to imagine a man who rejects the literal authority of theBible. The most they can conjure up, straining until they are red in the face, is a man who is in errorabout the meaning of this or that text. Thus one accused of heresy among them is like one accused ofboiling his grandmother to make soap in Maryland....

July 13 (the second day)It would be hard to imagine a more moral town than Dayton. If it has any bootleggers, no visitor hasheard of them. Ten minutes after I arrived a leading citizen offered me a drink made up half of whitemule and half of coca cola, but he seems to have been simply indulging himself in a naughty gesture. Nofancy woman has been seen in the town since the end of the McKinley administration. There is nogambling. There is no place to dance. The relatively wicked, when they would indulge themselves, go toRobinson's drug store and debate theology....

July 14 (the third day)The net effect of Clarence Darrow's great speech yesterday seems to be preciously the same as if he hadbawled it up a rainspout in the interior of Afghanistan. That is, locally, upon the process against theinfidel Scopes, upon the so-called minds of these fundamentalists of upland Tennessee. You have but adim notice of it who have only read it. It was not designed for reading, but for hearing. The clangtint of itwas as important as the logic. It rose like a wind and ended like a flourish of bugles. The very judge onthe bench, toward the end of it, began to look uneasy. But the morons in the audience, when it was over,simply hissed it.During the whole time of its delivery the old mountebank, Bryan, sat tight-lipped and unmoved. There is,

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of course, no reason why it should have shaken him. He has these hillbillies locked up in his pen and heknows it. His brand is on them. He is at home among them. Since his earliest days, indeed, his chiefstrength has been among the folk of remote hills and forlorn and lonely farms. Now with his politicalaspirations all gone to pot, he turns to them for religious consolations. They understand his peculiarimbecilities. His nonsense is their ideal of sense. When he deluges them with his theologic bilge theyrejoice like pilgrims disporting in the river Jordan....

July 15 (the fourth day)A preacher of any sect that admit the literal authenticity of Genesis is free to gather a crowd at any timeand talk all he wants. More, he may engage in a disputation with any expert. I have heard at least ahundred such discussions, and some of them have been very acrimonious. But the instant a speaker uttersa word against divine revelation he begin to disturb the peace and is liable to immediate arrest andconfinement in the calaboose beside the railroad tracks...

July 16 (the fifth day)In view of the fact that everyone here looks for the jury to bring in a verdict of guilty, it might beexpected that the prosecution would show a considerable amiability and allow the defense a rather freeplay. Instead, it is contesting every point very vigorously and taking every advantage of its greatlysuperior familiarity with local procedure. There is, in fact, a considerable heat in the trial. Bryan and thelocal lawyers for the State sit glaring at the defense all day and even the Attorney-General, A. T. Stewart,who is supposed to have secret doubts about fundamentalism, has shown such pugnacity that it hasalready brought him to forced apologies.

The high point of yesterday's proceedings was reached with the appearance of Dr. Maynard M. Metcalfof the John Hopkins. The doctor is a somewhat chubby man of bland mien, and during the first part of histestimony, with the jury present, the prosecution apparently viewed his with great equanimity. But theinstant he was asked a question bearing directly upon the case at bar there was a flurry in the Bryan penand Stewart was on his feet with protests. Another question followed, with more and hotter protests. Thejudge then excluded the jury and the show began.

What ensued was, on the surface, a harmless enough dialogue between Dr. Metcalf and Darrow, butunderneath there was tense drama. At the first question Bryan came out from behind the State's table andplanted himself directly in front of Dr. Metcalf, and not ten feet away. The two McKenzies followed,with young Sue Hicks at their heels.

Then began one of the clearest, most succinct and withal most eloquent presentations of the case for theevolutionists that I have ever heard. The doctor was never at a loss for a word, and his ideas flowedfreely and smoothly. Darrow steered him magnificently. A word or two and he was howling down thewind. Another and he hauled up to discharge a broadside. There was no cocksureness in him. Instead hewas rather cautious and deprecatory and sometimes he halted and confessed his ignorance. But what hegot over before he finished was a superb counterblast to the fundamentalist buncombe. The jury, at least,in theory heard nothing of it, but it went whooping into the radio and it went banging into the face ofBryan....

This old buzzard, having failed to raise the mob against its rulers, now prepares to raise it against itsteachers. He can never be the peasants' President, but there is still a chance to be the peasants' Pope. Heleads a new crusade, his bald head glistening, his face streaming with sweat, his chest heaving beneath

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his rumpled alpaca coat. One somehow pities him, despite his so palpable imbecilities. It is a tragedy,indeed, to begin life as a hero and to end it as a buffoon. But let no one, laughing at him, underestimatethe magic that lies in his black, malignant eye, his frayed but still eloquent voice. He can shake andinflame these poor ignoramuses as no other man among us can shake and inflame them, and he isdesperately eager to order the charge.

In Tennessee he is drilling his army. The big battles, he believes, will be fought elsewhere.

July 17 (the sixth day)Malone was in good voice. It was a great day for Ireland. And for the defense. For Malone not onlyout-yelled Bryan, he also plainly out-generaled and out-argued him. His speech, indeed, was one of thebest presentations of the case against the fundamentalist rubbish that I have ever heard.

It was simple in structure, it was clear in reasoning, and at its high points it was overwhelminglyeloquent. It was not long, but it covered the whole ground and it let off many a gaudy skyrocket, and so itconquered even the fundamentalist. At its end they gave it a tremendous cheer--a cheer at least four timesas hearty as that given to Bryan. For these rustics delight in speechifying, and know when it is good. Thedevil's logic cannot fetch them, but they are not above taking a voluptuous pleasure in his lasciviousphrases..

July 18All that remains of the great cause of the State of Tennessee against the infidel Scopes is the formalbusiness of bumping off the defendant. There may be some legal jousting on Monday and some gaudyoratory on Tuesday, but the main battle is over, with Genesis completely triumphant. Judge Raulstonfinished the benign business yesterday morning by leaping with soft judicial hosannas into the arms ofthe prosecution. The sole commentary of the sardonic Darrow consisted of bringing down a metaphoricalcustard pie upon the occiput of the learned jurist.

"I hope," said the latter nervously, "that counsel intends no reflection upon this court."

Darrow hunched his shoulders and looked out of the window dreamily."Your honor," he said, "is, of course, entitled to hope."...The Scopes trial, from the start, has been carried on in a manner exactly fitted to the anti- evolution lawand the simian imbecility under it. There hasn't been the slightest pretense to decorum. The rustic judge,a candidate for re-election, has postured the yokels like a clown in a ten-cent side show, and almost everyword he has uttered has been an undisguised appeal to their prejudices and superstitions. The chiefprosecuting attorney, beginning like a competent lawyer and a man of self-respect, ended like a convertat a Billy Sunday revival. It fell to him, finally, to make a clear and astounding statement of theory ofjustice prevailing under fundamentalism. What he said, in brief, was that a man accused of infidelity hadno rights whatever under Tennessee law...

Darrow has lost this case. It was lost long before he came to Dayton. But it seems to me that he hasnevertheless performed a great public service by fighting it to a finish and in a perfectly serious way. Letno one mistake it for comedy, farcical though it may be in all its details. It serves notice on the countrythat Neanderthal man is organizing in these forlorn backwaters of the land, led by a fanatic, rid of senseand devoid of conscience. Tennessee, challenging him too timorously and too late, now sees its courtsconverted into camp meetings and its Bill of Rights made a mock of by its sworn officers of the law.There are other States that had better look to their arsenals before the Hun is at their gates.

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SCOPES TRIAL HOMEPAGE

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Biographies of Trial Participants

Author of the Anti-EvolutionAct

John Washington Butler

The Man Behind the ScopesTrial

George Rappalyea

The Prosecuting Attorneys William Jennings Bryan

Ben G. McKenzie

A. Thomas Stewart

The Defense Attorneys Clarence Darrow

Arthur Garfield Hays

Dudley Field Malone

John Randolph Neal

The Defendant John Scopes

The Judge

Judge John T.

Raulston

A Student Witness

Howard Morgan

Defense Experts

An EditorialistH.L. Mencken

The Man Who Started It AllCharles Darwin

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Hunter's Civic Biology

What the students in John Scopes' class read about evolution:Excerpts from Hunter's Civic Biology (1914)

Page 192

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Next

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Dayton, Tennessee

There were two Dayton, Tennessees in 1925. There was the prosperous and quiet town in theCumberland Mountains that was well-known to its 1,800 inhabitants. Then there was, for about two hotweeks in July, the Dayton whose streets were transformed into a fair of lemonade and hotdog stands,banners and monkey pennants, caged apes, hawkers of religious tracts and biology texts, Holy Rollersand evangelists, and hundreds of members of the press.

Dayton was a town of beautiful homes, two banks, a hosiery mill, a canning factory, and a blastfurnace of the Cumberland Coal and Iron Company. The most notable structure on a main street of brickand wooden buildings and Model T Fords was the Hotel Aqua. Farmers in the surrounding fields of RheaCounty grew soybeans, wheat, tobacco, and strawberries.

The writer, H. L. Mencken, found Dayton to be a surprisingly pleasant community. He described atown "full of charm and even some beauty." Homes were surrounded by pretty gardens, with green lawnsand stately trees. Mencken noted that Dayton's stores were well- stocked and had a "metropolitan air,especially the drug, book, magazine, sporting goods, and soda-water emporium of the estimableRobinson."

Dayton was, however, very much a Christian community, as attested to by its nine churches. Menckencame to find the town suffocatingly moral. He complained that the town had no bootleggers, nogambling, no place to dance, and that "no fancy women" had been seen in Dayton "since the McKinleyAdministration." The "relatively wicked," according to Mencken, "when they would indulge themselves,go to Robinson's drug store and debate theology." All this strictly Christian behavior left Menckenlonging for "a merry laugh, a burst of happy music, the gurgle of a decent jug."

Daytonians viewed the Scopes trial as an opportunity to put their town on the map. In preparationfor the trial and the arriving hordes, Dayton businessmen printed a pamphlet "Why Dayton - Of AllPlaces?," illustrated with pictures of the town's places of commerce. Townspeople apparently believed

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that settlers would be attracted to Dayton, in Mencken's words, "as to some refuge from the atheism ofthe great urban Sodom and Gomorrahs."

Despite their religiosity and economic motivation for the trial, the Darrows found the locals agenerally friendly lot. Mrs. Darrow observed that "the attitude of the townspeople toward us wasespecially kindly despite the differences of our beliefs."

The Scopes trial took place in the Rhea County Courthouse, a large brick building with a belfry,surrounded by a large yard and trees. The courthouse yard was filled with vendors, banners, andpreachers. As the trial commenced, the town "was literally drunk on religious excitement." There wasseating in the courthouse for 700, but 300 more standees crammed in to watch Dayton's most historicevent.

Link to Map of East Tennessee

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Images from the Scopes TrialPhotos Cartoons

Photos:

1. Scopes Trial principals re-enact the case's beginnings in Robinson's Drugstore

2. Scopes, Neal, and Rappalyea beneath "Read Your Bible" banner (BryanCollege Archives)

3. Malone, Stewart, Bryan, Raulston, and Darrow exchange courtroom greetings(Bryan College Archives)

4. Judge Raulston standing with the Scopes jury

5. William Jennings Bryan (speech during trial)

6. William Jennings Bryan

7. Clarence Darrow (Bryan College Archives)

8. Darrow addressing the jury and courtroom spectators (Bryan College Archives)

9. Judge Raulston delivers a ruling

10. Darrow examines Bryan

11. A. Thomas Stewart

12. John Scopes

13. Anti-Evolution League stand in Dayton

14. William Jennings Bryan and fan

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15. Drugstore owner Robinson with his family and chimp

16. William Jennings Bryan in a Dayton pulpit

17. Web author's photos of Rhea County Courthouse today

18. Prof. DeRosa's chimp poster

19. Dayton scene during trial

Cartoons:

1. Darrow and monkey (Detroit News), Darrow tells Bryan about Santa Claus(Ward), Bryan the Crusader (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

2. Dayton playing it for all it's worth (Dallas News), Bryan as Quixote (ChicagoTribune), Monkeys vote on evolution (Chicago Tribune)

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Scopes Trial-- Images

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IMAGES FROM THE scopes trial

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IMAGES FROM THE scopes trial

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Image of William Jennings Bryan from the Scopes Trial

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"Darrow" byEdgar Lee

Masters

Clarence Seward Darrow

(1857 - 1938)

Darrow onHis

Childhood

Reflectionson a 61stBirthday

On How toSelect a Jury

Scopes"Monkey

Trial"

Darrow

Leopold &Loeb Trial

The BillHaywood

Trial

The SweetTrials

Images ofDarrow

Who is Clarence Darrow?by

Prof. Douglas Linder

How does one begin to explain this paradox, this

References& Links

The Clarence Darrow Home Page

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sophisticated country laywer, this hedonistic defender of thepoor and downtrodden, this honest, devious man, Clarence

Seward Darrow?....

FamousTrials Page

SendComments

The Clarence Darrow Home Page

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Appellate Court Decisions

Supreme Court of Tennessee (1927):

John Thomas Scopes v. The State, 154 Tenn. (1 Smith) 105, 289 S.W.363

Reversed the judgment on technical grounds.

Supreme Court of the United States (1968):

Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97, 89 S.Ct. 266, 21 L.Ed.2d 228

Held unconstitutional statutes prohibiting the teaching of evolution as violative of the First Amendment.

Scopes Trial Homepage

Scopes Trial - Appellate Court Decisions - UMKC School of Law

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Scopes Trial Satire: Satirical Reports Written by theStaff of THE ONION and published in Our Dumb

Century (1999)(Reprinted with the permission of The Onion)

.Scopes Monkey Trial Raises Troubling Question:

IS SCIENCE BEING TAUGHT IN OUR SCHOOLS?SHOULD CHILDREN BE EXPOSED TO FACTS?

Are Reason and Empirical Evidence Suitable School Subjects?

Scopes Defended By Super-IntelligentChimpanzee- Man From Future.

.

Scopes Trial HomepageFamous Trials Homepage

Scopes Monkey Trial Satire

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Scopes Monkey Trial Satire

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The Year 1925 - What else washappening?

Calvin Coolidge said, "The business of America is business"

T.S. Eliot wrote: "This is the way the world ends not with a bang but a whimper"

"Dinah" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" were hit songs

Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington made their first recordings

Lawrence Welk started a new band

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby

Adolph Hitler wrote Mein Kampf

The first working television set was produced by Charles Jenkins

Rogers Hornsby won the triple crown in baseball

Nellie Ross, of Wyoming, became the nation's first female governor

"Rin Tin Tin" and "The Phantom of the Opera" opened at movie theaters

40,000 KKKers marched in Washington, D.C.

Flagpole sitting became a national fad

Earl Wise invented the potato chip

Scopes Trial Homepage

The Year 1925

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What is THE trial of the century?A producer for NBC's today show called me this morning to say, "Thanks, but no thanks." TheToday Show will be running a segment next Tuesday in which two scholars will debate the question"What is THE trial of the century?" (Yes, I agree that all these "blank-of-the-century"debates aresomewhat silly, but I'm willing to play along). I was one of two finalists for the honor of debatingProfessor Charles Ogletree of Harvard who will contend that the O.J. Simpson trial was thecentury's greatest. I guess I never will meet Katie Couric.

But since NBC asked (and so has the Washington Post, the AP, the Fox News Channel, andassorted AM talk show hosts), I've decided to tell you what really is the trial of the century.

First, a few serious contenders. The Hauptmann "Lindbergh Kidnapping" Trial was called at thetime "the greatest story since the Resurrection." It WAS a great story, involving the greatest heroof our century, every parent's worst nightmare, and a first-rate whodunit complete with ransommoney passed in dark cemeteries and witnesses that could hardly be dreamt up in Hollywood. Forsustained day-to-day public attention, the Hauptmann Trial, covered by more reporters thancovered World War II, ranks number one. The Nuremberg Trials, however, were of far greatersignificance (though not truly American trials, and so probably disqualified). So was the "RodneyKing Beating" Trial that led to massive riots and 58 deaths. More significant too were theScottsboro Trials of the 1930's that produced two landmark Supreme Court decisions, reshapedrace relations, and produced a terrific story of heroism in the person of Judge James Horton whoset aside the guilty verdict of black rape defendant Haywood Patterson knowing that it wouldalmost certainly end his career as an elected judge in Alabama.

But I was asked to pick only one trial: THE greatest trial of the twentieth century. That honor, ofcourse, must go to the "Monkey Trial" of 1925, which considered whether Tennessee couldprosecute John Scopes for teaching the theory of evolution in a public school science class. So whyis the Scopes trial, not the Simpson trial, THE trial of the century? Let me count five ways:

1. The Scopes Trial already has stood the test of time. Seventy-five years later it stands as the mosttalked about trial of the first part of the twentieth century. How many people will give a hootabout the OJ Trial in the year 2070?

2. The Scopes Trial brought together America's greatest defense attorney, Clarence Darrow, itsgreatest political orator and a sort of Fundamentalist Pope, three-time presidential candidateWilliam Jennings Bryan, and its greatest and most acerbic journalist, H. L. Mencken....JohnnieCochran, Marcia Clark, Geraldo Rivera. Enough said.

3. The Scopes Trial produced what the New York Times called "the most amazing courtroomscene in Anglo-American history," the calling of prosecutor William Jennings Bryan to the standby Clarence Darrow for examination on the question of whether every story in the Bible wasliterally true. If that weren't strange enough, the examination took place in the courthouse lawnbefore a crowd of thousands after the judge expressed concern that the courtroom floor might cavein because of the weight of spectators....Yes, there were those gloves that didn't fit well.

Trial of the Century?

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4. The Scopes Trial inspired "Inherit the Wind," one of the greatest courtroom dramas everstarring Spencer Tracy as Darrow, Fredric March as Bryan, and Gene Kelly as Mencken....Andthe Simpson Trial inspired what?

5. The OJ Trial was a domestic murder, one of thousands that happen each year. The facts of thecase had nothing, really, to do with race. The main significance of the Simpson trial is as a lessonfor judges and prosecutors in how not to conduct a trial....The Scopes Trial, on the other hand, was about ideas. It was about whether Science and Religion could be reconciled. It was a symbolicstruggle for America's culture between the forces of Traditionalism and the forces of Modernism. It was about whether we look for guidance from, as Bryan said "the faith of our fathers," or fromour own intellects. The Scopes Trial was about what much of the twentieth century has beenabout.

Tune in the Today Show on Tuesday and find out why I'm wrong.

--Doug Linder, January 28, 1999

TODAY SHOW FAMOUS TRIALS SURVEYSCOPES TRIAL HOMEPAGE

Trial of the Century?

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The Evolution ControversyThe issue: What restrictions does the First Amendment place on the ability ofstates and school boards to restrict the teaching of evolution or encourage the

teaching of "creation science" in the public school classrooms?Introduction

Conflict between science and religion began wellbefore Charles Darwin published Origin of theSpecies. The most famous early controversy wasthe trial of Galileo in 1633 for publishing Dialogue, abook that supported the Copernicun theory that theearth revolved around the sun, rather than--as theBible suggests-- the other way around. The so-called "Scopes Monkey Trial" of 1925,concerning enforcement of a Tennessee statute thatprohibited teaching the theory of evolution in publicschool classrooms, was a fascinating courtroomdrama featuring Clarence Darrow dueling withthree-time presidential candidate William JenningsBryan. However entertaining the trial in Dayton,Tennessee was, it did not resolve the question ofwhether the First Amendment permitted states toban teaching of a theory that contradicted religiousbeliefs. Not until 1968 did the Supreme Court rule inEpperson vs. Arkansas that such bans contravenethe Establishment Clause because their primarypurpose is religious. The Court used the samerationale in 1987 in Edwards vs Aguillard to strikedown a Louisiana law that required biology teacherswho taught the theory of evolution to also discussevidence supporting the theory called "creationscience." The controversy continues in new forms today. In1999, for example, the Kansas Board of Educationvoted to remove evolution from the list of subjectstested on state standardized tests, in effectencouraging local school boards to considerdropping or de-emphasizing evolution. In 2000, Kansas voters responded to the proposed change bythrowing out enough anti-evolution Board membersto restore the old science standards. In 2002,attention shifted to Ohio, which is presentlyconsidering changes in its science curriculum. Conflicts between science and religion will not endany time soon. In the future, legal conflicts betweenscience and religion can be expected over theoriessuch as "The Big Bang," which also undermines

CasesEpperson vs. Arkansas (1968)Edwards vs Aguillard (1987)

John Scopes, defendant in the celebrated 1925 trialconcerning the teaching of evolution.

Other MaterialsTennessee vs. Scopes (1927)

Genesis, Chapter 1Tennessee's Anti-Evolution Statute

Account of the Scopes TrialScopes Trial Transcript

Biology Book Used by ScopesImages of the Scopes Trial

CNN.com Chat on Scopes Trial (7/12/2000)Nation Article on the Kansas Controversy (1999)

N.Y. Times Article on Intelligent Design Theory (2001)Creationism in 2001: State by State Report

Notes on Intelligent Design in the Public Schools

The Evolution, Creationism, and Intelligent Design Controversy

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Fundamentalist beliefs about creation.

Prof's Prerogative1. To call evolution a "theory" says nothing about itsability to accurately explain facts observed in the world. The sun-centered solar system of Copernicus andGalileo is a theory.2. Evolution is the central theory of biology. It is apowerful tool for explaining the presence of millions offossils and other evidence (such as the fact that over98% of the DNA of chimpanzees and humans isidentical) about the origin of life forms.3. Evolution is not considered to be inconsistent with thereligious beliefs of most Christians or Jews. Mostmainline Protestant denominations, the Catholic Church,and many other religious faiths accept the teaching ofevolution.4. There is not a single first-rate biologist* in the UnitedStates who does not believe that life on earth hasdeveloped through the process of evolution, starting withsingle-cell organisms.(*This seems to be a controversial assertion. As oneobjective measure, consider the group of tenuredmembers of the biology departments in the nation's fiftytop-rated universities. I do not mean, of course, tosuggest that all people who reject evolution aresecond-rate thinkers.) 5. There are disputes about evolution as there are aboutalmost any theory. For example, most--but notall--biologists believe that evolution has not workedevenly throughout history: they believe that there havebeen periods of rapid evolutionary change followed bylong periods of relatively little evolutionary change.6. It took over 200 years, but eventually the CatholicChurch accepted the scientific evidence that the earthrevolved around the sun. Eventually, mostFundamentalists will come to accept the theory ofevolution as well--whether in 20 years or in 200 is hard tosay. But it will happen. Facts are stubborn things.

(2001)

Who's What?A CREATIONIST: A creationist is a person whorejects the theory of evolution and believes insteadthat the each species on earth was put here by aDivine Being. A Creationist might accept"micro-evolution" (changes in the form of a speciesover time based on natural selection), but rejectsthe notion that one species can-- over time--become another species.

YOUNG EARTH CREATIONIST: A young earthcreationist believes that the earth is nowhere nearthe 4.6 billion or so years old that most scientistsestimate, but is instead closer to 6,000 or so yearsold, based on the assumption the Genesis containsa complete listing of the generations from Adamand Eve to historical times.

INTELLIGENT DESIGN PROPONENT: An IDproponent rejects the theory of evolution and, moregenerally, the notion that natural law and chancealone can explain the diversity of life on earth. Instead, the ID proponent argues--often fromstatistics--that the diversity of life is the result of apurposeful scheme of some higher power (who mayor may not be the God of the Bible).

EVOLUTIONIST: An evolutionist accepts theDarwinian argument that natural selection andenvironmental factors combine to explain thediversity of life we see on earth. An evolutionistmay or may not believe that evolution is the way inwhich a Divine Being has chosen to work in theworld. Evolutionists divide into various camps,including PUNCTUALISTS (who believe thatevolution usually occurs sporadically, in relativelyshort bursts, as the result of major environmentalchange) and GRADUALISTS (who are more inclinedto believe that evolution occurs more evenly, overlonger periods of time). The PUNCTUALISTS seemnow to be winning the argument.

Questions1. Is it consistent with the intentions of the framers to callevery law that has the primary purpose of advancingreligious beliefs a violation of the Establishment Clause? 2. Is it a violation of the Establishment Clause for abiology teacher to discuss with her students the reasonsthat she believes in "intelligent design theory" (the theorythat holds the universe was the product of the consciousdesign of a Creator)? 3. Is it a violation of the Establishment Clause for abiology teacher to tell his students "the story of creation in

The Evolution, Creationism, and Intelligent Design Controversy

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"The Darape"

Selected E-mail MessagesA student's pro-Creationist critique of this pageCritique of this page by a Creationist theologian

Creationist critique #3E-mail messages from an eyewitness to the Scopes

trial

Pro-Creationism Sites:Center for Scientific Creation

Creation ScienceCreation Research SocietyAccess Research Network

Discovery InstituteCreation-Evolution Encyclopedia

Answers in Genesis, Response to Sci Am's "15Answers"

Sites Generally Supporting Evolutionary Theory:BBC's Evolution Website

Scientific American, "15 Answers to CreationistNonsense"

Evolution Entrance (UC_Berkeley)Darwin's Evidence for Evolution

Origin of LifeIntroduction to Evolutionary Biology

Creation/Evolution Bibliography Database

Genesis is hogwash and here's why"? 4. If a State Education Board decides to drop evolutionfrom the list of courses it requires to be taught in publicschools, does that decision violate the EstablishmentClause? 5. May a biology teacher be fired, on competencegrounds, either for teaching creation science or for notteaching evolution? 6. Is the desire of state or school board officials to avoidentanglement in a primarily religious controversy a"secular purpose"? 7. May a school system allow Fundamentalists to opt outof classes in which evolution is discussed? Would that bea good solution to the controversy?

The man who started it all: Charles Darwin

Further ReadingThe case for the theory of evolution is made mostcompellingly in Science and Creationism (AshleyMontagu, ed.)(1984 Oxford Press) which includes

essays by scientists such as Asimov, Hardin, Gould,Marsden, Boulding, Stent, and others.

Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould devotedconsiderable attention to the issue. His works are

voluminous. Some of the better reads includeWonderful Life (1989), Bully for Brontosaurus (1991),Dinosaur in a Haystack (1995), and Ever Since Darwin

(1977).

The Evolution, Creationism, and Intelligent Design Controversy

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Creation "Science" DebunkedNational Center for Science Education

HaikuDid Darwin figure,

Examining finches' beaks,There'd be a Kansas?

--Doug Linder, 2000

Darwin's H. M.S. Beagle

Why does this debate go on and on?The theory of evolution undermines the view that weas a a species have a special place in the universe. Itsuggests that the universe is chance-filled. Those arehard ideas for us to accept. Genesis is much morecomforting. Believing, as many people do, that everyword (or nearly every word) of the Bible is the literalword of God gives those believers a great deal ofpersonal peace and joy.

Perhaps the state should not force exposure to thetheory of evolution to those students who view thetheory as too threatening. Perhaps. But at the sametime, the majority of students who do not subscribeto a literalist interpretation of the Bible need to beprepared for advanced study in biology, should theychoose to undertake it. They need to know aboutevolution. Teachers should follow the facts whereverthey go.

Exploring Constitutional Conflicts Homepage

The Evolution, Creationism, and Intelligent Design Controversy

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Notes on Inherit the Wind

Playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee wrote Inherit the Wind as a response to thethreat to intellectual freedom presented by the anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era.Lawrence and Lee used the Scopes Trial, then safely a generation in the past, as a vehicle forexploring a climate of anxiety and anti-intellectualism that existed in 1950.

Inherit the Wind does not purport to be a historically accurate depiction of the Scopes trial. Thestage directions set the time as "Not long ago." Place names and names of trial participants havebeen changed. Lawrence and Lee created several fictional characters, including a fundamentalistpreacher and his daughter, who in the play is the fiancé of John Scopes. Henry Drummond is lesscynical and biting than the Darrow of Dayton that the Drummond character was based upon.Scopes, a relatively minor figure in the real drama at Dayton, becomes Bertram Cates, a centralfigure in the play, who is arrested while teaching class, thrown in jail, burned in effigy, and tauntedby a fire-snorting preacher. William Jennings Bryan, Matthew Harrison Brady in the play, isportrayed as an almost comical fanatic who dramatically dies of a heart attack while attempting todeliver his summation in a chaotic courtroom. The townspeople of fictional Hillsboro are far morefrenzied, mean-spirited, and ignorant than were the real denizens of Dayton.

Nonetheless, Lawrence and Lee did draw heavily from the Scopes trial. A powerful Darrowcondemnation of anti-intellectualism, an exchange between Darrow and Judge Raulston thatearned Darrow a contempt citation, and portions of the Darrow examination of Bryan are liftednearly verbatim from the actual trial transcript.

Although Lawrence and Lee completed Inherit the Wind in 1950, the play did not open untilJanuary 10, 1955. The Broadway cast included Paul Muni as Henry Drummond, Ed Begley asMatthew Harrison Brady, and Tony Randall as E. K. Hornbeck (H. L. Mencken). The playreceived rave reviews and was a box office success.

Nathan Douglas and Harold Smith wrote the play into a screen script in 1960. The Douglas andSmith screenplay differs from the stage version in several respects, most notably perhaps in itsdownplaying of some academic and theological points, and its playing up of the trial's circusatmosphere.

A made-for-TV rewrite of the 1960 Stanley Kramer movie ran on NBC in 1988. In this Inheritthe Wind adaptation, Jason Robards played Darrow, Kirk Douglas played Bryan, and DarrenMcGavin played Mencken. The TV rewrite departed in only minor respects from the plot of theearlier Hollywood version.

Cast of Inherit the Wind (1960)Produced by: United Artists Running Time: 127 Minutes Black and White Directed by: Stanley

KramerSpencer Tracy --Henry Drummond [Clarence Darrow], Fredric March-- Matthew Harrison Brady[Wm. Jennings Brian] ,Gene Kelly-- E. K. Hornbeck [H. L. Mencken], Dick York-- Bertram T.Cates [John Scopes], Henry Morgan --Judge [John Raulston] ,Florence Eldridge --Sara Brady

,Donna Anderson-- Rachel Brown, Claude Akins --Rev. Jeremiah Brown, Elliot Reed--Davenport, Phillip Coolidge-- Mayor, Paul Hartman --Meeker ,Jimmy Boyd-- Howard [Howard

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Morgan] ,Noah Beery, Jr . --Stebbins ,Ray Teal --Dunlap, Norman Fell --Radio Announcer, HopeSummers-- Mrs. Krebs

Movie Reviews of Inherit the WindJay Brown, Rating the Movies **** (of 4) "A fascinating slice of American history brought

brilliantly to the screen....Tracy and March are superb as Clarence Darrow and William JenningsBryan, respectively."

Bowtey Crowther, New York Times (10/12/1960) "Kramer has wonderfully accomplished notonly a graphic fleshing of his theme, but he also has got one of the most brilliant and engrossingdisplays of acting ever witnessed on the screen.... When the two men come down to their final

showdown and the barrier of dogma is breached, it is a triumphant moment for human dignity--andfor Mr. Tracy and Mr. March."

Variety (7/6/60) "A rousing and fascinating motion picture. Virtually all the elements that makefor the broadest range of entertainment satisfaction--drama, comedy, romance, social significance,even suspense--are amply present.... Pairing of Tracy and March was a masterstroke of casting....

If they aren't top contenders in the next Academy sweepstakes, then Oscar should be put in escrowfor another year."

Jay Nash and Stanley Ross, Motion Picture Guide ***** (of 5) "In their scenes together, Tracyand March are nothing less than spellbinding, working off each other and holding their own--two

of the most forceful images to grace the screen.... Tracy never lost a scene to anyone except in thisfilm, where March uses every histrionic trick in his acting arsenal to bring the scene to his own

presence, his face, hands, and body contorting and moving with every measured line Tracyuttered....The film contains some of the most witty, literate lines ever put on the screen."

Karl W. Weimer, Jr., Magill's Survey of Cinema "Inherit the Wind is infused with Kramer's liberalsensibility.... The play, following closely on the heels of the McCarthy era, was very much an

allegory of its time, and this dimension is fully exploited by Kramer and his screenwriters. Indeed,if the film can be faulted at all, it is on this level: The townspeople seems a trifle too bigoted, whileDrummond's (Darrow's) unrelenting altruism is equally suspect....Kelly, in one of his few straight

dramatic roles, brings just the right degree of cynical detachment to the pivotal role of E. K.Hornbeck (H. L. Mencken) without once sacrificing the empathy of the audience."

Carol Inannone, "First Things" (WWW) "Inherit the Wind reveals a great deal about a mentalitythat demands open-mindedness and excoriates dogmatism, only to advance its own certainties

more insistently.... A more historically accurate dramatization of the Scopes Trial might have beenfar richer and more interesting--and might also have given its audiences a genuine dramatic

tragedy to watch. It would not have sent its audience home full of moral superiority and happythoughts about the march of progress."

Robert Harsh, "Exposing the Lie: Inherit the Wind" (WWW) "Christians, particularly WilliamJennings Bryan, are consistently lampooned throughout, while the skeptics and agnostics are

consistently portrayed as intelligent, kindly, and even heroic. I simply cannot escape theconclusion that the writers of the screen play never intended to write a historically accurate

account of the Scopes trial, nor did they seriously attempt to portray the principal characters andtheir beliefs in an unbiased and accurate way."

John Leonard, New York Magazine (3/21/88) In liberal melodrama, we feel bad the morning after.Thus, in Inherit the Wind, after freethinker Darrow humiliates fundamentalist Bryan, both turn onthe cynical Mencken: ‘Where will your loneliness lead you? No one will come to your funeral....'For liberals, winning is guilty, gloating is indecent, and cynicism is un-American. This nostalgia

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for a consensus that never existed is one of the differences between, say, Arthur Miller and HenrikIbsen."

Link to More Information and Photos Concerning Inherit the Wind

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A Defense Expert's Impressions of the Scopes Trialfrom D-Days at Dayton: Fundamentalism vs Evolution at Dayton, Tennessee

by W.C. Curtis (1956)

Note: Winterton C. Curtis, a zoologist at the University of Missouri, was one of the defense expertsbrought to Dayton to testify. Although blocked from testifying by Judge Raulston's ruling that the experttestimony would be irrelevant, Curtis said in his affidavit that evolution should be defined as the doctrineof how things have changed in the past, and how they are changing in the present. Curtis claimed thatthe doctrine of evolution could be divided into three categories: cosmic, geologic, and organic and thatevolution is a necessary instrument in the search for answers to important cosmological, geological, andbiological questions....In his autobiographical notes, Curtis reflected on the days he spent in Dayton forthe Scopes trial:

With my background of participations in the controversy it was natural that I should be called in 1925 asone of the expert witnesses in the famous trial of John T. Scopes as a violator of the Tennessee lawprohibiting the teaching of Evolution. In response to a telegram from the American Civil LibertiesUnion, I reached Dayton in time for my evening meal of Monday, July 13. The trial had opened thepreceding Friday, after which the court had adjourned for the weekend.

I was met at the station by one of my fellow scientists and driven through the town to the house wherewe were to be quartered. The business section surrounding the courthouse was alive with people, nativesand visitors, and ablaze with banners or orthodoxy, such as: “Read Your Bible” –“Prepare to meet ThyGod” –“Repent or Be Damned.” Dayton was more like a town prepared for a Billy Sunday revival thanfor a court trail. Above all, the town was overflowing with “Foreigners: come to see the show, everyroom for rent was taken and vacant second floors of store buildings were filled with cots. I recall beingin one of these lofts occupied by newspapermen. A cold-water faucet over a sink at the back near theoutside stairs and a privy in the backyard were the only toilet facilities for the 25 or 30 reporters whoslept on the close-packed cots.

Quarters for the visiting scientists and for a few of the privileged newspapermen had been provided in alarge house at the edge of town that had been the home of a local magnate but had stood unoccupied foryears. Acting for the American Civil Liberties Union, Dr. George Rappleyea, the Datyon citizen whohad been most active in promoting the trial, had got the plumbing working again, had assembledfurniture, dishes, and linen, and had employed servants so that we were comfortably housed and fed,even through the plumbing failed us more than once.

Impressions of the Scopes Trial by W. C. Curtis, Defense Expert

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After breakfast each morning we were driven to the courthouse; at noon wereturned for lunch at the “Mansion”, as we called it, and were driven againto the town for the afternoon court. At night the lawyers dined with us andwe would sit about the table, after it was cleared, talking over the events ofthe day and discussing the plans for the day following. It was here that Igot my close-ups of the lawyers for the defense.

Clarence Darrow was, of course, the “front” for our side; but it was evidentthat Arthur Garfield Hayes was the manager. Dudley Field Maloneimpressed me as more of a politician than a lawyer, although he made somevery effective speeches. John Randolph Neal, the Tennessee lawyer, wasevidently a man of caliber and principle. For the prosecution WilliamJennings Bryan and his son were the only “foreign” lawyers in attendance. Among the local defense lawyers I remember vividly one “General” BenMcKenzie who professed love at first sight for Darrow, and whose words“We have done crossed the Rubicon,” made newspaper headlines.

Here, there, and everywhere was the ubiquitous Dr. Rappleyea, who withScopes had initiated the test case at Dayton. He was a whole entertainmentcommittee in one man and seemed a very competent fellow, whether theproblem was one of meeting the press, finding one more sleeping room intown, or getting the sewer working again at the “Mansion.” I’ve oftenwondered what became of him and his charming young wife, who like toride horseback with her husband through the hills surrounding Dayton.

The judge John T. Raulston, seemed to enjoy himself tremendously as thecommanding figure in a trial which was attracting world-wide interest. Hisdeference to Mr. Bryan was obvious, and we felt that his decisions day by

day were too much in favor of the prosecution; but now 30 years later, as I read the stenographic recordof the trial, it seems to me that he was not so partial as we thought. He was acting according to his lightsas well as his prejudices. If it was for him the greatest responsibility of his legal career, who can blamehim for being pleased to have his photograph taken repeatedly. On one occasion, he stopped court until acamera man who had fallen from a stepladder could get himself perched again for his shot.

John T. Scopes might well have seemed more than pleased with himself as the center, of attraction;instead he was the acme of modesty. No man could have conducted himself better under the limelight. He impressed us as modest and without conceit thought always ready to do his part. I thought of Scopes,when, in 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh stopped from his plane at the airport of Paris, and, not realizing thata crowd awaited him, introduced himself by saying, “I am Charles Lindbergh and I have flown theAtlantic. John T. Scopes at Dayton was that kind of man.

Reporters were present in such numbers that I could well believe the statement they numbered more than200 and that never before had there been so many reporters present at any trial. Notable among themwas H. L. Mencken, who had made himself so odious to the orthodox by his scathing criticisms of theFundamentalist Crusade and its Crusaders. As no seats were reserved for the expert witnesses we sat inthe press chairs. Many times I sat next to Mencken. He resisted my attempts at conversation, but I gotthe flavor of the man from listening to his talk with other reporters.

Impressions of the Scopes Trial by W. C. Curtis, Defense Expert

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The courtroom audience impressed me as honest country folk in jeans and calico. “Boobs" perhaps, asjudged by Mencken, and holding all the prejudices of backwoods Christian orthodoxy, but nevertheless asignificant section of the backbone of democracy in the U.S.A. They came to see their idol “the GreatCommoner” and champion of the people meet the challenge to their faith. They left bewildered but withtheir beliefs unchanged despite the manhandling of their idol by the “Infidel” from Chicago....

Scopes Trial Homepage

Impressions of the Scopes Trial by W. C. Curtis, Defense Expert

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