The Scopes "Monkey" Trial, 1925 Background:
The Scopes "Monkey" Trial was a court case in Tennessee involving the teaching of evolution in public schools. A statute was passed in March of 1925 in Tennessee that prohibited the teaching in public schools of theories contrary to accepted interpretation of the biblical account of human creation. John T. Scopes, a substitute biology teacher, was tried in July, 1925 for teaching Darwinism in a Dayton, Tennessee public school. The famous and brilliant Chicago trial lawyer Clarence Darrow was one of Scopes's attorneys, while William Jennings Bryan, himself a brilliant orator who ran 3 times unsuccessfully for president aided the state prosecutor. The media and public focus on Dayton that hot summer was truly a circus, complete with performing monkeys and street corner ministers. Darrow argued that academic freedom was being violated and claimed that the legislature had indicated a religious preference, violating the separation of church and state. He also maintained that the evolutionary theory was consistent with certain interpretations of the Bible, and in an especially dramatic session he sharply questioned Bryan on the bible's literal interpretation. Though most of the trial was illegal and had nothing to do with Scopes' guilt or innocence, it made for dramatic media fodder. Scopes was convicted, partly because of the defense, which refused to plead any of the technical defenses available, fearing an acquittal on a technical rather than a constitutional basis. Scopes was, however, later released by the state supreme court on a technicality. Although the outcry over the case tended to discourage enactment of similar legislation in other states, the law was not repealed until 1967.