Calling Bryan to the stand was a shock for the court. Darrow interrogated him on interpreting the Bible literally, which undercut his earlier sweeping religious speeches. This prevented Bryan from making a closing statement. After the trial, Bryan immediately began to prepare his unused closing statement as a speech for his rallies. He never got to use that speech, since he died in his sleep in Dayton the following Sunday.
Scopes was offered a new teaching contract but chose to leave Dayton and study geology at the University of Chicago graduate school. He eventually became a petroleum engineer.
Supporters of both sides claimed victory following the trial, but the Butler Act was upheld, and the anti-evolution movement continued. Mississippi passed a similar law months later, and in Texas banned the theory of evolution from high school textbooks. Twenty-two other states made similar efforts but were defeated. The controversy over the teaching of science and evolution has continued into the 21st century.
In , the case of Kitzmiller v. The court ruled against intelligent design — now largely discredited as a pseudoscience — as a legitimate topic suitable for education. Summer For The Gods. Edward J. The Legend of the Scopes Trial.
Scientific American. The Scopes Trial. University of Minnesota. State of Tennessee v. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. John T. That law, passed in March , American History , Fundamentalism. Via Wikipedia. Colorized by PHS, July marks the 90 th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial, one of the most famous court cases in American history.
Defending substitute high school teacher John Thomas Scopes was Clarence Darrow, one of the celebrity lawyers of the day. Billed as a grand showdown between religion and science, the trial would play out in a rural Tennessee courthouse amid sweltering summer heat. From Shall Christianity Remain Christian? Pace, Image No. Although Progressive in his politics, he espoused a Fundamentalist cultural agenda.
Ironically, he thought that a guilty verdict should not require John Scopes to pay a fine and offered to help Scopes pay it. Though Bryan and the agnostic Darrow shared many of the same political views, the trial quickly became defined as a battle between the forces of Fundamentalism and Modernism, and headlines to that effect proved irresistible to the media.
The trial was the first to be broadcast on radio. Blocked by the judge from allowing most of his witnesses to testify in person, Darrow called Bryan to the stand as a Bible expert. How Bryan conducted himself depends on your source.
Some portray him as a theological simpleton humiliated by the brilliant Darrow—a premise made popular by the play and movie adaptation of Inherit the Wind. Others claim that the exchange was a fruitless back-and-forth. Timeline of Pres William Jennings Bryan [electronic resource]. Other articles in Lawyers. Want to support the Free Speech Center? Donate Now. William Jennings Bryan: Champion of Democracy. Boston: Twayne Publishers, Kazin, Michael.
New York: Knopf, The evaluation of trial historian L. But without comment at a. Though there had been some dramatic and interesting spots, the trial proceedings up to this point had been long, technical, and uninteresting to the average layman.
The worldwide audience coverage continued, but the audience in and about the courtroom began to thin out. On Saturday, July 18, the exodus began: H. Thompson headed to Florida, W. Bryan, Jr. Monday, July 20, the seventh day of the trial, began hot and was to get hotter both in weather conditions and word confrontations. The opening prayer was delivered by the Reverend Standefer. After lengthy discussion taking up ten pages of the court record and similar to that on day six, Arthur Garfield Hays was finally permitted to summarize and read verbatim into the record twelve written testimonials of the scientific and Biblical experts the defense had congregated.
The reading took the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon. In order of presentation, statements from the following were inserted in the record but not as an official part of the trial as far as the jury and cross-examination were concerned but as indications of what the defense proof would have been, should the case go to a higher court in the appeal process:.
The documents ranged from one to eighteen pages. Charles H. In between the statements by Dr. Curtis and Dr. Rosenwasser, the court recessed for lunch.
Judge Raulston inspected cracks in the first-floor ceiling caused by the weight of the crowd upstairs. Stewart conferred with the defense and arranged for Darrow to apologize to the court. After the recess, Darrow apologized grudgingly but sufficiently to satisfy the big-hearted judge, who quoted Scripture and forgave Darrow. Because of the building stress, the heat, and the crowd, Judge Raulston reconvened the court on a platform in the courtyard below.
The heat, the boredom of the expert testimonials being read by Hays, and the dim prospects of anything important or exciting happening from this point on tempted all but a half dozen of the more than one hundred reporters either to go back home or seek cooler, more inviting surroundings that afternoon. As a result they missed not only the cooler court setup of being out under the trees but also one of the hottest exchanges of the entire trial.
Because so few reporters were present when Bryan took the stand to be interrogated by Darrow, Scopes was conscripted to write covering news stories for the delinquent newsmen Scopes Much of the Scopes Trial news coverage in and ever since leaves a great deal to be desired.
On the lowest level there was character assassination. On a level not much higher was the one-sided, biased reporting which presented the remarks of Darrow, Malone, and Hays as virtually flawless but described the utterances of Bryan as vividly faulty. In addition to the inexcusable bias, the press also did a poor job on the level of the trial issues.
Also largely ignored was the fact that Bryan was not against the teaching of evolution — if it were taught as a theory rather than as a true fact — and if equal time were given to other major options, such as creationism.
Another overlooked point was that Bryan did not ask that religion be taught in the public schools. What he objected to was religion being attacked in the public schools Smith ; Levine , , Bryan as a witness. The highly irregular procedure of calling an opposition lawyer as a witness was objected to by Attorney General Stewart but permitted by Judge Raulston and agreed to by Bryan — with the understanding that he would be allowed to put Darrow, Malone, and Hays on the stand Trial , , ; de Camp , Reactions by reporters and subsequently by historians ranged the gamut.
A few were positive. The above-mentioned conflicting evaluations necessitate an examination of the trial transcript. And so it went for almost two hours, ranging over some fifty topics with several related questions each. Bryan was careful to define terms, adhere to known facts, distinguish between literal and figurative language, and frankly admit when he did not know the answer. From time to time Stewart questioned the legality of the proceedings, especially when Darrow cross-examined his own witness.
And they disclosed that Bryan was flexible enough to allow for the days of creation being longer than twenty-four hours each and perhaps as long as millions of years. The eighth and final day of the trial, Tuesday, July 21, was opened in prayer by the Reverend Dr. Camper of Chattanooga.
Rainy weather moved the trial back into the courtroom. Another reason for this move may have been a secret visit by Sheriff Harris and other officials to the judge, urging him to bring the trial to a conclusion as soon as possible in order to avoid injury, for emotions were running high, and both Darrow and Bryan had received threats de Camp ; Harris.
This move prepared the way for an appeal to a higher court, spared Darrow from having to be questioned by Bryan, and circumvented the summation arguments and the threat posed by the concluding address that Bryan had been working on Scopes Since there were indications that some of the jury were getting feisty over being excluded from so much of the trial, and others were showing sympathy for Scopes, there was reason to suspect that the jury might find Scopes innocent.
Stewart, Raulston, and Darrow consulted together. After Raulston gave a lengthy charge to the jury, Darrow was permitted to explain to the jury that they should not worry about their verdict, for it could enable the defense to take the matter to a higher court. Neal, asked Scopes if he had anything to say de Camp ; Trial I will continue in the future, as I have in the past, to oppose this law in any way I can.
Any other action would be in violation of my ideal of academic freedom — that is, to teach the truth as guaranteed in our constitution, of personal and religious freedom. I think that the fine is unjust.
For five days following the trial, Bryan stayed in Tennessee. On Sunday, July 26th, Bryan drove from Chattanooga to Dayton, was called upon to deliver the morning prayer at the First Southern Methodist Church, and that afternoon died in his sleep.
Haggard and B. John Thomas Scopes rejected F. On 31 May , the appeal hearing finally began. Scopes did not attend any of the legal sessions after the Dayton trial Scopes The prosecution was represented by E.
And the spirit of William Jennings Bryan was there in the form of quotations from his undelivered Last Message, which the State used Ginger
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