John Scopes: Breaking The Butler Law Teaching Evolution

In 1925, John Thomas Scopes, a teacher in Tennessee, was charged with violating the Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of human evolution in schools. The trial, known as the Scopes Trial, saw Scopes found guilty and fined $100 (equivalent to $1700 in 2023). The case was appealed, and while the Butler Act was upheld, Scopes' conviction was overturned on a technicality.

John Thomas Scopes was a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee

The 24-year-old was a science teacher and football coach at Rhea County High School, and occasionally served as a substitute teacher. He was born in 1900 in Paducah, Kentucky, and was the only son of Thomas Scopes and Mary Alva Brown. The family later relocated to Danville, Illinois, and then Salem, Illinois, where he attended high school. After a brief stint at the University of Illinois, he earned a degree at the University of Kentucky in 1924, majoring in law and minoring in geology.

The Butler Act was passed on March 21, 1925, and made it illegal for teachers to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had been looking for a Tennessee teacher to act as a defendant to challenge the law, and Scopes was recruited by a group of Dayton businessmen, including engineer and geologist George Rappleyea. They saw this as an opportunity to get publicity for their town.

While Scopes was unsure whether he had actually taught evolution, he incriminated himself deliberately so the case could have a defendant. He urged students to testify against him, and coached them in their answers. He was indicted after three students testified against him at the grand jury.

The trial, known as the Scopes Trial or the Scopes Monkey Trial, took place from July 10 to July 21, 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee. It featured two of the best-known orators of the era, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, as opposing attorneys. Bryan, a three-time presidential nominee, was already well known as an anti-evolution activist. Darrow, a famous attorney, had recently acted for the defence in the notorious Leopold and Loeb murder trial.

The trial was highly publicised and was the first in the United States to be broadcast on national radio. It was also covered by journalists from across the world, including H.L. Mencken, who wrote for The Baltimore Sun.

After eight days of trial, Scopes was found guilty and ordered to pay a $100 fine. However, the verdict was later overturned on a technicality, as the judge had imposed the fine instead of the jury. The Butler Act remained in effect until May 18, 1967, when it was repealed by the Tennessee legislature.

He was charged with violating Tennessee's Butler Act

John Thomas Scopes was charged with violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which was a state law that prohibited the teaching of evolution in any public school. The full title of the act was "An Act prohibiting the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, and to provide penalties for the violations thereof." The Butler Act was passed by the Tennessee Legislature on March 21, 1925, and it specifically targeted the teaching of evolution, stating that it was unlawful for any teacher in a public school to teach any theory that denied the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and instead taught that man was descended from a lower order of animals. The act was sponsored by John Washington Butler, a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, and a farmer and local politician from the city of Riceville.

The law stated that it was a misdemeanor offense to teach, or even attempt to teach, any theory that denied the Biblical story of Divine Creation, or that claimed that man was descended from a 'lower order of animals'. The act also prohibited the teaching of any theory that denied that the world was created in six days, as described in the Book of Genesis. The Butler Act was a direct response to the growing influence of Darwin's theory of evolution, and it reflected the strong religious beliefs and values of many Tennesseans at the time. The law was also part of a wider cultural and political movement across the United States, often referred to as the 'Scopes Monkey Trial', which saw a rise in anti-evolution sentiment and legislation during the 1920s.

By teaching a group of high school students about evolution, Scopes, a young science teacher, directly contravened the Butler Act. He was accused of teaching and advocating the theory of evolution, and denying the story of Divine Creation as outlined in the Bible. Scopes was aware of the law, and in fact, he and his colleagues had deliberately set out to challenge it. They believed that the Butler Act was an infringement on their academic freedom and their right to teach scientific facts. Scopes was supported by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which offered to defend him if he was willing to stand trial. The trial, which took place in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, became a media sensation and attracted widespread attention.

The trial, known as 'The State of Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes', began on July 10, 1925, and lasted for eight days. It featured two of the most famous lawyers of the time, with William Jennings Bryan, a former presidential candidate, prosecuting the case, and Clarence Darrow defending Scopes. The trial was highly publicized and became a platform for a wider debate about religion, science, and the role of the state in education. Ultimately, Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, although this decision was later overturned on a technicality. While the immediate outcome of the trial was a setback for proponents of evolution, the wider publicity and discussion generated by the case are seen as contributing to a shift in public opinion and a greater acceptance of evolutionary theory.

The Butler Act prohibited teaching human evolution in schools

The Butler Act, passed in March 1925, prohibited the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee schools. The law, which was sponsored by State Representative John Washington Butler, made it illegal for teachers to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. The Act was signed into law by Tennessee governor Austin Peay, who believed it would neither be enforced nor interfere with education in the state's schools.

The law was lobbied for by Butler, a Tennessee farmer and head of the World Christian Fundamentals Association, who stated:

> I didn't know anything about evolution... I'd read in the papers that boys and girls were coming home from school and telling their fathers and mothers that the Bible was all nonsense.

The Act was also supported by William Jennings Bryan, a three-time presidential candidate and former secretary of state, who argued for the prosecution in the Scopes trial. Bryan thanked governor Peay for the bill, saying:

> The Christian parents of the state owe you a debt of gratitude for saving their children from the poisonous influence of an unproven hypothesis.

The Butler Act was passed almost unanimously with no amendments, making the teaching of evolution punishable by a fine.

Scopes was found guilty and fined $100

In 1925, John Thomas Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee schools. He was fined $100 (equivalent to $1,700 in 2023).

The Scopes trial, as it came to be known, was the result of a deliberate effort to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. Local businessman George Rappleyea, along with other prominent residents, saw an opportunity to gain attention for their town when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that it would finance a test case challenging the Butler Act.

Rappleyea and his associates approached Scopes, a 24-year-old science teacher and football coach at Rhea County High School, knowing that he had used teaching materials that included evolution. They asked him to admit to teaching evolution so that he could be prosecuted under the Butler Act. Scopes was initially reluctant but eventually agreed, stating, "If you can prove that I've taught evolution and that I can qualify as a defendant, then I'll be willing to stand trial."

The trial, which lasted from July 10 to July 21, 1925, featured two of the best-known orators of the era: William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. It was a highly publicized event, drawing intense national media attention and a circus-like atmosphere to Dayton.

During the trial, Darrow called Bryan to the stand as an expert witness for the prosecution on the Bible. Darrow's cross-examination challenged Bryan's literal interpretation of the Bible, forcing him to make ignorant and contradictory statements. On July 21, Darrow asked the jury to return a verdict of guilty so that the case could be appealed. After just nine minutes of deliberation, the jury found Scopes guilty, and Judge John Raulston ordered him to pay the $100 fine.

While Bryan won the case, he was publicly humiliated, and his fundamentalist beliefs were disgraced. The verdict was later overturned on appeal due to a technicality regarding the issuance of the fine, but the Butler Act itself was upheld by the Tennessee Supreme Court. The law remained in effect until 1967 when it was repealed by the Tennessee legislature.

The case became known as the Scopes Trial

The trial was deliberately staged to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he incriminated himself deliberately so the case could have a defendant.

The trial featured two of the best-known orators of the era, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, as opposing attorneys. Bryan, a three-time presidential nominee, was already well known as an anti-evolution activist who had almost single-handedly created the national controversy over the teaching of evolution. Darrow was a famous attorney who had recently acted for the defence in the notorious Leopold and Loeb murder trial.

Darrow's goal in getting involved was to debunk fundamentalist Christianity and raise awareness of a narrow, fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. It was the only time in his career that he offered to give free legal aid.

The trial began on July 10, with crowds pouring into the courthouse two hours before it was scheduled to start. The trial started with a lengthy prayer, followed by the grand jury being reconvened and repeating testimony from Scopes's students. Outside the courthouse, a circus-like atmosphere reigned, with barbecues, concessions, and carnival games.

The trial's climax came on July 20, when Darrow called Bryan to testify as an expert witness for the prosecution on the Bible. Darrow's cross-examination challenged Bryan on various biblical stories and the validity and practicality of their literal interpretation. Bryan responded by claiming that Darrow's "only aim was to cast slurs on the Bible".

On July 21, in his closing speech, Darrow asked the jury to return a verdict of guilty so that the case might be appealed. After nine minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict, and Scopes was ordered to pay a fine of $100, the minimum the law allowed. Although Bryan had won the case, he had been publicly humiliated and his fundamentalist beliefs had been disgraced. Five days later, Bryan died in his sleep.

On appeal, the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the 1925 law but acquitted Scopes on the technicality that he had been fined excessively. In the trial's aftermath, Tennessee prevented the teaching of evolution in the classroom until the Butler Act was repealed in 1967.

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