Today is an important, if overlooked, anniversary in the history of science education and church-state separation.
In a small town called Dayton, Tenn., then with a population of under 2,000, a famous legal tussle got underway on July 10, 1925: John T. Scopes, a science teacher, went on trial for violating the Butler Act, a state law that made it illegal to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.”
Over the years, a great deal of mythology has grown up around the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial,” and what many people know about it comes from “Inherit the Wind,” a popular play (and later movie) that didn’t exactly hew to the facts.
To begin with, the whole thing was a bit of a publicity stunt. Dayton, a sleepy town with a stagnant population, was struggling economically. Local resident George W. Rappleyea had heard that the American Civil Liberties Union was willing to defend any teacher who violated the Butler Act. Rappleyea convinced local officials that a trial could put Dayton on the map. They approached Scopes, who agreed to be the plaintiff.
The 1960 film version of “Inherit the Wind” shows Scopes being dragged out of class as soon as he starts teaching evolution and hauled off to jail. That never happened. In fact, Scopes wasn’t even sure if he had taught evolution, but he agreed that he had taught from a science textbook that included the concept. He was charged but never spent any time behind bars.
The trial turned out to be the public relations bonanza Rappleyea and the town fathers hoped for. It was a media circus. As History.com notes, “Outside, Dayton took on a carnival-like atmosphere as an exhibit featuring two chimpanzees and a supposed ‘missing link’ opened in town, and vendors sold Bibles, toy monkeys, hot dogs, and lemonade.”
Inside the courthouse, two legal titans duked it out: Clarence Darrow represented Scopes, and William Jennings Bryan defended the state. But Judge John Raulston essentially gutted Darrow’s case when he refused to allow expert testimony, limiting the trial to the narrow question of whether Scopes had violated the law. Since even Scopes admitted he had, the verdict was never really in doubt. On July 21, a jury found Scopes guilty, and he was fined $100, although the Tennessee Supreme Court later overturned his conviction on a technicality.
Many people believe the real impact of the trial is that it discredited biblical creationism. That’s a little hard to swallow in a country where 40% of Americans believe in the concept and bills that promote creationism and/or undermine evolution keep surfacing in state legislatures.
The Scopes trial may have been something of a stunt, but the issues it raised were very real and continue to surface in communities all over America. Remember, it was 2005 when Americans United and its allies won a ruling from a federal court barring the teaching of creationism’s mutant spawn, “intelligent design,” in the public schools of Dover, Pa. Just last year, the West Virginia Legislature narrowly failed to pass a bill that would have allowed intelligent design to be taught in public schools. This year, a watered-down version of that bill was signed into law. It vaguely allows teachers to answer students’ questions about evolution, but supporters made clear the law was meant to allow teachers to discuss intelligent design.
If we want our children to learn actual science in public schools as opposed to someone’s interpretation of a story from the Bible, we have to remain eternally diligent. That’s the real lesson we should take from that long-ago legal clash in Dayton.
Photo: John T. Scopes (second from left) standing in the courtroom during the famous “Monkey Trial” in Dayton, Tenn. Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
