Autographs from the Monkey Trial

The sequence of events leading to the trial began whenч the legislature passed and Governor Austin Peay signed a bill authored by John Butler that prohibited instruction in public schools regarding "any theory that denies the story of Devine Creation of man as taught in the Bible."ч  The Butler bill also forbade teaching that "..man has descended from a lower order of animals."ч  Governor Peay grossly underestimated the impact of the bill when he said, "Probably the law will never be applied...Nobody believes that is going to be an active statute."ч  However, Roger Baldwin, founder and director of the ACLU, persuaded science teacher Johnч Scopes to put the law to the test.

John Scopes was arrested on the charge that he had taught evolution inч his classroom.ч William Jennings Bryan,ч America"s best-known Christian fundamentalist, declared his opposition the evolutionary theory expounded by Charles Darwin, and served as the prosecuting attorney.ч  Clarence Darrow, an avowed atheist, was hired to defend John Scopes.

The Scopes Monkey Trial was the first trial in the United States that was broadcast on national radio.ч  The sensational trial reached a pinnacle of popularity when Darrow cross-examined Bryan as an expert on the bible.ч ч Bryan admitted that "...creation might have continued for millions of years" andч therefore acknowledged what evolutionary theoryч expounded.ч  Unfortunately, Bryan was precluded by the judge of cross examining Darrow.

John Scopes was convicted and fined by the judge.ч On the day following the conclusion of the trial, Bryan wrote to a reverend that "We have won a great victory..."ч ч  The case eventually wound up in the Tennessee Supreme Court where the law ws upheld as constitutional but the judgmentч reversed because the fine had to be imposed by a jury and not a judge.

The Scopes Money Trial has been labelled as the most famous trial in American history.ч  The trialч had an enormous impact on the reputation of William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow.ч  The Monkey Trial has been the subject of many books and the influential play Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee.ч ч Autographs from the Monkey Trial are a reminder of time when the crossroads of law, religion, and philospophy met in a courthouse in Dayton, Ohio.

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