Scopes Found Guilty: Evolution vs. Faith Decided

Nine minutes of deliberation ended the most publicized trial in American history, but the verdict was almost beside the point. A Dayton, Tennessee, jury found high school teacher John Scopes guilty of violating state law by teaching evolution, imposing a fine of one hundred dollars. The real battle had been fought in the national press and in the courtroom exchanges between two of the most famous orators in the country. Tennessee had passed the Butler Act in March 1925, making it illegal to teach any theory that denied the biblical account of creation. The American Civil Liberties Union advertised for a volunteer to test the law, and Dayton civic leaders recruited Scopes, a twenty-four-year-old football coach and substitute biology teacher, partly to bring attention and commerce to their small town. The strategy worked beyond anyone's expectations. William Jennings Bryan, three-time presidential candidate and champion of rural evangelical Christianity, agreed to prosecute. Clarence Darrow, the nation's most famous defense attorney and an avowed agnostic, led the defense. More than two hundred reporters descended on Dayton, and WGN radio broadcast the proceedings live to millions of listeners, making it the first trial ever covered by national radio. The town installed extra telephone lines and built a platform for newsreel cameras. Darrow's most devastating moment came when he called Bryan himself to the witness stand as an expert on the Bible. Over two hours of questioning, Darrow pressed Bryan on whether the days of creation were literal twenty-four-hour periods, whether Jonah was literally swallowed by a whale, and whether the Earth was truly created in 4004 BC. Bryan stumbled repeatedly, and the exchange humiliated him in the national press. He died five days after the trial ended. The conviction was later overturned on a technicality, but the Butler Act remained on Tennessee's books until 1967.