Shelly Gruenwald
Central Catholic High School
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.
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Section 1. Be it enacted by the General
Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That it
shall be unlawful for any teacher in any the
Universities, Normals and all other public
schools of the State which are supported in
whole or in part by the public school funds
of the State, 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.
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Section 2. Be it further enacted, That any
teacher found guilty of the violation of this
Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and
upon conviction, shall be fined not less than
One Hundred Dollars nor more than than
Five Hundred Dollars for each offense.
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Section 3. Be it further enacted, That this
Act take effect from and after its passage,
the public welfare requiring it.
(Normals were teacher training colleges.)
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PUBLIC ACTS OF THE
STATE OF TENNESSEE
PASSED BY THE
SIXTY-FOURTH GENERAL
ASSEMBLY
1925
CHAPTER NO. 27
House Bill No. 185
(By John Washington
Butler)
Passed March 13,1925
W.F. Barry, Speaker of the
House of Representatives
L.D. Hill, Speaker of the
Senate
Approved March 21,
1925
Austin Peay, Governor.
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The Act passed through the
two houses of the
Tennessee legislature with
massive majorities.
◦ In the House of
Representatives it sailed
through on a vote of 75
'for' and only 5 'against'.
◦ The Senate, after a great
deal of public discussion
and a spirited three hour
debate, passed the Act by
a majority of 24 votes to
6.
80
70
60
50
House
40
Senate
30
20
10
0
For
Against
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The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) were already aware
that the Act was likely to become law because it had been
passed by the lower house of the Tennessee legislature by a
landslide (in January, 1925).
After a few false starts, the ACLU sent a press release to
several Tennessee newspapers, such as the Chattanooga
Daily Times, announcing that they would provide legal
assistance, etc. for a school teacher in Tennessee who would
be willing to stand trial for having taught evolution in a public
school so that a test case could be mounted to challenge the
constitutional validity of the Act.
From their point of view this was certainly not a lone
event. Rather it was part of a wide-ranging campaign to
banish the teaching of evolutionist ideas from America's
classrooms.
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Standard Rights Managed (RM)
BE043521
Discount available
Conspirators of the Scopes Trial at Drugstore The men responsible for instigating
the Scopes trial (from left to right): George W. Rappelyea, Professor Walter White,
Clay Green, and R.E. Robinson.
IMAGE: © Underwood & Underwood/CORBIS
DATE PHOTOGRAPHED July 06, 1925
LOCATION Dayton, Tennessee, USA
PHOTOGRAPHER George Rinhart
COLLECTION Bettmann
http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/BE043521.html
It was George Rappelyea who
first learned of the ACLU's
plan to oppose the Butler Act
- offering legal support for
any teacher who was prepared
to stand trial for teaching
evolutionist ideas.
On May 5th, 1925 he gathered
together some of the leading
citizens of Dayton and put to
them his plan for using a trial,
and the attendant media
attention, as a means of
publicizing Dayton.
Having gained tacit agreement for his plan, Rappelyea then went
on to recruit John Scopes as the 'sacrificial lamb'. According to
Scopes, Rappelyea arranged a meeting at Robinson's drug store
where the conversation went something like this:
Rappelyea: John, we've been arguing and I said nobody could
teach biology without teaching evolution
Scopes: (pulling a textbook from a shelf of books on sale in the
store) That's right
Rappelyea: You've been teaching 'em this book?
Scopes: So has every other teacher. Evolution is explained in
Hunter's Civic Biology, and that's our textbook.
Rappelyea: Then you've been violating the law. Would you be
willing to stand for a test case? Let's take this thing to court
and test the legality of it. I will swear out a warrant and have
you arrested ... That will make a big sensation. Why not bring a
lot of doctors and preachers here?
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After a certain amount of hesitation Scopes
eventually agreed to the plan and Rappelyea sent a
telegram to the ACLU to tell them that he'd found their
man.
Rappelyea also swore out a warrant against Scopes,
who was actually arrested two days later, on May 7th,
on the charge of having contravened the Butler Act.
Scopes was immediately released on bail.
A preliminary hearing on May 10th bound Scopes over
pending a Grand Jury hearing on May 25th.
The Grand Jury, who are well aware of the true purpose
of the charge against Scopes, handed down an
indictment and the trial date was set for July 10th.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs LC-B2- 6377-12
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ggb2006013628/
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John Scopes did not know if he had taught evolution or not
because he was not a biology teacher.
He was primarily a coach who taught some algebra,
physics, and chemistry.
He was subbing for the ill principal who was the actual
biology teacher.
His degree was actually in law
Scopes was charged with having taught evolution on April
24th, 1925. A preliminary hearing on May 9th bound him
over pending a specially convened Grand Jury hearing on
May 25th. The members of the Grand Jury, who were well
aware of the true purpose of the charge against Scopes,
handed down an indictment and Scopes was instructed to
present himself at the Rhea County court house for trial on
the morning of July 10th.
At no time was Scopes held in jail on this charge
which, by the way, was only classed as a
"misdemeanor", not a "felony."
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The publicity surrounding the case quickly drew threetimes presidential candidate and arch anti-evolutionist
William Jennings Bryan to offer his services to the
prosecution team. Bryan was accepted as one of several
assistant prosecutors, and not as "the" prosecuting
counsel.
This in turn induced leading Chicago attorney, and arch
atheist Clarence Darrow to
offer his services - pro
bono – as defense counsel,
which pleased Scopes,
but not the ACLU.
Picture: Darrow on the left,
Bryan on the right.
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTllNtCE9SPkbI5PQDBg0hVCwLtAeT0cPgE4gTN
edJMGnX5M7B7
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Many discussions of the Scopes "Monkey"
Trial claim that the judge refused to allow the
expert witnesses to present their evidence.
Which isn't really true. In fact he allowed one
expert - Dr. Maynard Metcalf - to give
evidence in person before ruling that such
evidence was irrelevant because the
indictment related to whether Scopes had
taught evolution and not whether evolution
clashed with the story of the creation of
Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis.
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The defense argument was that if the theory
of evolution did not clash with Genesis then
Scopes had not violated the act.
It was an interesting idea, but it really didn't
have a leg to stand on given that most if not
all of the experts rejected the notion that
humans were the result of an act of special
creation - and therefore whatever their
personal views on evolution might be, they
most certainly did contradict the account in
Genesis.
The Darwin Club
Rea Irvin, artist, March 18, 1915.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2009616892/
Literary Digest, July 25, 1925.
http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/clash/Scopes/IndexImages/Images/juryandjudge.jpg
 Tennessee’s Biology book
was Hunter’s Civic Biology,
published in 1915.
 The following link goes to
a website maintained by
University of Missouri –
Kansas City.
 http://www.law.umkc.edu/
faculty/projects/ftrials/sco
pes/scopes.htm
Hunter’s Civic Biology, 1915,
pages 192-195