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After The Scopes Trial Of 1925 In Dayton, Tennessee

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Anti-evolution in the classroom
The Scopes Trial of 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee put the controversial issue of evolution vs creationism on front stage for the United States to watch. After The Scopes Trial, anti-evolutionists were really trying to stop evolution in the classroom. Up until the The Scopes Trial, generations of people were following in the footsteps of their elders, adopted their religious beliefs. But after the trial, there came a period of modernization and questioning the common standards. Anti-Evolutionists, not wanting the generation to fall the idea of Evolution took charge and started a civil movement. Anti-evolutionists created a collective identity for themselves, they had mobilized activists, and built institutions. They …show more content…

About 35 new anti-evolution bills were proposed to 20 states and three laws state laws were passed. Many areas where the fundamentalists have political power passed some form of restriction on the teaching of evolution. Most of them involved administrative rulings with the rest of them being school board's resolutions. Basically almost all of the South and West were affected. Once they were in place, no Southern anti-evolution legislation was repealed for 40 …show more content…

Professor Paul Douglas asked this question at the 1929 AFT national convention, “allowed to be determined by vaudeville promoters, and real estate agents, and lawyers, and bankers, every interest in the community sitting on school boards, except teachers?” Professor Paul Douglas who later will the the Senator from Illinois, was very upset with teachers were getting treated compared to similar jobs. The school boards went out of their way and into their employees’ lives. They fired teachers for not attending church, failing to vote, or not attending local parades. Also a couple of school boards fired women teachers for wearing the wrong clothing, having the wrong hairstyle, being over the age of forty, and sometimes for getting married. With all these ridiculous infractions the final straw was pushed for teachers, the situation was intolerable and thought life would not get any better without creating a union. The American Federation of the Teachers founded in 1916, was created for the struggles of the teacher for control of their lives and money. Margaret Haley who led the Chicago Federation of Teachers, set an example across the nation, she organized a platform calling for corporations to pay a fair share of taxes to support them. Teachers feeling like servants to society, forged the slogan “Education for Democracy”. The slogan was used to illustrate the

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At the time, certain events were taking place that allowed the rise of religious fundamentalism. Larson says, “These scientific developments helped set the stage in the early 1920s for a massive crusade by fundamentalists against teaching evolution in public schools, which culminated in the 1925 trial of John Scopes. ”13 Developments such as the increase of public schools, new fossil discoveries that strengthened the evolution argument, and the rise of religious fundamentalism all helped strengthen the case of anti-evolution advocates. These anti-evolution movements lead by religious leaders such as William Jennings Bryan argued that the teaching of evolution should be banned in public schools since it was the will of the majority, even if freedom of speech was compromised. The ACLU eventually advertised for a teacher to challenge the law that banned evolution.

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Urban vs Rural Scopes Trial The 1920’s can be characterized as a clash between the traditional and the modern. One of the biggest moments where urban vs rural was tested was in the scopes trial or “monkey trial”. The scopes trial involved a substitute teacher, John Scopes, who was accused of violating the Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach evolution in any state-funded school in Tennessee. This is where urban vs rural had huge conflict, this teacher who was considered modern for teaching his theory of humanity to a traditionalist school.

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20). She became the chairman of the committee on compulsory education and began lobbying for better handling of children who were constantly truant from school. Appearing before a Legislative committee in Springfield, Illinois, Flower said, “One of the inalienable rights of every American child should be the right to an elementary education; and there are in this city at least ten thousand children, helpless to protect themselves or to know what the deprivation means, who will be deprived of this right if you Illinois legislators fail to do your duty” (Farwell, 1824, p. 21). The legislature was moved by her words and passed the Parental School Law in Illinois. When in 1894, a new mayor was elected and he chose not to re-appoint her to the School Board, there was such a hue and cry she was quickly nominated to be a candidate for a position of Trustee of the University of Illinois.

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The Scopes “Monkey” Trial During the 1920’s, many adversities were faced in the social, political, and religious aspects of American life. During this time, the origins of life became a hotbed of controversy among the religious and non-religious alike. Due to the rise of Christian fundamentalism and the resulting political pressures of the Deep South, the Scopes trial became the focal point of this great controversy. Religion quickly became challenged soon after a man by the name of, Charles Darwin, released his book in 1859, entitled, Origin of Species (Evans 197).

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The Scopes Trial represented a significant setback for anti evolution forces (5B). Many teachers in the 1920’s wanted to be able to teach evolution in relation to scientific terms but they were not able to. Teachers wanted to be able to teach students something

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The Scopes Trial took place in Tennessee, and the defendants name was John T. Scopes. He challenged the law for the American Civil Liberties Union, and so he taught evolution in the classroom. The trial was broadcast throughout the entire nation, to people curious about evolution, and it was the first trial to be broadcasted. The battle between the prosecuting attorney and defense attorney was great, as William Jennings Bryan was questioned in detail by defense attorney Clarence Darrow.

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Even years after Scopes's death, his name commands great attention as a teacher that was willing to challenge the Tennessee law, and for standing up what he thought was right (Hanson 40). "The publicity of the Scopes Trial was seen as one of the most important American historical trials. The outcome of the trial is still held ideal to American education today" (Media 1). Teaching of evolution eventually expanded, and fundamentalists used state laws to

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The Scopes Monkey trial was one the biggest and most influential court cases of all time. John Scopes was a public high school teacher in dayton tennessee who was arrested and tried for breaking the butlers law. Passed in 1925 it made teaching evolution in any schools and colleges in the state of Tennessee illegal. This was because evolution challenges the idea of creationism which was the popular religion in the tennessee. this was a huge problem because it was written in the constitution that you must separate church and state.

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As America saw an end to World war 1 and entered the 1920s, the country was faced with rapid changes in American society. These changes challenged the old traditional American values and introduced tension between modernists and traditionalist. Tension grew in churches and schools after new scientific discoveries were being made which supported the idea of evolution, rather than the bible. American society saw dramatic changes in it’s old, familiar culture as the Harlem Renaissance emerged and women gained more rights, which began taking affect on the customary American lifestyle. After World War 1, science became the main contributing factor to the controversy over religion during the 1920s.

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While also upsetting white people across the nation. The court ruled it unconstitutional because white schools were much better receiving better, newer supplies and curriculum. The black students who were just as intelligent if not more were not given the same treatment at all. Even though many people augured that their school was equal. It was clear that they were underfunded, and weren't given near the same resources.

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Eventually, the conspirators summoned John Scopes, a science teacher who taught evolution to his students, to start their plan. Scopes agreed, and the trial began on July 10th, 1925. Throughout the entire trial, however, the attention was not on Scopes’ prosecution. The main focus was on Darrow versus Bryan, evolutionism versus creationism. Unfortunately, despite Bryan’s reputation as a fundamentalist, he did not represent Christianity in a favorable image.

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During the 1960s there was a surge of Civil and Labor Rights movements. This led to the creation of many new policies in the work place, especially for public school teachers. This was the result of a large amount of collective bargaining agreements and strikes that took place during this time. The Chicago Teachers Union negotiated its first official contract with the Chicago Board of Education in the year 1967. The collective bargaining between the two yielded many new benefits for public school teachers including a pay increase, medical benefits, lunch breaks, and grievance procedures allowing for leave.

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Darrow creates a lasting mental impression and invokes fear through his use of graphic imagery and word repetition. The transition from guilt to fear drills deeper into their emotions . During the Scopes Trial, where a man was condemned for teaching evolution, Darrow defends science over religion, as he states that: If today you can take...evolution and make it a crime to teach it in the public school, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools, and the next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. Soon you may set Catholic against Protestant and Protestant against Protestant… (“Attorney for the Damned”187).

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Throughout the novel, people start acting different towards Atticus because of the Tom Robinson trial. A few days before the trial a good friend of Atticus tries to kill him with a group of white men to hurt Tom Robinson, but in between the situation Scout gets involved by talking to Mr. Cunningham casually and the men leave. It was one night when Atticus was acting up, of course because of the Tom Robinson case which is the night before but Jem, Scout and Dill knew something else was going on. A crowd of men and the sheriff, Heck Tate, go to Atticus’s house the day before the Tom Robinson trial.

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I have experienced this personally as I attended public school in Maine. The school was making budget cuts and the first teacher to receive a termination letter was the art teacher who taught, introductory art, drawing, painting, art history, and photography. Although this termination was not pursued much further, thanks to the effort and support of our community, and the endless school board meeting my peers and I attended, the idea was made clear that the arts were of least importance in our school district. If that is the philosophy of school officials, is is very likely it is the philosophy of our government officials as well, who form opinions heavily on monetary value. Consequently, there is little importance placed on the arts and humanities by higher officials, even though there is great importance and passion for it in the common people.

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