The Scopes Monkey Trials In the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, John T. Scopes, a young high school teacher, came to fame while being put on trial for educating his students about evolution. The infamous Scopes Monkey Trial captivated the nation as the right to free speech came into question under the Butler Act. Although Scopes was found guilty, he became a symbol of the movement towards a religious-free school system. In the later years of the 19th century, the third great awakening took place, sweeping across the nation. It differed from the first two by believing that the government needed to take a more active role in helping the common person. An influx of new people started going to church, and a record number of conversions happened. …show more content…
Since the Butler Act supports the teaching of the Bible, no student is allowed to freely express their religion or what they believe in. The Butler Act was unconstitutional and should never have been passed. John T. Scopes was never given a fair trial and was destined to be found guilty from the start. Before the trial even started, the judge called in a reverend to open the trial with a prayer. In a trial of religion vs. evolution, how was it meant to be fair if the judge brought religion into the courtroom? In a court case, a judge is supposed to be impartial, but during the Scopes trial, Judge Raulston wouldn’t allow any scientific experts to testify due to his religious beliefs. This was a big blow to the defense’s case, and they had to completely change their strategy. Another thing that showed the bias of the courtroom was the speed at which the jury reached their verdict. The jury only took nine minutes to reach a unanimous verdict. The trial took over a week, and there were countless witnesses and pieces of evidence. This just shows that people in the south were very anti-evolution and didn’t even need to look at the evidence to reach a