John T. Scopes

John Thomas Scopes (August 3, 1900 – October 21, 1970), a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee at the age of 24, was charged on May 25, 1925 with violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools.

Related Topics:
August 3 - 1900 - October 21 - 1970 - Teacher - Dayton, Tennessee - May 25 - 1925 - Tennessee - Butler Act - Evolution

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Contrary to the impression created in various versions of Inherit the Wind, Scopes was actually born and raised in Paducah, Kentucky, and didn't move to Dayton until after he had gained a law degree at the University of Kentucky in 1924. In Dayton he took a job as the Rhea County High School's football coach, and occasionally filled in as substitute teacher when regular members of staff were off work.

Related Topics:
Inherit the Wind - Rhea County - High School - Football - Coach

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Scopes' involvement in the so-called Monkey Trial came about after The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that it would finance a test case challenging its constitutionality of the Butler Act if they could find a Tennessee teacher was put on trial for violating the statute.

Related Topics:
American Civil Liberties Union - Constitutionality

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A group of businessmen in Dayton, Tennessee, led by mine manager George Rappelyea, saw this as an opportunity to get publicity for their town and approached Scopes, who was the football coach and who had substituted for the principal in the school's science class. Rappelyea pointed out that while the Butler Act prohibited the teaching of evolution, the state required teachers to use the assigned textbook - Hinter's Civic Biology - which included a chapter on evolution. Rappelyea argued that teachers were essentially required to break the law. When asked about the test case Scopes was initially reluctant to get involved, but after some discussion he told the group gathered in Robinson's Drugstore, "If you can prove that I've taught evolution and that I can qualify as a defendant, then I'll be willing to stand trial."

Related Topics:
Science - Butler Act - Civic Biology

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In the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial, the defense team included Clarence Darrow, Dudley Field Malone, John Neal, Arthur Garfield Hays and Frank McElwee, whilst the prosecution team, led by Tom Stewart, also included brothers Herbert and Sue Hicks, Wallace Haggard, and father and son pairings Ben and J. Gordon McKenzie and William Jennings Bryan and William Jennings Bryan Jr.

Related Topics:
Scopes Monkey Trial - Defense - Clarence Darrow - Dudley Field Malone - John Neal - Arthur Garfield Hays - Tom Stewart - William Jennings Bryan

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Bryan had spoken at Scopes' high school commencement and remembered the defendant laughing while Bryan was giving the address to Scopes' graduating class six years earlier. The case ended with a guilty verdict, and Scopes was given a $100 fine, which Bryan and the ACLU offered to pay. The case was appealed to the Tennesee Supreme Court which found the Butler Act unconstitutional while overturning Scopes conviction on a technicality; the judge had set the fine instead of the jury.

Related Topics:
Guilt - Verdict - Unconstitutional - Technicality

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Ironically, in reality Scopes never taught evolution and was therefore innocent of the crime to which his name is inexorably linked. After the trial Scopes admitted to reporter William K. Hutchinson "I didn't violate the law," explaining he had skipped the evolution lesson and his lawyers had coached his students to go on the stand: the Dayton businessmen had assumed he had violated the law. Hutchinson did not file his story until after the Scopes appeal was decided in 1927. Scopes also admitted the truth to the wife of the Modernist minister Charles Francis Potter. Scopes was not allowed to take the stand at his trial for fear he would reveal his ignorance and turned down a $50,000 offer to lecture on evolution on the vaudeville stage because he did not know enough about the subject.

Related Topics:
Modernist - Minister

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After the trial, Scopes went to the University of Chicago, where he received a master's degree in geology. After that he was mainly employed by the oil industry, in both the United States and Venezuela. He died at the age of 70, probably from a stroke. He is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Paducah, Kentucky.

Related Topics:
University of Chicago - Master's degree - Geology - Oil industry - United States - Venezuela - Stroke - Paducah, Kentucky

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John Scopes wrote an autobiography entitled Center of the Storm: Memoirs of John T. Scopes. (Henry Holt & Company,

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Inc.—June 1967), ISBN 0030603404

Related Topics:
June - 1967

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