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N0KFQ > TODAY 10.07.15 16:16l 79 Lines 3752 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 60979_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 10
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IR1UAW<IQ5KG<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 150710/1415Z 60979@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1925
Monkey Trial begins
In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with
John Thomas Scopes, a young high school science teacher, accused
of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law.
The law, which had been passed in March, made it a misdemeanor
punishable by fine 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."
With local businessman George Rappalyea, Scopes had conspired to
get charged with this violation, and after his arrest the pair
enlisted the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to
organize a defense. Hearing of this coordinated attack on
Christian fundamentalism, William Jennings Bryan, the three-time
Democratic presidential candidate and a fundamentalist hero,
volunteered to assist the prosecution. Soon after, the great
attorney Clarence Darrow agreed to join the ACLU in the defense,
and the stage was set for one of the most famous trials in U.S.
history.
On July 10, the Monkey Trial got underway, and within a few days
hordes of spectators and reporters had descended on Dayton as
preachers set up revival tents along the city's main street to
keep the faithful stirred up. Inside the Rhea County Courthouse,
the defense suffered early setbacks when Judge John Raulston
ruled against their attempt to prove the law unconstitutional and
then refused to end his practice of opening each day's proceeding
with prayer.
Outside, Dayton took on a carnival-like atmosphere as an exhibit
featuring two chimpanzees and a supposed "missing link" opened in
town, and vendors sold Bibles, toy monkeys, hot dogs, and
lemonade. The missing link was in fact Jo Viens of Burlington,
Vermont, a 51-year-old man who was of short stature and possessed
a receding forehead and a protruding jaw. One of the
chimpanzees - named Joe Mendi - wore a plaid suit, a brown fedora,
and white spats, and entertained Dayton's citizens by monkeying
around on the courthouse lawn.
In the courtroom, Judge Raulston destroyed the defense's strategy
by ruling that expert scientific testimony on evolution was
inadmissible - on the grounds that it was Scopes who was on trial,
not the law he had violated. The next day, Raulston ordered the
trial moved to the courthouse lawn, fearing that the weight of
the crowd inside was in danger of collapsing the floor.
In front of several thousand spectators in the open air, Darrow
changed his tactics and as his sole witness called Bryan in an
attempt to discredit his literal interpretation of the Bible. In
a searching examination, Bryan was subjected to severe ridicule
and forced to make ignorant and contradictory statements to the
amusement of the crowd. On July 21, in his closing speech, Darrow
asked the jury to return a verdict of guilty in order that the
case might be appealed. Under Tennessee law, Bryan was thereby
denied the opportunity to deliver the closing speech he had been
preparing for weeks. After eight minutes of deliberation, the
jury returned with a guilty verdict, and Raulston ordered Scopes
to pay a fine of $100, the minimum the law allowed. Although
Bryan had won the case, he had been publicly humiliated and his
fundamentalist beliefs had been disgraced. Five days later, on
July 26, he lay down for a Sunday afternoon nap and never woke
up.
In 1927, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the Monkey Trial
verdict on a technicality but left the constitutional issues
unresolved until 1968, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a
similar Arkansas law on the grounds that it violated the First
Amendment.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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