The Battle Over Teaching Evolution

 The issue: Evolution

 Tennessee law passed
earlier that year
banned teaching
evolution
The Law

 Illegal for any teacher in public

school “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.”
 John Scopes, teacher and
coach in Dayton, TN
 Taught evolution from
Hunter’s Civic Biology, the
official biology text for state
of TN
 Intentional protest against
new law
 Town leaders conspired to
bring the case to town
Defense
Most famous attorney of his time
Attorney

CLARENCE
DARROW
Prosecuting
Most famous orator of his time
Attorney

WILLIAM
JENNINGS
BRYAN
 Case argued by the
two most famous
figures possible: a
showdown of rivals
 Darrow represented
modernity
 Bryan represented
tradition
 Opening statements pictured the trial as a
titanic struggle between good and evil or truth
and ignorance.
 Bryan claimed that “If evolution wins,
Christianity goes." Darrow argued, "Scopes isn't
on trial; civilization is on trial."

Vs.
 In response to new social patterns of
modernism, a wave of revivalism developed
 Trial emerged as a conflict between social
and intellectual values
 Journalists looking for a showdown—who
would dominate American culture?
Traditionalists or modernists?

OR
 Fundamentalists
came from
hundreds of miles
 Passed out
pamphlets
 Hung banner “Read Your Bible”
 Songs, “You Can’t Make a
Monkey of Me”, “I’m No Kin
to a Monkey” etc.
 Dressed up chimpanzee each
day of the trial
 Gorillas in cages brought in
by train
Joe Merti, Chimpanzee
 Judge refused to rule
law unconstitutional,
so trial went forth
 Opened with a prayer
 Banner: “Read Your
Bible”
 "Fires have been lighted in America to kindle
religious bigotry and hate," Darrow said. "If
today you can take a thing like evolution and
make it a crime to teach it in the public schools,
tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in
the private schools. And after awhile, your
Honor, it's man against man and creed against
creed until we're marching backward to the time
when bigots burned the men who dared to bring
any intelligence and enlightenment and culture
to the human mind!”
 The national media applauded Darrow's
speech
 TN
newspapers
had a different
reaction.
Memphis
Commercial
Appeal printed
cartoon of
Darrow as the
Anti-Christ
 Baltimore journalist
 Very critical of Bryan
and creationists
 Brought descriptions
of trial to national
audience
 Portrayed
Southerners as
illiterate and ignorant
 Knew Scopes would be
convicted
 Wanted to use trial as a
national science lesson
on evolution
 Hoped to turn public
opinion against
creationists
 Journalists on his side
 Judge decided not to let any experts on
evolution testify
 Darrow called Bryan to the stand as an expert
on the Bible
 At first said everything in the Bible should be
taken literally
 After Darrow’s relentless questioning, finally
conceded that Bible should not always be
taken literally
 Reported by the press as a defeat for Bryan
 "As a man and as a legend, Bryan was
destroyed by his testimony that day.“
 Bryan died 6 days later
 Trial changed the way many people thought
about evolution, which eventually changed
laws
 Before trial 15 states had proposed anti-
evolution laws
 After trial only 2 states ended up passing laws
 Anti-evolution laws finally overturned
nationwide in 1968 in Epperson v. Arkansas
CHORUS:
I'm no kin to the monkey no no no,
The monkey's no kin to me yeah
yeah yeah,
I don't know much about his
ancestors
But mine didn't swing from a tree.
It seems so unbelievable,
And yet they say that it's true,
They're teaching us about it in school now,
That humans were monkeys once too.
CHORUS
Although it's so ridiculous,
They're teaching us now that it's true,
The teachers that came from a monkey,
Would be better off in a zoo.
CHORUS
It seems so much more believable,
And surely, surely it's true,
That God made Man in His image,
No monkey story will do.
CHORUS
This monkey business has to go,
Because it just isn't true,
It's such a disgrace to the monkey,
A disgrace to the human race too.
CHORUS
1. Tell me at least two reasons why was this
song written.
2. What does this song reflect about American
culture in the 1925 and who would be most
likely to sing it?