The Scopes Monkey Trial

Imagine sitting in a 97-degree court room in the middle of July while you’re being prosecuted for a crime you’re not even sure you committed. This is exactly the situation twenty-four-year-old John T. Scopes found himself in during the summer of 1925. Almost overnight this trial became a national sensation and put the small town of Dayton, Tennessee on the map. It would involve two of the most famous attorneys of the day going head-to-head over a newly passed Tennessee State law called the Butler Act. What was the crime? Teaching evolution in the classroom.

Books:

• The Memoirs of William Jennings Bryan by William Jennings Bryan and Mary Baird Bryan
• Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools by Adam Shapiro
• Six Days or Forever? Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes by Ray Ginger 
• Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion by Edward Larson

Film:

• Inherit The Wind (1960) with Fredrich March, Spencer Tracy, and Gene Kelly