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HandWiki. Scopes Trial. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/34591 (accessed on 18 September 2026).
HandWiki. Scopes Trial. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/34591. Accessed September 18, 2026.
HandWiki. "Scopes Trial" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/34591 (accessed September 18, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, November 15). Scopes Trial. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/34591
HandWiki. "Scopes Trial." Encyclopedia. Web. 15 November, 2022.
Scopes Trial
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The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee 's Butler Act, which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school. The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he purposely incriminated himself so that the case could have a defendant. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 (equivalent to $1458 in 2019), but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. The trial served its purpose of drawing intense national publicity, as national reporters flocked to Dayton to cover the big-name lawyers who had agreed to represent each side. William Jennings Bryan, three-time presidential candidate, argued for the prosecution, while Clarence Darrow, the famed defense attorney, spoke for Scopes. The trial publicized the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy, which set Modernists, who said evolution was not inconsistent with religion, against Fundamentalists, who said the word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority over all human knowledge. The case was thus seen as both a theological contest and a trial on whether "modern science" should be taught in schools.

religion human evolution evolution

References

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  2. Balmer, Randall (2007). Thy Kingdom Come. Basic Books. p.111
  3. Larson 1997, p. 59
  4. Edward J. Larson, Summer for the Gods: And America's Continuing Debate over Science And Religion (2006)
  5. See Supreme Court of Tennessee John Thomas Scopes v. The State, at end of opinion filed January 17, 1927. The court did not address the question of how the assessment of the minimum possible statutory fine, when the defendant had been duly convicted, could possibly work any prejudice against the defendant. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/statcase.htm
  6. "A Monkey on Tennessee's Back: The Scopes Trial in Dayton". Tennessee State Library and Archives. http://www.tn.gov/tsla/exhibits/scopes/index.htm. Retrieved November 13, 2011. 
  7. The Great Monkey Trial, by L. Sprague de Camp, Doubleday, 1968
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  9. Presley, James and Scopes, John T. Center of the Storm. p. 60. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. (1967)
  10. Larson 1997, p. 108 "Scopes had urged the students to testify against him, and coached them in their answers."
  11. Larson 1997, p. 89,107
  12. Larson 1997, p. 108
  13. The New York Times May 26, 1925: pp. 1, 16
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  43. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution was not, at the time of the Scopes decision in the 1920s, deemed applicable to the states. Thus, Scopes' constitutional defense on establishment of religion grounds rested—and had to rest—solely on the state constitution, as there was no federal Establishment Clause protection available to him. See Court's opinion.See generally Incorporation doctrine and Everson v. Board of Education (a seminal U.S. Supreme Court opinion finally applying the Establishment Clause against states in 1947). http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/statcase.htm
  44. The New York Times January 16, 1927: 1, 28.
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  49. William V. Trollinger, God's Empire: William Bell Riley and Midwestern Fundamentalism (1991).
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  65. National Park Service (April 2007). "National Historic Landmarks Survey: List of National Historic Landmarks by State".
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  71. Martin, Life 86 (July 16, 1925): p. 16.
  72. "The Great Trial," Time (magazine) 6 (July 20, 1926): p. 17. https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%20%28magazine%29
  73. Life 86 (July 9, 1925): p. 7.
  74. Mencken, H.L., "Sickening Doubts About Value of Publicity", The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 9, 1925.
  75. Edgar Kemler, The Irreverent Mr. Mencken (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1948), pp. 175–90. For excerpts from Mencken's reports see William Manchester, Sage of Baltimore: The Life and Riotous Times of H.L. Mencken (New York: Andrew-Melrose, 1952) pp. 143–45, and D-Days at Dayton: Reflections on the Scopes Trial, ed. Jerry R. Tompkins (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1965) pp. 35–51.
  76. H.L. Mencken, Heathen Days, 1890–1936 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943) pp. 231–34; Michael Williams, "Sunday in Dayton", Commonweal 2 (July 29, 1925): pp. 285–88.
  77. "In Memoriam: W.J.B." was first printed in The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 27, 1925; rpt. by Mencken in the American Mercury 5 (October 1925) pp. 158–60 in his Prejudices (Fifth Series), pp. 64–74; and in https://archive.org/details/mencken017105mbp Cooke, Alistair, The Vintage Mencken, Vintage Books, pp. 161–167.
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  79. "Mencken Epithets Rouse Dayton's Ire", The New York Times, July 17, 1925, 3.
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  82. Notes on Inherit the Wind UMKC Law School. Retrieved April 15, 2007. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/SCO_INHE.HTM
  83. "Inherit the Wind: The Playwrights' Note". http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/inherit/l&lnote.html. 
  84. "Inherit the Wind, Drama for Students". Gale Group. January 1, 1998. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2692700013.html#. Retrieved August 31, 2012.  (Subscription content?)
  85. Riley, Karen L.; Brown, Jennifer A.; Braswell, Ray (January 1, 2007). "Historical Truth and Film: Inherit the Wind as an Appraisal of the American Teacher". American Educational History Journal. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1670106791.html#. Retrieved August 31, 2012.  (Subscription content?)
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  93. Goodchild, Peter (2006). The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial. L.A. Theatre Works. ISBN 9781580813525. 
  94. "The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial: AudioFile Review". AudioFile Magazine (Portland, ME). December 2006. http://www.audiobooksync.com/books/the-great-tennessee-monkey-trial/. 
  95. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nwz36
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  102. "Comedy Central: Drunk History: Clip". http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clips/lh1ta6/drunk-history-the-scopes-monkey-trial. 
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  104. The International Novelty Orchestra with Billy Murray. "Monkey Biz-Ness (Down In Tennessee 1925)". https://archive.org/details/TheInternationalNoveltyOrchestraVbillyMurray-MonkeyBiz-nessDownIn. Mr. Fab. "Silly 78s: International Novelty Orchestra with Billy Murray "Monkey Biz-ness (Down in Tennessee)" [GOTTA have some Billy Murray in any survey of 78s- he was the early 20th century's biggest recording star, and certainly one of the most prolific"]. http://musicformaniacs.blogspot.com/2013/06/silly-78s.html. 
  105. Lawrance Bernabo and Celeste Michelle Condit (1990). "Two Stories of the Scopes Trial: Legal and Journalistic Articulations of the Legitimacy of Science and Religion" in Popular Trials: Rhetoric, Mass Media, and the Law, edited by Robert Hariman. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, pp. 82–83.
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