The Scopes Monkey Trial
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=31881
General Information
Source:
Creator:
NBC Today Show
Jack Ford
Resource Type:
Copyright:
Event Date:
Air/Publish Date:
07/21/1925
08/15/1999
Copyright Date:
Clip Length
Video News Report
NBCUniversal Media,
LLC.
1999
00:06:50
Description
The debate over whether public schools should teach evolution was argued in a Dayton Tennessee
courtroom during the Scopes Monkey Trial in July 1925.
Keywords
Scopes Monkey Trial, William Jennings Bryan, John Scopes, Clarence Darrow, Evolution, Creationism,
Dayton, Tennessee
Citation
MLA
"The Scopes Monkey Trial." Jack Ford, correspondent. NBC Today Show. NBCUniversal Media. 15 Aug.
1999. NBC Learn. Web. 19 June 2015
© 2008-2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1 of 4
APA
Ford, J. (Reporter). 1999, August 15. The Scopes Monkey Trial. [Television series episode]. NBC Today
Show. Retrieved from https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=31881
CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE
"The Scopes Monkey Trial" NBC Today Show, New York, NY: NBC Universal, 08/15/1999. Accessed
Fri Jun 19 2015 from NBC Learn:
https://highered.nbclearn.com/portal/site/HigherEd/browse/?cuecard=31881
Transcript
The Scopes Monkey Trial
JACK FORD, host: This morning on ‘Trials of the Century’, the Scopes Monkey Trial. This week, Kansas
officials voted to allow the deemphasizing of the teaching of evolution in science classes. It is an old
debate at issue the theory of evolution. Simply put, it’s the idea that mankind descended from early life
forms as opposed to the biblical story of creation. And it all began at the dawn of the Jazz Age.
The roaring twenties, America was celebrating. The war was over and what was being called modern life
had captivated most of the nation.
EDWARD LARSON, author: This change, this jazz, this new life was coming and growing.
FORD: But on the farm life remained, little changed. Edward Larson’s Pulitzer Prize winning account of
the times is called Summer for the Gods.
LARSON: Many people in America wanted to go back to old ways and so traditional religion
fundamentalism was born just in that decade.
FORD: Fundamentalists saw Darwin’s theory of evolution as symbolic of the bewildering changes in
American life. Three-time presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan, led a crusade against the
teaching of evolution.
LARSON: And when Tennessee passed the law, the ACLU, which was then the leading legal rights
organization in the country, and they volunteered to defend any public school teacher willing to challenge
the law.
FORD: The scene shifted to a little town of Dayton, Tennessee, population 1800. The idea for this crime
if you want to call it that, was hatched at this table in Robinson’s Drug Store here in Dayton. Prohibition
was the law of the land, so the soda fountain had becoming the local watering hole. In early may of 1925,
some of the town leaders sat here and saw a way to put Dayton on the map.
John Scopes was just 25 years old, an out of towner, and Dayton High School’s new football coach. He
was also a substitute teacher.
LARSON: He didn’t like the law. Of course he never violated it, because he hadn’t taught evolution,
because he wasn’t a biology teacher. But he was willing to stand as the defendant in this trial.
FORD: It was headline news around the country and a local sensation too. Pauline Greer was 9 years old
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that summer.
PAULINE GREER, Dayton resident: It was circus. And then when they brought the monkeys in, that was
the boiling point. They were dressed like little boys and little girls, and we were so fascinated by that.
FORD: The trial began on Friday July 10th 1925. It was brutally hot day as more than 900 people,
including some 200 members of the press, were jammed inside this courtroom, built to hold about 600.
Jury selection took only two hours, 10 farmers, a schoolteacher and a clerk. Several of them said they read
the bible daily, and all but one were regular church goers. William Jennings Bryan agreed to lead the
prosecution. Across the aisle sat the greatest defense attorney of the time, Clarence Darrow.
LARSON: He was known both as a - in the juries as a labor lawyer and a defender of liberal causes, active
democrat, but the was most famous for his tremendous ability to cross-examine witnesses. And then lost,
totally lost in the crowd was John Scopes. He never testified. This was not a trial over whether Scopes
was guilty or innocent. This was a trial over the idea of limiting public school teaching.
FORD: The defense painted Dayton as being backward and anti-evolution.
LARSON: Ridicule the town, and you ridicule the law. And no self-respecting city like Pittsburgh or
Cincinnati would try something like this again.
FORD: Ironically, Dayton, which had been so enterprising in landing the big trial, now found itself the
butt of a cruel joke
GREER: If you said you were from Dayton, Tennessee, they would go “Oh, that’s monkey town.”
FORD: The dramatic high point of the trial came on its last day. The judge had moved the trial outside of
the courthouse to here, in the shadow of its walls. Because of the concern of the crowding inside, and a
desire to have more people hear the closing arguments. But in a surprise move, the defense called, the
prosecutor, as a witness. And then the two giants began to do battle.
Elouise Reed had a front row seat as Darrow went on the attack
ELOUISE REED, trial attendee: He wore these red suspenders, had on a white shirt. It was a hot day, hot,
hot, hot. He would get up in front of Bryan, this more times than one and he would flip those red
suspenders and he’d say now do you really believe that whale swallowed Jonah?
LARSON: So he asked a series of questions to confront Bryan with the choice of either accepting a
literalistic interpretation of the Bible, which would sound foolish to most Americans, or interpreting the
bible. And Bryan did both. But once he did that, then the defense could argue, well if you get to interpret
the Bible what’s wrong with evolution? Evolution is just God’s means of creation.
FORD: And then a last surprise of the defense. So Darrow said to the jury, find him guilty
LARSON: But what they wanted was to test the constitutionality of the law. And you could only do that
on an appeal, and you needed a conviction to get an appeal. So the jury went out and 9 minutes later they
came back in. The only reason it took 9 minutes was because they couldn’t get by the crowd.
FORD: The verdict, guilty. Scope’s punishment, a $100 fine. 5 days later William Jennings Bryan died.
He had been in poor health but many felt it was the trial that killed him. Did Clarence Darrow and the
defenders ever get their opportunity to have a higher court deal with these great issues?
LARSON: Tennessee Supreme Court pulled an and-run around it. They overturned the conviction of John
Scopes on a technicality that the jury had not imposed the fine.
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FORD: John Scopes left Dayton and worked in the oil industry. He returned only once, 35 years later, to
accept the keys to the city. He looked back on that historic trial and what it meant to him and to the nation.
JOHN SCOPES: Well I think it’s just as an important a fight as it ever was. That’s the history of old
society the older they get they more personal liberties are in danger.
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