THE GREAT MONKEY TRIAL Thesis
In Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925, as a substitute teacher, John Scopes illegally taught evolution. The ACLU was against the Butler Act (which most people in Tennessee believed in), that teaching evolution in public schools was wrong. They took a stand and partnered with Clarence Darrow, a famous defense attorney, to defend John Scopes who was convinced to stand. George Rappleyea, the manager of the Cumberland Coal and Iron Company in Dayton, agreed with the ACLU, but also was hoping to boost the economy for Dayton.
Background
In August, 1900, John Thomas Scopes was born in the large city of Paducah. Scopes moved around a lot due to his dad's work. “Scopes was born in Paducah, Kentucky in 1900. His family …show more content…
A biography on George Rappleyea by Doug Linder quotes, “... but he saw his real chance to challenge the new law when, while sitting in his office at the coal yard, he spotted a story in that same paper. The story in the May 4th edition quoted an American Civil Liberties Union chairperson, Professor Charles Skinner, as saying the organization was “looking for a Tennessee teacher who is willing to accept our services in testing this law in the courts”,” Scientific American, in which there is an article by Fay-Cooper Cole, a witness for the defense at the trial, says, “24-year-old John Thomas Scopes, found himself engaged in a discussion of the new law with George W. Rappleyea, a young mining engineer and superintendent of the local coal mines. Scopes expressed bewilderment that the state should supply him with a textbook that presented the theory of evolution, yet make him a lawbreaker if he taught the theory. Rappleyea agreed that it was a crazy law and clearly unconstitutional. Then suddenly he asked: "Why don't I have you arrested for teaching evolution from that text and bring the whole thing to an end?" Scopes replied: "Fair enough."” “ ... I knew that sooner or later someone would have to take a stand against the stifling of freedom that the Butler Act represented,” says John Scopes in his book, Center of the Storm. On May 5, …show more content…
“July 26, 1925 – Five days after the Scopes trial ends, Bryan dies in his sleep in Dayton,” George Rappleyea got what he According to the NPR’s timeline on the trial. Edward J. Johnson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for History, quotes, “ ... The press coverage of the "Monkey Trial" was overwhelming. The front pages of newspapers like The New York Times were dominated by the case for days. More than 200 newspaper reporters from all parts of the country and two from London were in Dayton. Twenty-two telegraphers sent out 165,000 words per day on the trial, over thousands of miles of telegraph wires hung for the purpose; more words were transmitted to Britain about the Scopes trial than for any previous American event. Trained chimpanzees performed on the courthouse lawn. Chicago's WGN radio station broadcast the trial with announcer Quin Ryan via clear-channel broadcasting first on-the-scene coverage of the criminal trial. Two movie cameramen had their film flown out daily in a small plane from a specially prepared airstrip.” And that was just the news. “From the beginning to the end of the case Ringling Brothers or Barnum and Bailey would have been pressed hard to produce more acts and sideshows and freaks that Dayton
In Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925, as a substitute teacher, John Scopes illegally taught evolution. The ACLU was against the Butler Act (which most people in Tennessee believed in), that teaching evolution in public schools was wrong. They took a stand and partnered with Clarence Darrow, a famous defense attorney, to defend John Scopes who was convinced to stand. George Rappleyea, the manager of the Cumberland Coal and Iron Company in Dayton, agreed with the ACLU, but also was hoping to boost the economy for Dayton.
Background
In August, 1900, John Thomas Scopes was born in the large city of Paducah. Scopes moved around a lot due to his dad's work. “Scopes was born in Paducah, Kentucky in 1900. His family …show more content…
A biography on George Rappleyea by Doug Linder quotes, “... but he saw his real chance to challenge the new law when, while sitting in his office at the coal yard, he spotted a story in that same paper. The story in the May 4th edition quoted an American Civil Liberties Union chairperson, Professor Charles Skinner, as saying the organization was “looking for a Tennessee teacher who is willing to accept our services in testing this law in the courts”,” Scientific American, in which there is an article by Fay-Cooper Cole, a witness for the defense at the trial, says, “24-year-old John Thomas Scopes, found himself engaged in a discussion of the new law with George W. Rappleyea, a young mining engineer and superintendent of the local coal mines. Scopes expressed bewilderment that the state should supply him with a textbook that presented the theory of evolution, yet make him a lawbreaker if he taught the theory. Rappleyea agreed that it was a crazy law and clearly unconstitutional. Then suddenly he asked: "Why don't I have you arrested for teaching evolution from that text and bring the whole thing to an end?" Scopes replied: "Fair enough."” “ ... I knew that sooner or later someone would have to take a stand against the stifling of freedom that the Butler Act represented,” says John Scopes in his book, Center of the Storm. On May 5, …show more content…
“July 26, 1925 – Five days after the Scopes trial ends, Bryan dies in his sleep in Dayton,” George Rappleyea got what he According to the NPR’s timeline on the trial. Edward J. Johnson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for History, quotes, “ ... The press coverage of the "Monkey Trial" was overwhelming. The front pages of newspapers like The New York Times were dominated by the case for days. More than 200 newspaper reporters from all parts of the country and two from London were in Dayton. Twenty-two telegraphers sent out 165,000 words per day on the trial, over thousands of miles of telegraph wires hung for the purpose; more words were transmitted to Britain about the Scopes trial than for any previous American event. Trained chimpanzees performed on the courthouse lawn. Chicago's WGN radio station broadcast the trial with announcer Quin Ryan via clear-channel broadcasting first on-the-scene coverage of the criminal trial. Two movie cameramen had their film flown out daily in a small plane from a specially prepared airstrip.” And that was just the news. “From the beginning to the end of the case Ringling Brothers or Barnum and Bailey would have been pressed hard to produce more acts and sideshows and freaks that Dayton