When Tennessee Banned Evolution: The Law That Sparked the Scopes “Monkey” Trial

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, dear listeners. On March thirteenth, nineteen twenty five, the

0:04 Speaker 1: state of Tennessee quietly passed a law that would ignite

0:06 Speaker 1: one of the most famous courtroom battles in American history.

0:10 Speaker 1: It was called the Butler Act, and its language was

0:13 Speaker 1: deceptively simple. Public school teachers in Tennessee were forbidden from

0:17 Speaker 1: teaching any theory that denied the Biblical account of human creation. Specifically,

0:23 Speaker 1: any theory stating that humans descended from lower forms of life.

0:27 Speaker 1: In short, evolution was outlawed in public classrooms. This was

0:31 Speaker 1: not medieval Europe. This was nineteen twenty five America, the

0:36 Speaker 1: jazz age, radio broadcasts, automobiles, skyscrapers, and yet a state

0:42 Speaker 1: legislature had just voted to criminalize Darwin. To understand March thirteenth,

0:47 Speaker 1: you have to understand the cultural pressure cooker of nineteen

0:51 Speaker 1: twenties America. Urban centers were modernizing rapidly, and science was

0:56 Speaker 1: advancing at an unprecedented pace. Universities were teaching evolutionary biology

1:03 Speaker 1: as standard curriculum, but in rural and deeply religious communities,

1:08 Speaker 1: fundamentalist Christianity was rising. In response, the theory of evolution

1:13 Speaker 1: had become symbolic. It was no longer just about fossils

1:17 Speaker 1: or finches. It was about authority. Who gets to define

1:22 Speaker 1: truth the laboratory or the pulpit. The Act itself was

1:26 Speaker 1: introduced by Tennessee Legislator John Washington Butler, who later admitted

1:31 Speaker 1: he had never read Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

1:35 Speaker 1: Butler believed evolution undermined morality and destabilized society. The bill

1:42 Speaker 1: passed the House by a vote of seventy one to

1:44 Speaker 1: five and the Senate twenty four to six, before being

1:47 Speaker 1: signed into law by Governor Austin p The vote was

1:51 Speaker 1: not close. There was little hesitation in that moment. Anti

1:56 Speaker 1: evolution sentiment was not fringe, it was life legislative majority.

2:02 Speaker 1: Shortly after the law passed, the American Civil Liberties Union

2:05 Speaker 1: announced it would defend any teacher willing to challenge it.

2:09 Speaker 1: Enter John T. Scopes, a twenty four year old high

2:12 Speaker 1: school teacher in Dayton, Tennessee. Scopes agreed to be charged

2:16 Speaker 1: with violating the Butler Act by teaching evolution from a

2:19 Speaker 1: state approved biology textbook. The case was partly strategic. Local

2:24 Speaker 1: businessmen in Dayton saw an opportunity a trial would bring attention,

2:29 Speaker 1: tourism and economic stimulus to their town. Dayton volunteered to

2:33 Speaker 1: become the stage. The trial began in July nineteen twenty

2:38 Speaker 1: five and quickly became a national spectacle. Two giants faced

2:43 Speaker 1: off in the courtroom, Clarence Darrow for the defense, a

2:46 Speaker 1: famous agnostic lawyer known for high profile cases, and William

2:50 Speaker 1: Jennings Bryan for the prosecution, a three time presidential candidate

2:55 Speaker 1: and outspoken Christian fundamentalist. Reporters flooded. The proceedings were broadcast

3:02 Speaker 1: by radio, allowing Americans to listen to courtroom drama in

3:06 Speaker 1: real time, a relatively new phenomenon. The trial transcended legal

3:11 Speaker 1: argument and became theater. At one pivotal moment, Darrow called

3:15 Speaker 1: Brian to the stand as a Bible expert. In the

3:18 Speaker 1: sweltering Tennessee heat, Brian was questioned about the literal interpretation

3:23 Speaker 1: of Genesis. Did he believe the earth was created in

3:27 Speaker 1: six twenty four hour days? Could those days have been metaphorical?

3:32 Speaker 1: The exchange was tense, theological and symbolic. It was less

3:37 Speaker 1: about Scopes himself and more about the intellectual direction of

3:40 Speaker 1: the country. Scopes was ultimately found guilty and fined one

3:44 Speaker 1: hundred dollars. The conviction was later overturned on a technicality,

3:49 Speaker 1: not because the law was unconstitutional, but because the fine

3:52 Speaker 1: had been improperly set by the judge instead of the jury. Importantly,

3:57 Speaker 1: the Butler Act itself remained law until nineteen sixty seven.

4:02 Speaker 1: The courtroom battle had ended, but the legislation endured. Publicly,

4:07 Speaker 1: the trial was often framed as a victory for modernism. Privately,

4:11 Speaker 1: many states continued restricting evolution education for decades. The cultural

4:16 Speaker 1: divide did not disappear. It hardened. The Scope's trial became

4:21 Speaker 1: shorthand for the clash between science and religion in American life.

4:25 Speaker 1: And perhaps the most unsettling detail is this the debate

4:30 Speaker 1: never truly ended. Its simply changed language, reframed arguments, and

4:36 Speaker 1: re emerged in new forms. March thirteenth, nineteen twenty five,

4:42 Speaker 1: marks the moment when evolutions stopped being merely a scientific

4:45 Speaker 1: discussion and became a legal battlefield. It exposed a fracture

4:50 Speaker 1: in American identity modern versus traditional, urban versus rural, empirical

4:56 Speaker 1: versus literal. It forced the country to confront whether not

5:00 Speaker 1: leedgeit itself could be legislated, and that question still echoes.

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5:42 Speaker 2: didn't read it, it can't evolve Selective Curriculum Publishing because

5:47 Speaker 2: if the facts don't fit the narrative, simply adjust the facts.

5:52 Speaker 2: Side effects may include national radio trials and Clarence Darrow

5:56 Speaker 2: asking uncomfortable questions in ninety five degree heat.

6:00 Speaker 1: Dear listeners, March thirteenth reminds us that history is not

6:04 Speaker 1: always about discovery. Sometimes it is about denial. Ideas do

6:08 Speaker 1: not go extinct even when you try to outlaw them.