In 1925, a trial in the small Tennessee town of Dayton became the focal point of a national debate over the role of evolution in American public education. The sensational trial centered on John Thomas Scopes, a local high school teacher charged with violating the state’s Butler Act, which prohibited teaching the theory of evolution in public schools. The trial reflected wider tensions in the early 20th century, as a growing popular movement promoted Biblical literalism in response to what it saw as the irreligious impulses of modern society and science, including Darwinian evolution. The Scopes Trial is remembered today as one of America’s great courtroom dramas, which placed at stake fundamental issues concerning religious freedom and free speech.
The trial is renowned for the legal and cultural issues with which it wrestled, and for the lawyers who conducted the proceedings. The prosecution was led by William Jennings Bryan, a three-time presidential candidate, fervent anti-evolutionist, and one of the country’s greatest orators. Clarence Darrow, perhaps the most famous trial lawyer in American history and a staunch defender of individual rights, stood for the defense. The jury trial was largely a procedural battle, punctuated by unorthodox rulings and memorable speeches, culminating in Darrow’s extraordinary examination of Bryan as an expert witness on the Bible.
Held over eight sweltering days in July, the Scopes Trial was a captivating spectacle for the American public, drawing crowds and stirring a media frenzy. The trial was one of the first to be broadcast on the radio and drew comments from a legion of journalists, scientists, and religious leaders. Rather than resolving tensions between science and religion in the 1920s, the trial thrust them further into the national consciousness. Over the past century, the Scopes Trial has influenced responses to the teaching of evolution and has inspired extensive discussions on the role of religion in public life. For its impacts in the courtroom and classroom, the historic trial remains an important chapter in American history.
The Law Library is pleased to introduce a new exhibit in the Riesenfeld Rare Books Center commemorating the trial’s centennial, “Evolution on the Stand: Revisiting the Scopes Trial at 100.” The exhibit highlights the University of Minnesota Law Library’s nationally preeminent Clarence Darrow Collection, which contains more than 1,000 letters written to and from the great trial attorney, in addition to case materials, speeches, debates, and other writings by and about Darrow.
The exhibit showcases outstanding treasures from this noted collection. On display are briefs submitted in Scopes’s appeal case, including a partial draft brief in the hand of ACLU general counsel, Arthur Garfield Hays, outlining the defense team’s early arguments. The exhibit also features typescripts of expert scientific witness statements, defending evolution and arguing for its compatibility with religion. A letter from John Scopes to Darrow, written after the trial, sheds light on the genuine friendship that developed between the great lawyer and his client, and a letter written by Bryan to Darrow reveals the political beliefs that the two men shared in their earlier careers. Other items include cultural artifacts related to the Scopes Trial, and a signed typescript chapter of Scopes’s 1960s memoir reflecting on the trial on the eve of the Butler Act’s repeal. Taken as a whole, these and other unique exhibit items encourage viewers to reexamine the prominent figures and issues involved in the trial, and to revisit the trial’s indelible legacy.
“Evolution on the Stand: Revisiting the Scopes Trial at 100” was curated by library faculty Michael Hannon and Ryan Greenwood with the assistance of the library’s archives and digital collections associate, Sophia Charbonneau, and digital technology specialist, Joy Brown. For more information about the exhibit or to schedule a tour, please contact Ryan Greenwood at 612-625-7323; [email protected].