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John Scopes Trial Essay

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John Scopes Trial Essay
On March 13, 1925, the Butler Act was passed by W.F. Barry and L.D. Hill. It was soon approved by Austin Peay. The Butler Act prohibited the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all schools in the state of Tennessee. Basically it states that it is, “unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.”

There were several people involved in the trial. They included John Scopes, William Jennings Bryan, and Clarence Darrow. They each played a very important role in the trial. Born in Kentucky in 1900, John Scopes was a science teacher in Tennessee. He became famous for going on trial for teaching evolution in 1925. Scopes was part of an American Civil Liberties Union attempt to challenge the state law that prohibited the teaching of evolution.He served as the defendant in the case. Scopes's trial was a national sensation. Especially with celebrity lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan involved in the case. …show more content…
Clarence was born on April 18, 1857. After graduating from Allegheny College and the University of Michigan Law School, Darrow passed the bar exam in 1878. He became a small-town lawyer and practiced for the following nine years. He moved to Chicago in 1887, to look for more interesting work.Clarence defended John T. Scopes, the public high-school teacher accused of teaching evolutionary theory in violation state of Tennessee’s law. It was one of his most famous cases. The other lawyer, William Jennings Bryan, was born in Salem, Illinois. He went to college at Illinois College in Jacksonville and Union Law School in Chicago. He served as an associate in the trial of John Scopes. He based his argument on women’s rights, prohibition, and christian
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