John Scopes biography

Synopsis

Early Life

A high school science teacher, John Scopes found himself at the center of one of the twentieth century's most famous court battles. He served as the defendant in a legal case meant to challenge Kentucky's law against teaching Charles Darwin's theories of evolution in public schools.

Scopes was the youngest of five children born to railroad worker Thomas Scopes and his wife Mary. The couple's only son, he spent his early years in Kentucky before moving to Illinois as a teenager. There he graduated from high school in 1919. After one year at University of Illinois, Scopes transferred to the University of Kentucky. He had to drop out for a time for medical reasons, but he eventually earned a degree in law.

Evolution on Trial

In the fall of 1924, Scopes joined the faculty of Rhea County Central High School in Dayton, Tennessee. He taught algebra, chemistry, and physics at the school. At the time, there was a national debate about whether evolution should be taught in schools. British naturalist Charles Darwin championed the theories of evolution, espousing that all modern animal and plant life had descended from a common ancestor. Darwin's theories, however, directly contradicted the Bible's teachings on the beginning of life. Across the United States, Christian fundamentalists moved to bar any discussion of evolution from the nation's classrooms.

Tennessee passed their own law against the teaching of evolution in March 1925. The Butler Act made it illegal for any teacher in a publicly funded school "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." The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wanted to challenge the Butler Act in court . While he was not a biology teacher, Scopes volunteered to be tried under the new law. He admitted he had used a textbook that supported evolution while serving as a substitute biology teacher. That was enough to get him charged under the new law.

Only 24 years old, Scopes saw the case as a chance to stand up for academic freedom. He later said, "What goes on in a classroom is up to the student and the teacher. Once you introduce the power of the state—telling you what you can and cannot do—you've become involved in propaganda."

On July 10, 1925, Scopes appeared in a Dayton courtroom to stand trial. He was represented by one of the most famous lawyers of the time, Clarence Darrow.