On this day, May 5, in 1925, John Scopes was arrested in Dayton, Tenn., for teaching evolution.
The ensuing trial pitted two of the sharpest legal minds against each other and was a critical turning point in the creation vs. evolution controversy.
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Heading the prosecution was former secretary of state and leading fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan. Trial attorney Clarence Darrow spoke for the defense. When the judge refused to allow scientists to testify, Darrow called Bryan to the stand as a biblical expert.
For nearly two hours, on the hot courthouse lawn where the trial was moved to accommodate the crowds, the two men sparred.
“No greater contrast in men could be imagined,” wrote H.L. Mencken for The (Baltimore) Evening Sun.
Bryan accused Darrow of making a “slur at the Bible,” while Darrow mocks Bryan for “fool ideas that no intelligent Christian on Earth believes.”
The jury found Scopes guilty. He was fined $100. Five days later, Bryan died in his sleep in Dayton. Today, school boards across the country continue to debate the teaching of the origins of man.
