On this day, July 21, in 1925, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty in Tennessee of teaching evolution in class and fined $100. The trial pitted two of the country’s sharpest legal minds. Former secretary of state and leading fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan headed the prosecution. 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.
The two men sparred for nearly two hours on the hot courthouse lawn where the trial was moved to accommodate the crowds.
“No greater contrast in men could be imagined,” wrote H.L. Mencken for the Baltimore Evening Sun.
Bryan died five days later. Scopes’ conviction was overturned on a technicality: The judge had set the fine, not the jury.
-Scott McCabe
