Monkey Trial
Friday, 3rd of January at 7.30pm
For eight sweltering days in July 1925, hundreds of people streamed into
Dayton, Tennessee, (population 1800) to watch the trial of football coach
and part-time biology teacher John Scopes. “The crowd filled the aisles,
the windows, the doors” said one reporter. “Photographers and movie men
perched on chairs, tables and ladders.”
They had come to watch one of the most remarkable trials of the 20th
Century. With 175,000 words being dispatched daily and WGN Radio
broadcasting the trial live, it was the first major media event in American
history. The proceedings captured so much attention because they pitted
science against religion and promised a battle royale between two of the
most prominent men of the age. The Scopes trial created fault lines in
American society that still exist to this day.
The documentary MONKEY TRIAL, screening on SBS on Friday, January 3 @ 7.30
pm, is a Nebraska ETV Network production for PBS’ WGBH American Experience.
Through interviews with leading historians, biographers and scientists, and
using the observations of Dayton residents, the documentary strips away the
myths that obscure the meaning of one of the most important and famous
legal trials of the century.
Scopes was accused of violating a Tennessee law that forbade the teaching
of evolution. “It was symbolic law” says historian Lawrence Levine. “It was
a law symbolising who was right, who was legitimate. Religion was
legitimate. Darwin was not legitimate in the state of Tennessee.” Since the
state’s official biology textbook included an explanation of evolution, no
one expected the law to be enforced.
However, several months later, the fledgling American Civil Liberties Union
seized on Tennessee law as an attack on free speech. The ACLU ran ads in
local papers looking for a teacher who would be willing to challenge the
law. Faced with closing mines and tough times in their little town,
Dayton’s leaders thought a court case would bring attention (and business)
to their town. Eventually, they persuaded high school teacher John Scopes
to be arrested and tried for teaching evolution.
The crowds didn’t come to see Scopes or hear the arguments of his ACLU
attorneys. They came to witness a clash of the titan- a fight to the finish
between the lead prosecuting and defence attorneys Clarence Darrow and
William Jennings Bryan, two of the greatest orators of the day.
For thirty years, Bryan had been a progressive force in the Democratic
Party. He’d supported women’s suffrage, the rights of farmers and labourers
and he believed passionately in majority rule. But on the question of the
origins of man, Bryan put his faith in God. “All the ills from which
America suffers,” he said “can be traced to the teaching of evolution”
Opposing him was the country’s most brilliant defence attorney, Clarence
Darrow. For years he had been trying to engage Bryan in a debate over
religion. Hearing that Bryan was coming to Dayton, he offered his services
for the defence without pay. He came to Dayton because of his belief in
free speech.
The trial quickly took on a circus- like atmosphere. Outside the
courthouse, chimpanzees dressed in suits and indignant preachers vowed
competed for attention. Inside, the judge wouldn’t allow scientists to
testify, irritating even John Butler, the Baptist legislator who drafted
the law: “The judge ought to give ‘em a chance to tell what evolution is,”
he said. “I believe in being fair and square and American. Besides, I would
like to know what evolution is myself!”
In an unprecedented move, Bryan was called as a witness for the defence.
Historian Phillip Johnson says “The idea of the defence lawyer calling the
chief prosecutor as a witness is absurd. It’s a totally inappropriate role
for an advocate to play. And the judge realised this. He thought it was
crazy. The other prosecutors thought it was crazy, but Bryan thought it was
an opportunity to have the debate to make his case.”
The jury took just nine minutes to convict Scopes.
A Hollywood film – Inherit the Wind- was released in 1960 and was based on
the Monkey Trial.
The documentary MONKEY TRIAL is preceded by the first episode of the
successful eight-part SBS series EVOLUTION. Tracing the history and science
of Darwin’s theories, EVOLUTION returns to SBS Television due to popular
demand on the 2nd of January at 7.30pm.
http://www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?id=121
