On This Day In 1925, The Unthinkable Happened In Tennessee
It was on June 10th, 1925, that the state of Tennessee adopted a new textbook for their biology students. Set to be taught in high schools, this was the book heard ’round the nation when it caught John T. Scopes in the act of denying state approved curriculum. What did the textbook teach, you ask? Well, it denied the theory of evolution, and ignited a trial that made the United States take notice. You may be thinking – hey. Wait. JUNE tenth? Yep. June 10th was when the textbook was adopted, and the trial began a mere month later, on July 10th. The more you know.
John T. Scopes was a young science teacher in Dayton who decided, against current state law, to teach outside the textbook frame - proposing evolution and a form of creation theory.
The law made it illegal 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 the lower order of animals."
As you can imagine, this lit a flame on both sides of the argument. The ACLU got involved extremely quickly, employing Clarence Darrow as the defense attorney.
In 1927 the verdict was overturned on technicality. It's still a widely debated topic amongst those both religious and not in the southern states, a realm most commonly associated with mixing church and government proceedings.
Meghan Kraft loves to travel the world, but she makes her home right here in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a degree in English, and has worked in the digital marketing realm with companies such as Apartments.com, USA Today and HarperCollins Publishing.
