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A Century After a Man Was Convicted of Teaching Evolution, the Debate on Religion in Schools Rages
DAYTON, TENNESSEE, JUL 9 – The American Civil Liberties Union is renewing its legal fight against Tennessee's Butler Act, a century-old law banning evolution teaching in public schools, citing ongoing church-state separation issues.
- In July 1925, John Scopes, a Tennessee high school teacher, was tried in Dayton for teaching human evolution in violation of the Butler Act.
- The Butler Act, introduced in March 1925, banned teaching any theory denying the Biblical creation of man amid rising anti-evolution sentiment led by Christian fundamentalists.
- The trial became a national spectacle featuring Clarence Darrow defending Scopes and William Jennings Bryan prosecuting, spotlighting the debate over science and religion in schools.
- John Scopes was convicted and received a $100 penalty, an amount that was subsequently reversed due to a legal technicality, while the trial heightened ongoing debates over the place of religion in public education.
- One hundred years later, new laws requiring Ten Commandments displays in schools face legal challenges, reflecting continued tensions over church-state separation in the U.S.
119 Articles
119 Articles
100 years after the Scopes monkey trial, education is in the dock again
Today I’m remembering what Lela Scopes told me about her famous brother for my Paducah Sun story going on 46 years ago.She said before John Thomas Scopes left to teach science and coach football at Rhea County High School in Dayton, Tenn., in 1924, he explained: “I’m going there because it’s a small town with a small school where I won’t get in any deep water.”The skinny, bespectacled, freckle-faced 24-year-old from Paducah ended up the defendan…
100 Years After the Scopes Trial, Public Education Still Gets It Wrong
One hundred years ago, in Dayton, Tennessee, the Scopes “Monkey Trial” was underway, with the battle for children’s public education in the balance. This case has become infamous in American legal history, and it is still relevant a century later. The defendant, high school teacher John T. Scopes, was charged under Tennessee’s Butler Act, which made it illegal to teach evolution in public schools. Scopes’s defense was represented by Clarence Dar…
Randell Jones: "A Circus and a Holy War"
The "Scopes Monkey Trial"— a term coined in July 1925 by popular Baltimore Sun pundit H.L. Mencken —was about many things, but neither the scientific factuality of evolution or the inerrancy of biblical dictum was at the center of any…
Ohio Capital Journal
kentuckylantern.com100 years after John Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution, education is again on trial
Anti-evolution books were available for purchase in Dayton, Tenn., 100 years ago during the trial of Kentuckian John T. Scopes, charged with teaching about evolution during a biology lesson at Rhea County High School. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)Today I’m remembering what Lela Scopes told me about her famous brother for my Paducah Sun story going on 46 years ago. She said before John Thomas Scopes left to teach science and coach …
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