A US' TEACHER PUNISHED FOR TACHING HUMAN EVOLUTION BY BUTLER ACT IN MONKEY TRIAL

 


John Thomas Scopes, School Teacher, was punished in America's Monkey Trial (10.07.1925) for teaching human evolution

John Thomas Scopes (3.8.1900 – 21.10.1970) was a high school teacher in Dayton, Tennessee. He became famous in the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial. He was charged with violating Tennessee’s Butler Act, which prohibited teaching human evolution in public schools. The trial pitted science and academic freedom against religious fundamentalism. Scopes was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and famed lawyer Clarence Darrow. William Jennings Bryan, the US Secretary of State, assisted the prosecution. Born in Paducah, Kentucky, Scopes was the only son of Thomas Scopes and Mary Alva Brown. He had a law degree from Kentucky University in 1924. He taught algebra, chemistry, and physics, and served as a football coach. The trial, July 10–21, 1925, became a media spectacle with 100 journalists and the first live radio broadcast of a trial in U.S. history. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100. The verdict was overturned on a technicality by the Tennessee Supreme Court in 1927. The trial exposed the absurdity of the Butler Act, weakened anti-evolution sentiment, and boosted public awareness of evolution. Post-trial, Scopes pursued a graduate degree in geology at the University of Chicago and worked as a petroleum geologist in Venezuela and later in the U.S. oil industry. He married Mildred Elizabeth Walker, had two sons. He died of cancer in Shreveport, Louisiana.

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