Inherit The Truth
Coordinates: 35°29′41.74″N 85°00′45.63″W / 35.4949278°N 85.0126750°W / 35.4949278; -85.0126750
| Tennessee v. Scopes | |
|---|---|
| Court | Criminal Court of Tennessee |
| Full case name | The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes |
| Date decided | July 21, 1925 |
| Citation(s) | None |
| Judge(s) sitting | John T. Raulston |
| Case history | |
| Subsequent action(s) | Scopes v. State (1926) |
The Scopes Trial, formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, was a famous American legal case in 1925 in which a high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which made it unlawful to teach evolution in any state-funded school. The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught evolution, but he purposefully incriminated himself so that the case could have a defendant.
Scopes was found guilty and fined $100, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. The trial served its purpose of drawing intense national publicity, as national reporters flocked to Dayton to cover the big-name lawyers who had agreed to represent each side. William Jennings Bryan, three-time presidential candidate for the Democrats, argued for the prosecution, while Clarence Darrow, the famed defense attorney, spoke for Scopes. The trial set modernists, who said evolution was consistent with religion, against fundamentalists who said the word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority over all human knowledge. The case was thus seen as both a theological contest and a trial on the veracity of modern science regarding the creation-evolution controversy.
The trial is perhaps best known today for serving as the inspiration for the play, and later the movie, Inherit the Wind, both of which were critical successes.
Read more about Inherit The Truth: Origins, Dayton, The Actual Proceedings, Appeal To Supreme Court of Tennessee, Related Cases
Famous quotes containing the words inherit the, inherit and/or truth:
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
—Bible: New Testament Jesus, in Matthew, 5:5.
The third of the Beatitudes, from the Sermon on the Mount. The words recall those in Proverbs 37:11, “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” In his Notebooks, the author Samuel Butler wrote, “I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek long when they are exalted.” (Samuel Butler’s Notebooks, p. 220, 1951)
“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“The history of his present majesty, is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations ... all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)