Scopes Monkey Trial

Question 1

Year

Answer 1

1925

Question 2

The Butler Act

Answer 2

Written by state congressman John Washington Butler, it prevented public schools from teaching anything conflicting with the book of Genesis. Written on the grounds that taxpaying parents should have a say in their children’s education

Question 3

Hunter’s Civic Biology

Answer 3

The biology textbook mandated by the state of Tennessee. It included discussions of evolution, and was what Scopes taught out of when accused.

Question 4

ACLU

Answer 4

The American Civil Liberties Union, it provided lawyers to people involved in free speech cases, and believed in the complete power of the first amendment. They put out ads asking for teachers willing to challenge the Butler Act

Question 5

Dayton, TN

Answer 5

A small town populated mainly by miners and managers. Town leaders saw the economic potential of a large trial, and convinced Scopes to agree to test it out.

Question 6

John T. Scopes

Answer 6

A 24 year old general science teacher and football coach, he taught but was not an expert in evolutionary theory. He claimed to be agnostic, but attended church for social reasons, and agreed to test the law.

Question 7

1920s Culture Wars

Answer 7

Divide between sophisticated urban population centers and rural farmer’s status anxiety, much tension.

Question 8

Roaring 20s

Answer 8

Roaring 20s when the war was over, America was quite prosperous, and there was jazz, flappers, and also prohibition

Question 9

Electrification of Cities

Answer 9

In the 20s almost all who lived in cities had electricity, while only 1 in 10 farmers did. Electricity spurred demand for products, especially radio, which made cities more desirable and progressing far faster than rural areas.

Question 10

Harlem Renaissance

Answer 10

Over 1 million African Americans moved North, there was a large gathering of them in Harlem. They had a large creative movement, with many famous poets, musicians, and artists

Question 11

Jazz Age

Answer 11

Jazz was born in New Orleans, became more urban as it travelled North with people. Jazz became the incredibly popular soundtrack of the decade

Question 12

Flappers

Answer 12

Hip, young, urban women who wore short dresses and had short hair. Considered edgy for their dress and rejection of traditional gender norms, they were prominent in advertising. Their presence in movies scared rural parents whose children saw them in film.

Question 13

Prohibition

Answer 13

Alcohol was made illegal by religious people, and while rural people had to resort to moonshine, prohibition never took hold in cities. Gangsters who controlled the alcohol trade became powerful figures in cities due to speakeasies.

Question 14

Nativism

Answer 14

Nativists opposed further immigration to the US, especially by those of Asian, Jewish, Italian, Catholic, or Eastern European descent. Many were KKK members.

Question 15

KKK’s Second Rise

Answer 15

Explodes in the 1920s on a national scale, with over 4 million members. They supported prohibition, and were against non-protestant whites, as well as flappers. They wanted to go back to a white supremacist America, run the government, and close Catholic schools.

Question 16

Religious Modernists

Answer 16

They felt the bible could coexist and be meshed with science. Because the bible was written by humans, it contained human interpretations of God’s actions, and as long as the ethical and religious teachings remained, then precise historical accuracy was less important.

Question 17

Religious Fundamentalists

Answer 17

Felt modernism was another sign of American decline, and hated that it had “infested” schools. They believed in a completely literal view of the bible, and most believed 17th century calculations that the world was created in 4004 BC, disagreeing with evolution.

Question 18

William Jennings Bryan

Answer 18

A populist democrat who ran for president 3 times. Resigned from Wilson’s secretary of state over entry into WWI. He was staunchly religious, and led a campaign to remove the teaching of evolution in schools. He also blamed Darwinism for German militarism and wealth concentration.

Question 19

Charles Darwin and Darwinism

Answer 19

Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, which proposed the ideas of evolution and natural selection, with conflicted with the book of genesis. Darwinism was the idea of a social natural selection.

Question 20

Theory of Evolution

Answer 20

proposed by Darwin, it directly conflicted with the creation story in the book of Genesis, and was banned from being taught in schools.

Question 21

Eugenics Movement

Answer 21

Progressives who thought society needed improvement wanted to speed up the process of natural selection. 30 states passed Eugenics laws preventing those seen as unfit from having children. At least 60,000 forced sterilizations occurred.

Question 22

Buck vs Bell

Answer 22

Virginia passed a law that inmates had to be sterilized before released. A young girl was molested, ended up in jail, and was sent to be sterilized. The case was taken to the supreme court, who decided to sterilize her because her mother was in a mental institution, and that was too many generations.

Question 23

Clarence Darrow

Answer 23

A Famous defense attorney, he is agnostic and abrasive. He defended radicals, labor leaders, bombers, and those facing the death penalty, and offered to defend Scopes for free. His goal was to embarrass Bryan and fundamentalists, while the ACLU wanted it to be about free speech.

Question 24

H. L. Mencken

Answer 24

One of the most famous editorialists of the day, he worked for the Baltimore Sun. He was sarcastic, cynical, and prejudiced against country folk. He went to Dayton to report, and dubbed the case the “monkey trial” in the “bible belt”

Question 25

Judge John Raulston

Answer 25

A state court judge, he was a Methodist and huge fan of William Jennings Bryan, regularly quoting him and scripture in his decisions.

Question 26

Voir Dire (Scopes Trial)

Answer 26

Only three peremptory challenges were allowed. Most potential jurors were from rural Dayton area, the final jury ended up being all male and all white.

Question 27

Peremptory Challenges (Scopes Trial)

Answer 27

Only 3 were allowed, Darrow tried to get people to be dismissed based on religious beliefs but the judge was not having it.

Question 28

First Amendment (Scopes Trial)

Answer 28

States that congress cannot impinge on free speech or free religion, but the law was made by the Tennessee government, not the federal one.

Question 29

Fourteenth Amendment (Scopes Trial)

Answer 29

claims that states cannot impinge on liberties without due process of law. In the 1920s, this began to be interpreted as including states being unable to violate bill of rights. A case earlier that summer protected first amendment freedom of speech through the fourteenth.

Question 30

Pierce vs Society of Sisters

Answer 30

June 1925, a supreme court case decided that when the KKK sponsored Oregon under the clause that children had to attend public schools, that parents had a right to educate students as they saw fit, but public schools could mandate lessons.

Question 31

Tenn. State Constitution

Answer 31

claims that no preference can be given to any religion over another, and that everyone had the right to the free communication of thoughts and opinions. Darrow wanted to lose and challenge on a federal level.

Question 32

Darrow’s Expert Witnesses

Answer 32

Darrow brought religious modernists to show that evolution can be interpreted to fit within the bible without contradicting Genesis. Scientists were brought to show the validity of evolution, and to show that it was so widespread that banning the idea contradicted the Tennessee constitution.

Question 33

Dr. Maynard Metcalf

Answer 33

A Hopkins University Zoologist, his testimony was heard with jury absent. He testified that most scientists accpet evolution as fact, and that the earth was formed much longer ago than religion claims. His testimony, and that of all Darrow’s witnesses, was inadmissible because the judge claimed religion was not on trial.

Question 34

Inherit the Wind

Answer 34

A film based on the trial, it was made from an urban perspective, and cast Scopes as the protagonist. It became very popular.

Question 35

Epperson vs Arkansas

Answer 35

A 1968 supreme court case where Arkansas is forbidden from banning the teaching of evolution due to the first and fourteenth amendments. This decision forced Tennessee to abolish the Butler Act.