A case that riveted the nation, the case of The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes concluded on July 21, 1925, with the jury finding Mr. Scopes guilty of teaching what?
John T. Scopes John T. Scopes John Thomas Scopes (August 3, 1900 – October 21, 1970) was a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, who was charged on May 5, 1925, with violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools. He was tried in a case known as the Scopes Trial, in which he was found guilty and fined $100. Scopes was born in 1900 and his parents were Thomas Scopes and Mary Alva Brown who lived on a farm in Paducah, Kentucky, John was the fifth child and only son. The family moved to Danville, Illinois when John was
John T. Scopes Wallace Haggard, father and son pairings Ben and J. Gordon McKenzie, and William Jennings Bryan and William Jennings Bryan Jr. Bryan, Senior, had spoken at Scopes' high school commencement and remembered the defendant laughing while he was giving the address to the graduating class six years earlier. The case ended on July 21, 1925, with a guilty verdict, and Scopes was fined $100. The case was appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court. In a 3–1 decision written by Chief Justice Grafton Green, the Butler Act was held to be constitutional, but the court overturned Scopes's conviction because the judge had