Scopes Monkey Trial Flashcards
Year
1925
The Butler Act
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
Hunter’s Civic Biology
The biology textbook mandated by the state of Tennessee. It included discussions of evolution, and was what Scopes taught out of when accused.
ACLU
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
Dayton, TN
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.
John T. Scopes
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.
1920s Culture Wars
Divide between sophisticated urban population centers and rural farmer’s status anxiety, much tension.
Roaring 20s
Roaring 20s when the war was over, America was quite prosperous, and there was jazz, flappers, and also prohibition
Electrification of Cities
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.
Harlem Renaissance
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
Jazz Age
Jazz was born in New Orleans, became more urban as it travelled North with people. Jazz became the incredibly popular soundtrack of the decade
Flappers
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.
Prohibition
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.
Nativism
Nativists opposed further immigration to the US, especially by those of Asian, Jewish, Italian, Catholic, or Eastern European descent. Many were KKK members.
KKK’s Second Rise
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.
Religious Modernists
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.
Religious Fundamentalists
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.
William Jennings Bryan
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.
Charles Darwin and Darwinism
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.
Theory of Evolution
proposed by Darwin, it directly conflicted with the creation story in the book of Genesis, and was banned from being taught in schools.
Eugenics Movement
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.
Buck vs Bell
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.
Clarence Darrow
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.
H. L. Mencken
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”
