HISTO-1130 Lecture 12: 3/6/2018 History
Document Summary
Religious civil war between fundamentalist, modernist, and protestants. Modernist protestants accommodate evolution, take bible as representation of. William jennings bryan turns movement into popular crusade. Bryan backs laws banning evolution in schools. 1925: tennessee state legislature passes bill outlawing evolution in the schools. Governor signs it, hopes it won"t actually matter. High school science teacher john t scopes accepts an offer from the. American civil liberties union to defend test case of the law. William jennings bryan defends the law, while chicago lawyer clarence darrow defends scopes for free. Both bryan and darrow historically promoted interests of working class people; have worked together before. Judge ultimately rules that scopes broke the law of teaching evolution, ordered to pay 100$ fine. Tennessee supreme court overrules it on a technicality. Both sides claim victory, and the debate continues. Mississippi, texas, other mostly southern states also pass laws prohibit evolution in school. Most ambitious social reform attempted in the united states.
