Introduction
Beads of sweat drip down your neck. You see the hundreds upon hundreds people around you in the courtroom. The judge is about to give the verdict. The Scopes “Monkey Trial” was one of the most famous court affairs in history. John T. Scopes was put on trial for teaching evolutionary studies when he took a substitute position and taught the theory to students.
Events that Contributed to the Scopes Trial
Events during the “Roaring Twenties” started the battle that lead to the Scopes trial. In the spring of 1925 the twenty-four year old John T. Scopes became Central High School's substitute for the school’s biology teacher who got sick (Johnson, 2007). With a 1914 biology textbook passed by the state of Tennessee, Scopes taught the program. As a science teacher in Dayton, TN, he thought that he was obligated to teach Darwin's theory of evolution to his pupils (Mencken, 2006). Darwin’s theory was apart of collection of theories linked to …show more content…
The trial would start with the judge coming into the courtroom, but he would have to squeeze in. On July 10, 1925, the trial would begin (Nardo, 1997). The defence and the prosecution would start to arrive at the courthouse of Dayton. They had a little problem. The yard and the halls in the courthouse were full of hundreds of people (Nardo, 1997). The courtroom was standing room only, and even then, there was no space to stand. Every seat and square inch of the room was accounted for, Darrow noticed, as he squeezed into the courtroom (Nardo, 1997). Scopes and the judge, John Raulson, were already in their places while over 100 reporters squeeze in (Nardo, 1997). The worst part is that Dayton was in the middle of a heat wave (Johnson, 2007). Before the trial started Judge Raulston said that men don't need ties or coats and there was to be no smoking because of the extreme heat (Johnson, 2007). This was just the