10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America

In Chapter 7, Gillon examines the infamous trial that took place in Tennessee after John Scopes, a high school teacher, violated the state’s Butler Act. Passed only months before and aimed directly at Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, the law barred the teaching of “any theory that denies the Story of the Divine Creation of Man as taught in the Bible” (154). Gillon explains that “the Scopes trial was a product of the conflicting cultural cross-currents of the era […] a confrontation between old values and new realities” (150). Drastic cultural changes led many citizens to decry what they saw as America’s moral decay. In particular, some objected to the mandatory school attendance laws: “schools became the new battleground between science and religion” (153).

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) placed ads in Tennessee newspapers looking for anyone willing to challenge the Butler Act. The Dayton, Tennessee, school board recruited Scopes to be the test case, hoping to bring national media attention to their small town. The trial truly turned into a spectacle when William Jennings Bryan volunteered to join the prosecution and Clarence Darrow volunteered to join the defense.