The Media's Impact on the Scopes Monkey Trial

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The Media's Impact on the Scopes Monkey Trial

The 1920’s were a period of transition for America. The culture of society

was quickly adapting to many new ideas and beliefs. Traditional schools of thought were

gradually being replaced with new technology and knowledge. The changes taking place

were the source of much conflict, as many historical events of the twenties can illustrate. One such event is the Scopes “Monkey” Trial. From our research we discovered that the trial pitted Modernists against Traditionalists, Fundamentalists against Evolutionists, and the Country against the City. However, these conflicts would not have been brought to the attention of the American public if the media had not been so engrossed in the event. That idea helped in formulating our research question: Why did the media choose to get so involved in such a localized, small town affair?

In order to answer this question we decided to examine the aforementioned

conflicts to try to understand why the media showed such strong interest in the trial. We found that the media recognized this case as a perfect way to bring these conflicts to the forefront of the American mind. By doing this, the ideas and beliefs of modernists could be showcased and possibly validated. This was a way to indirectly force change and

progress in America. To demonstrate this point, the socio-cultural conflicts need to be

investigated and related to the Scopes trial.

Before looking at these issues, some background is necessary. The whole

controversy originated when the Butler Law was passed in 1925 prohibiting the teaching

of the Evolution theory in state funded schools (Scopes and Presley 52). When the

American Civil Liberties Union discovered the law, they put out a press release requesting the cooperation of a Tennessee teacher in a “friendly test case” of the law (DeCamp 8). Dayton resident George Rappleyea and some friends came up with the idea to have the case in Dayton and decided to ask John Scopes to be the teacher to test the law.

Scopes was a science teacher at Dayton High School. However, he only

taught Biology for two weeks as a substitute at the end of the school year. When

Rappleyea asked Scopes if he taught the theory of evolution, he said he didn’t really

remember. Nonetheless, Scopes accepted the offer(despite some initial opposition), and

the Scopes “Monkey” Trial saga began.

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