In the shadow of Scopes

Church, state, and school -- 100 years on from the “Monkey Trial”

Due to some travel, we won’t be having our usual live conversation with Ruth Ben-Ghiat this afternoon. Join us tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday, July 15, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern, for a special Book Club talk with Suleika Jaouad. Watch on desktop at The Ink or join us from a phone or tablet with the Substack app.

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In today’s letter, we recall the Scopes trial 100 years ago, and update you on renewed efforts to crack down on schools daring to teach things that challenge some families’ religious beliefs. What it’s really about, we explain, is imagining the public school itself out of existence.

One hundred years ago this week, a high school teacher named John T. Scopes appeared in court in Dayton, Tennessee, to fight charges that he’d violated the Butler Act, a state law forbidding the teaching of human evolution. You likely remember the Scopes Trial for: it was a mass media event, the first trial broadcast on the radio. Legal superstars battled for the soul of the nation: William Jennings Bryan was the prosecuting attorney, and Clarence Darrow, on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, argued for the defense. The events inspired the theater and film classic Inherit the Wind.

But you may have filed it away as something belonging to the past, simply one of American history’s many teachable moments. The idea of teaching evolution (and the idea of a secular public education) seemed settled. Right?

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On the centenary of the trial, it’s worth remembering that Scopes was convicted, that the Butler Act itself remained on Tennessee’s books until 1967, and today’s renewed attacks on science and education are part of its legacy.