Organize the Evidence for Thinking through Sources 21

Document Links:

Document 21.1 The Butler Act (1925)

Document 21.2 CLARENCE DARROW, Trial Speech (July 13, 1925)

Document 21.3 WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, Trial Speech (July 16, 1925)

Document 21.4 Cartoon from the Chicago Defender (June 20, 1925)

Document 21.5 Poem by Mrs. E. P. Blair, Nashville Tennessean (June 29, 1925)

Organize the Evidence for Thinking through Sources 21

The following exercises provide an opportunity to use the sources collectively to respond to a guiding question.

Guiding Question: How did the increasing visibility and power of modern secular and intellectual values and culture in the United States in the 1920s affect traditional rural Americans, and to what degree did the Scopes “Monkey Trial” both reflect and shape the culture wars of the 1920s?

Instructions

Below are three topics that might find a place in organizing an essay responding to the guiding question. This exercise asks you to identify which sources would provide relevant evidence for that topic. Select the best answers for each question. Choose ALL that apply. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question 21.16

1. Which of the sources provides specific evidence about traditional Americans’ response to the growing power of modernist values and culture in the 1920s? Choose ALL that apply.

R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 21.1: The Butler Act
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 21.2: Clarence Darrow, Trial Speech
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 21.3: William Jennings Bryan, Trial Speech
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 21.4: Cartoon from the Chicago Defender
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 21.5: Poem by Mrs. E. P. Blair, Nashville Tennessean
Correct: Document 21.1: This law symbolizes the Tennessee legislature’s effort to protect traditional religious values in the state’s public schools. Document 21.3: Bryan worked for the prosecution in the Scopes trial, which was intended to uphold the Butler Act of 1925, and his speech expresses some of the concerns voiced by traditional Tennesseans. Document 21.5: Blair’s poem lays out her view of the culture wars of the 1920s in Tennessee and was intended to garner support for the antievolution movement in that state.
Incorrect: Document 21.2: Clarence Darrow was the attorney for the defense in the Scopes trial, which represented the modernists who promoted teaching evolution in the schools. Document 21.4: The cartoon was published in Chicago’s African American newspaper and reflects the northern black community’s views on the question of traditional southern values.

Question 21.17

2. Which of these documents provides specific evidence about the ways modern urban Americans viewed those who embraced traditional Christian values? Choose ALL that apply.

kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 21.1: The Butler Act
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 21.2: Clarence Darrow, Trial Speech
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 21.3: William Jennings Bryan, Trial Speech
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 21.4: Cartoon from the Chicago Defender
kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 21.5: Poem by Mrs. E. P. Blair, Nashville Tennessean
Correct: Document 21.2: Darrow defended evolutionary teachings in the trial and his speech provides insight into the ways modern urban Americans viewed those who embraced traditional Christian values. Document 21. 4: The cartoon was published in Chicago’s African American newspaper and reflects the northern black community’s modernist views on the question of traditional southern values.
Incorrect: Document 21.1: The Butler Act embodied the embrace of traditional Christian values. Document 21.3: Bryan represented the forces that sought to maintain Tennessee’s traditional Christian values. Document 21.5: Blair’s poem expresses her views on traditional Christian values and the need to defend them against outsiders.

Question 21.18

3. Which of the following documents provides specific evidence about the significance of the Scopes trial in the culture wars of the 1920s? Choose ALL that apply.

kcVtUDKfaIWTKrqEI7di7A== Document 21.1: The Butler Act
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 21.2: Clarence Darrow, Trial Speech
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 21.3: William Jennings Bryan, Trial Speech
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 21.4: Cartoon from the Chicago Defender
R6Xlb9MAHXF7O4A0MNT1YQ== Document 21.5: Poem by Mrs. E. P. Blair, Nashville Tennessean
Correct: Document 21.2: Darrow’s speech provides information about the trial’s defense team’s strategies and point of view. Document 21.3: Bryan’s speech provides information about the trial’s prosecution team’s strategies and point of view. Document 21.4: The cartoon demonstrates that African Americans in Chicago paid attention to the trial and the rhetoric it generated. Document 21.5: The poem demonstrates how Tennesseans understood the question raised by the trial and its significance for them and the United States.
Incorrect: Document 21.1: The law provided the impetus for the trial, but it does not shed light on the trial itself.

Thinking through Sources forExploring American Histories, Volume 2Printed Page 166