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)
INTERPRET THE EVIDENCE
What does the Butler Act (Document 21.1) reveal about religious objections to Darwin’s theory of evolution? How does it interpret the role of the government in the educational system?
How does Clarence Darrow (Document 21.2) make his case on legal grounds? In what ways is he defending religious liberty? Why does he think the Butler Act is dangerous?
In what ways is William Jennings Bryan (Document 21.3) making an argument for states’ rights? Why would he make an appeal for the rights of majorities? How does he try to challenge evolution?
How does the Chicago Defender cartoon (Document 21.4) connect the debate over evolution to southern racial practices? Why does the cartoonist include the U.S. Capitol in the background?
What does Mrs. Blair’s poem (Document 21.5) reveal about anti-evolutionists’ view of gender roles in the 1920s? On what grounds, and on whose behalf, does she defend the Butler Act?
PUT IT IN CONTEXT
Why was the scientific idea of evolution a threat to rural America in the 1920s?
In what ways was the Scopes trial a debate about the role of education in American society?
Thinking through Sources forExploring American Histories, Volume 2Printed Page 166