Major Players:
The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes
The Defense
Clarence Darrow
Darrow was the most famous lawyer in the United States when the trial took place. Long a champion of progressive social causes and downtrodden criminal defendants, he had never lost a client to the death penalty when involved at the trial stage. The Scopes case represented a cultural cause for which Darrow had a particular passion. As he said later, it was the only case in which he took no fee for his participation.
Arthur Garfield Hays
Newly appointed as general counsel of the fledgling American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Hays served as the architect of the defense’s legal strategy at the trial and appeal. During the trial, he read the expert testimonies aloud, examined witnesses, and called Bryan to the stand. In the 1920s and 30s, in particular, he was a noted champion of free speech, and was involved in both the Sacco and Vanzetti case and Scottsboro trials.
Dudley Field Malone
Malone was a successful lawyer who specialized in international divorces. He had also served as an Assistant Secretary to William Jennings Bryan when Bryan was Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State. Despite searing temperatures in Dayton, Malone only took off his coat when delivering his famous speech in defense of academic freedom, regarded by many observers as the best of the entire trial.
John R. Neal
Chief counsel for the defense, Neal had been a law professor at the University of Tennessee and was a strong advocate for civil liberties. Prior to the trial, he served as a Democratic member of the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tennessee Senate. During the appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court, Neal failed to file the defense’s bill of exceptions on time, which upset the defense’s plans.
John T. Scopes
Scopes, a high school biology teacher in Dayton, agreed to be indicted for violating Tennessee's Butler Act in order to test the law's constitutionality. Scopes knew and was friendly with the prosecutors in the case and also insisted on Clarence Darrow's involvement on his defense team. He was not enthusiastic about the sudden celebrity the trial conferred on him, but stood by Darwinian evolution and in later life made public appearances and wrote a memoir to commemorate his role in the historic trial.
The Prosecution
William Jennings Bryan
By 1921, Bryan was the most powerful critic of evolution in the nation. Trained as a lawyer, Bryan had not practiced law for about thirty years prior to the Scopes Trial. Considered one of the most effective public speakers in the history of the United States, he gained a massive following by heading the Populist Party and serving as Democratic candidate for US president three times.
Tom Stewart
Stewart served as the lead prosecutor and was state attorney general for Tennessee’s eighteenth judicial district, where Rhea County was located. He fought to limit the scope of the case by opposing the defense’s expert scientific witnesses, hoping instead to focus on whether Scopes taught evolution and thus violated the law. Stewart made most of the legal arguments for the prosecution. He later served as a Democratic United States Senator, representing Tennessee from 1939 to 1949.
Ben G. McKenzie
A retired Tennessee attorney general, McKenzie was the oldest attorney who played a role in the trial. He was greatly affected by the high heat in the courtroom and even fainted at one point. McKenzie was referred to as “colonel” throughout the trial and became good friends with Darrow during the course of it.
Sue Hicks
Hicks practiced in Dayton, Tennessee, with his brother. He was a friend of John T. Scopes and helped orchestrate the plan to challenge the anti-evolution statute and played an important role at trial. He later served as a judge in Tennessee. Notably, he considered Inherit the Wind (1960) a travesty of the actual trial, but his family dissuaded him from buying television time to set the story straight.
William Jennings Bryan, Jr.
Bryan Jr., the only son of William Jennings Bryan, served as counsel for the State of Tennessee during the trial and appeal. During the trial, he spoke against the inclusion of the scientists’ testimony. Bryan Jr. had served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona from 1915-1920 and as a Regent of the University of Arizona. He was appointed Collector of Customs for Los Angeles by President Roosevelt in 1938.
About Henry Major
Hungarian artist Henry Major (1889 - 1948).
After beginning a career as a caricaturist in Vienna and London, Hungarian artist Henry Major (1889-1948) moved to the United States in 1923. He became known for his caricatures of local politicians, businessmen, and actors from his travels around the country in the 1920s. Major’s caricatures from the Scopes Trial courtroom, featured here, helped to sensationalize the trial.
Image Source: University of California. CC BY 4.0.