Perpetuating the Myth: A Critical Examination of the Film Inherit the Wind and Its Portrayal of the Scopes Trial

Abstract

In January of 1925, John Washington Butler, A Democrat member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, proposed a bill that would "prohibit the teaching of evolution in the public schools of Tennessee." The language of the Butler Act, as it became known, applied to all schools that were supported "in while or in part by the public school funds of the state." Further, it became a crime to teach "any theory that denies the story of the Divine creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." The Tenessee House of Representatives passed the Butler Act in quick fashion by a 71 to 5 margin. The Senate agreed with the House and passed the measure by a vote of 24 to 6. With the bill approved by the entire legislature, it was sent to the Governor of Tennessee, Austin Peay, for his signature. Thus on March 23, 1925, the Butler Act became a law. <p>What Governor Peay did not anticipate was that barely six weeks after the passage of the Butler Act, a high school teacher in Dayton Tennessee named John Thomas Scopes would be arrested for breaking the new law. The resulting trial of Scopes would become known as the "trial of the century" before the first juror had been seated. What happened at Dayton that blazingly hot July would have a lasting impact on American culture that has extended to the present. The story of the Scopes trial has been told and retold so extensively that it has become difficult to discern what actually took place. Adding to the confusion was the 1960 film Inherit the Wind, directed by Stanley Kramer. The movie, based on the 1955 play written by Jerome Lawerence and Robert E. Lee, was praised by reviewers at the time of its release for its historical significance. Is this film an accurate portrayal of what happened during the Scopes trial? This paper will take a comparative look at the film Inherit the Wind and the actual Scopes trial that took place in 1925.