Jerry Summers
(This is part of a series of articles about the famous criminal case that entertained the country and world on the question of the teaching of the theory of evolution in the public schools of Tennessee in 1925, after the passage of the Butler law by the Tennessee legislature in March of that year that banned such instruction of students.)
When a miniature version of a civil war took place between Dayton and Chattanooga over the location of the test case to determine the constitutionality of the statute the judicial system got involved.
After Rhea County biology teacher John Scopes voluntarily agreed to be the legal guinea pig for justice in May 1925, competition for the venue of the historical event erupted between the two communities.
Both communities recognized potential economic gain, and started a commentary of monetary offers, threats, and made up verbal and alleged physical assaults that created the original news media frenzy which spread across Tennessee, America, and foreign nations.
Ousted UT Knoxville Law Professor, John R. Neal, would volunteer to represent Scopes in any legal proceeding and would eventually be identified as “chief trial counsel” by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others but would be relegated to a lesser role when famous criminal lawyer (agnostic) Clarence Darrow and three time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan (fundamentalist) entered the case.
A strategic decision was made by the defense team of Scopes to try and get his case away from the conservative Rhea county area by filing for an injunction in federal court to stop any anticipated state prosecution in Chattanooga.
After a federal judge Xenophon Hicks became unavailable to have a hearing on the injunctive request by going out of the state of Tennessee (another unusual perceived judicial action) attorney Neal got a hearing before a Middle Tennessee jurist, John J Gore (1878-1939) on July 3, 1925, shortly before the original August term of court was moved to trial on July 10, in Dayton allegedly because of the struggles between Dayton and Chattanooga where each was trying to host the trial.
Who was John J. Gore?
Ironically, he was an early relative of future United States senator Albert Gore (1907-1998) and his son Vice President Al Gore Jr. (1948-)
Born in Gainsborough Tennessee, Judge Gore would become an attorney by reading law in the office of Judge Bancroft Murray in his hometown in 1899.
He started his legal career with Cordell Hull, future Secretary of State under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Jackson, Tennessee.
The recipient of several federal patronage jobs Gore would also serve in the Tennessee state from 1915 to 1916 and as chairman of the Tennessee Republican executive committee in 1920.
President Warren G Harding nominated Judge Gore to occupy a new federal judicial seat created in the Middle District of Tennessee in 1923 and he would serve until he suffered a heart attack and died on February 21, 1939 at his residence at the historical Hermitage Hotel in Nashville.
Judge Gore would hear Neal's request to move the case on July 3, but on July 7, refused to stop the trial from starting in state court on July 10, 2025.
(The pursuit of justice proceeded a little faster in 1925. The Anti-Evolution bill was signed by Governor Austin Peay on March 21 and the trial jury verdict was rendered on July 18. A technical procedural error would occur that set aside the decision of the jury which will be discussed in a later article.)
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If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact him at jsummers@summersfirm.com)