Tompkins, Jerry R.

Born in 1931, Jerry R. Tompkins is the son of Robert Alva Tompkins (1899-1997) and Hazel Chase Tompkins (1905-1989) and the nephew of Mary Henrietta Chase (1908-1997) and Frances Tompkins Hall. Tompkins earned a B.A. in political science from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and trained as a Presbyterian minister at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas. In the 1960s and 1970s, Tompkins worked as a Presbyterian Church minister in Louisiana and Arkansas, returning to Austin in 1974. Additionally, he worked as a reporter for Science News and contributed articles, primarily on evolution, to various newspapers and magazines.

While at the First Presbyterian Church of Monticello, Arkansas, Tompkins first met John Thomas Scopes (1900-1970) in 1962. After several interviews and years of correspondence, Tompkins edited a book on the Scopes Trial, entitled D-Days at Dayton: Reflections on the Scopes Trial (1965). In 1925, the state of Tennessee had charged Scopes with violating the state’s Butler Act by teaching evolution at Rhea County High School in Dayton. The trial brought national publicity, as well as numerous reporters and celebrities, to the town. Former U.S. Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan headed the prosecution, while famed lawyer Clarence Darrow represented the defense. Although found guilty, Scopes was not punished as the case had been thrown out on a technicality. The trial led to a more forceful anti-evolution movement, and some other states enacted similar legislation. In fact, Tennessee did not repeal the Butler Act until 1967.

Tompkins’ interest in the teaching of evolution led him to research and write articles on the Epperson Case, known as Epperson v. Arkansas . In Arkansas, a 1928 statute modeled after Tennessee’s Butler Act prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools. After the Little Rock Central High School in 1965 approved a new science textbook that included a chapter on evolution, Susan Epperson filed a suit to test the constitutionality of the statute and prevent it from dismissing her for teaching the textbook’s contents. In 1967, the Arkansas Supreme Court left the ban in place. Epperson appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1968 overturned the statute on grounds that it aligned too much with a particular religious view.

From the guide to the Tompkins, Jerry R. Papers: The Scopes Trial and the Epperson Case Records 99-153., 1951-1998, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)

Born in 1931, Jerry R. Tompkins earned a B.A. in political science from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and trained as a Presbyterian minister at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Tompkins worked as a Presbyterian Church minister in Louisiana and Arkansas, returning to Austin in 1974. Additionally, he worked as a reporter for Science News and contributed articles, primarily on evolution, to various newspapers and magazines. While at the First Presbyterian Church of Monticello, Arkansas, Tompkins first met John Thomas Scopes (1900-1970) in 1962. After several interviews and years of correspondence, Tompkins edited a book on the Scopes Trial, entitled "D-Days at Dayton: Reflections on the Scopes Trial" (1965). Tompkins' interest in the teaching of evolution led him to research and write articles on the Epperson Case, known as Epperson v. Arkansas.

From the description of Tompkins, Jerry R., Papers: The Scopes Trial and the Epperson Case Records, 1951-1998 (University of Texas Libraries). WorldCat record id: 702686785