Cold Open

It’s the morning of July 10th, 1925, in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee.

24-year-old teacher John T. Scopes hurries toward the county courthouse, flanked by two of his lawyers.

A few weeks ago, John volunteered to help the American Civil Liberties Union challenge the Butler Act, a new state law that makes it illegal to teach evolution in the classroom. After breaking the act during his time as a substitute Biology teacher, John has decided to bring his case to court, giving his legal team the opportunity to refute the law’s constitutionality.

Today is the first day of John’s highly-anticipated trial. Large crowds line the narrow street leading to the courthouse. And John brushes a strand of red hair from his eyes in order to take in the spectacle: while his sleepy town of Dayton has a population of just 1,800, today more than twice that number fills the town center, coming from all walks of life and varying sides of the evolution debate.

Amid hundreds of journalists, grim-faced farmers from the surrounding mountains stand silent and withdrawn, while members of the Anti-Evolution League circulate, and gregarious out-of-state salesmen shout advertisements for snacks, soda, and lemonade.

John tries to ignore the commotion as he strides past, but a flurry of activity catches his attention. At the center of the frenzy is something more bizarre than anything he could have imagined. In a doorway stands a chimpanzee dressed in a fine gray suit, complete with a stylish top hat and pale leather shoes.

With the help of a distinguished cane, the chimpanzee slowly descends the doorsteps toward a miniature piano and then begins to play.

This outlandish side show sends cheers through one part of the crowd, while others hurl accusations of sacrilege and depravity. Careful not to get their client swept up by the dramatics, John’s lawyers put their arms around him and race him up the courthouse’s stairs, away from the chaos consuming the street.

In the 1920s, a debate is raging across the United States. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is presented in nearly all state-mandated science textbooks, even in conservative states like Tennessee. But many Christian fundamentalists believe the idea of evolution is blasphemous and a threat to the nation’s soul. As this fight escalates, several state legislatures pass laws to ban the teaching of Darwin’s theory. More organizations and politicians will seek to fight these new laws, but it will be a young Tennessee teacher whose trial becomes one of the conflict’s defining flash points, drawing national attention when the verdict of the so-called “Scopes Monkey Trial” is delivered on July 21st, 1925.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is July 25th, 1925: The Scopes Monkey Trial.

Act One

It’s May 5th, 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee, two months before John Scopes' trial will begin.

George Rappleyea makes his way down Market Street, scowling at the glut of empty storefronts around him. He moved here from New York to manage a small coal and iron company, which was once the town’s economic engine. But for the past decade, low demand and foreign competition have battered the industry, and Dayton’s population has shrunk nearly in half.

George is a man of big-city ambition but stuck in a withering, rural town. Still, he has a plan to reinvigorate Dayton’s economy and bring the town back to life. Today he’s ready to set the scheme in motion.

A bell jingles as he pushes open the front door to a popular soda fountain, one of the town’s few open businesses and its de facto civic center. George approaches a table of local leaders whom he’s summoned to help him launch his new plan.

With a flourish, he spreads out a copy of yesterday’s Chattanooga Times. Then, he turns to a full-page ad published by the American Civil Liberties Union, also known as the ACLU. The ad declares that they are seeking a Tennessee teacher willing to be arrested in order to challenge a controversial new state law known as the Butler Act.

The debate over evolution has recently led to a national schism. Charles Darwin’s theories first reached the American public in 1859, with the publication of his book “On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection.” In its first 30 years, the theory had made its way into most science textbooks and inspired amicable debate even among Christian theologians. Many church leaders viewed Darwin’s theories as compatible with Biblical principles, simply another miraculous method of divine creation.

But by the 1890s, protestant Christianity split into two opposing camps: theologically liberal Modernists and more conservative Evangelicals. While Modernists incorporated new developments in science and philosophy into their spiritual views, Evangelicals opposed them. With this conflict, evolution has proved a simple, digestible focus, leading to a range of new state laws, like the Butler Act.

The law’s namesake, John Butler, is a fundamentalist state congressman and tobacco farmer. Last year, his minister gave a sermon about a young woman from their congregation who became an atheist after studying Biology at a local college. Butler, a father of three, grew obsessed with the possibility that one of his children might follow a similar path. And it was this fear that drove him to leave the tobacco fields behind and seek state office. Three months ago, he introduced legislation to ban the teaching of evolution in all publicly funded Tennessee schools.

Though the law passed both houses of Tennessee's congress with wide margins, the public’s reaction has been mixed. While many support the act, others view it as an infringement on academic freedom. But in the small town of Dayton, George Rappleyea simply sees it as a business opportunity.

Excitedly, he explains to Dayton’s leaders that the act’s controversy can translate into publicity. By offering a local volunteer to help the ACLU challenge the Butler Act, they could put Dayton’s name in headlines across the country. Such a high-profile legal battle would be sure to attract plenty of media attention — and while the journalists write their stories, they would all need places to eat and sleep. The trial might even draw a few curious tourists too.

George’s presentation is met with smiles all around. The men, several of whom work for the local school district, are not only impressed by John’s plan, but they think they might already have the perfect man for the job. One of them heads to the counter to call up John Scopes, a young Tennessee teacher.

John joined a local high school’s faculty last year, serving as a part-time football coach and general science teacher. This spring, John spent several weeks filling in for a sick colleague in a biology class. The course’s state-mandated textbook included a section on evolution: if John assigned those pages, as the men hoped he did, it would put him, already, in direct violation of the Butler Act.

Within just a few minutes, John will join the men at the soda fountain and confirm that he did indeed assign his students the reading on evolution. And when George tells him about the ACLU’s plan to test the Butler Act in court, John, a recent law school graduate, won’t need much convincing. In minutes, a warrant will be made for John’s arrest, and word of the ensuing trial will be transmitted to news outlets across the country. And within a week, two legal juggernauts will take up the fight, catapulting the trial of John Scopes into the national spotlight.

Act Two

It’s July 20th, 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee, 10 days into John Scopes' trial.

Thousands of visitors gather outside the courthouse for an unusual spectacle. Today, the judge has ordered that the proceeding be held on the courthouse’s front lawn due to the extreme heat and a crowd so large that it threatened to collapse the courtroom floor.

Because every day, more people have arrived in Dayton to witness firsthand the legal battle that has turned into a national sensation. Over 200 journalists have wired stories back to their home offices, keeping the so-called “Trial of the Century” front page news across the country. Meanwhile, microphones in the courthouse have transmitted the hearings into homes all over America, making John’s trial the first legal proceeding broadcast on radios nationwide.

The fervor around this lawsuit has been fueled by the celebrity of the trial’s primary opponents. Believing that Darwin’s ideas present an existential threat to morality, democracy, and humanity itself, William Jennings Bryan, a three-time presidential nominee for the Democratic Party and a former Secretary of State, volunteered to lead the prosecution after a 30-year hiatus from practicing law. But within days, celebrity atheist lawyer Clarence Darrow joined the defense.

In some ways, the two attorneys are unlikely competitors. They've known each other for over 30 years. In the 1880s, they even worked together to refocus the Democratic Party on families and working-class Americans. But, in recent years, they have become public adversaries in the battle between scientific theory and Christian literalism.

From day one, Bryan and Darrow’s volcanic personalities have dominated the proceedings. In opening arguments, Bryan proclaimed that “if evolution wins, Christianity goes,” while Darrow accused his old friend of “opening the doors for a reign of bigotry equal to anything in the Middle Ages.” These incendiary statements were then painted on banners lining Market Street, and have become regular chants for their supporters. But it’s clear to most watching that the trial is working out in Bryan’s favor.

So far, Darrow has faced a series of disheartening setbacks. His objection to the judge opening each day’s hearing with a prayer was overruled. His objection to the Butler Act itself, claiming it to be unconstitutional, was also overruled. Worst of all, the judge ruled in favor of the prosecution’s objection to allowing scientists to take the stand as witnesses. At this point, believing that the defense has exhausted its options, some journalists have already begun to leave Dayton, sure that the prosecution will be victorious.

But today, with thousands of visitors gathered outside the courthouse, Darrow has a bold idea to draw the nation’s eyes back to Dayton. Since he can’t call expert witnesses on science, he decides to call an expert on the Bible: his opponent, William Jennings Bryan.

Over the past decade, Bryan has shifted away from politics, becoming one of the nation’s most prominent religious figures. Now, Darrow is ready to put his supposed expertise to the test. By questioning Bryan, Darrow hopes to prove that even the most knowledgeable and staunch believers cannot sustain a literal interpretation of the Bible in every detail, thereby undermining the fundamentalist argument that every word of the Bible should be taken as absolute truth.

In the scalding summer heat, Darrow barrages Bryan with a series of carefully calculated questions on biblical passages. Initially, it’s an intellectual boxing match, which draws alternating cheers from each faction in the crowd.

And as the questioning progresses, Darrow skips adeptly across topics from "Jonah and the whale" to "the length of a day" in the Biblical story of creation. Under questioning, Bryan begins to stumble, hedge his statements, and even contradict himself.

Finally, he bleeps out, accusing Darrow of taking this case in order to “slur at the Bible.” By the time the judge steps in to stop the testimony and adjourn for the day, Bryan is utterly humiliated. But the display has little effect on the trial’s outcome. Deciding that the examination has strayed too far from the legal issues at hand, the next day, the judge orders that Bryan’s testimony be expunged from the record.

In response, Darrow invokes a Tennessee law requesting an immediate guilty verdict from the jury. He does this for a couple of reasons. First, by having John Scopes found guilty, Darrow can quickly file an appeal, allowing him to take the case to a higher court, one that's more likely to strike down the Butler Act as unconstitutional. Second, this request is a final slight to Bryan, denying him the opportunity to give his closing statements, robbing him of a chance to redeem his credibility or influence any more spectators.

Darrow’s request is granted and on July 21st, 1925, the jury returns a guilty verdict and the judge settles John Scopes with a $100 fine. The legal battle over the Butler Act will not be over. But rather than allowing a retrial, the court will dismiss the case as a hollow spectacle, refusing to pursue the matter further. Instead, it will be another three decades before the Butler Act is re-examined, but this time it won’t be in the courthouse.

Act Three

It’s January 10th, 1955, 30 years after the Scopes Monkey Trial.

A long line of patrons in thick winter coats curls around the corner of 41st & Broadway in New York City. Murmurs of anticipation consume the crowd as they inch their way closer to the doors of the National Theater, where it’s opening night of the highly anticipated play, Inherit the Wind.

This show tells the story of a young high school teacher who is put on trial for teaching evolution in a small American town. In it, the teacher’s name is Bertram T. Cates, and the two larger-than-life celebrity lawyers are Matthew Harrison Brady and Henry Drummond — but it’s the clear retelling of the legal battle long abandoned in Dayton, Tennessee.

Ever since the Tennessee Supreme Court’s dismissal, John Scopes' case has lain dormant. But recently, a pair of playwrights decided to resurrect it. With the Cold War in full swing, the writers searched for a story from America’s recent past to help question the contemporary tension around Communism and McCarthyism.

Decades on, those themes prove just as relevant and compelling to American audiences. The play is a sensation, running for more than 800 performances and winning several Tony awards. Its popularity leads to a blockbuster film version starring Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly, and its legacy endures through two Broadway revivals and three television adaptations.

While many historians will criticize its creative liberties, Inherit the Wind will transform William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, and John Scopes into mythical figures, while the story’s persisting popularity will speak to enduring questions around academic and religious freedoms.

Twelve years after the play’s Broadway debut, those persisting tensions will lead Tennessee to finally repeal the Butler Act. Though William Jennings Bryan will have been dead for over 40 years and Clarence Darrow for almost 30, John Scopes will survive to witness the long-awaited victory that will come 42 years after he was found guilty of violating the Butler Act on July 21st, 1925.

Outro

Next on History Daily. July 24th, 1911. After being lost to the outside world for centuries, the ancient city of Machu Picchu is rediscovered.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Katrina Zemrak.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Montgomery Sutton.

Executive Producers are Alexandra Currie-Buckner for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.