Back in 1925 Dayton, Tennessee put itself on the map rather notoriously by being the site of the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial. A lot has gone down in history about the trial and a lot of it was influenced by who was the loudest reporting it. The facts are that Dayton was looking to put itself on the map for tourism and decided to answer the ACLU call for someone to challenge the Tennessee law of the Butler Act which made it illegal to teach anything that would contradict the Biblical account of creation. Several towns members talked substitute teacher John Scopes into being willing to stand trial to challenge the act and the situation snowballed from there. Movies like Inherit the Wind have muddied the waters by portraying townspeople as Bible thumping witch hunters looking to lynch Scopes for his fearless unwillingness to bow to their wishes. The truth is the town was more fascinated by the media circus than anything else. The case has also been touted as a victory for Clarence Darrow in his cross examination of William Jennings Bryan that "made him look like a fool" for believing literal interpretation of the Bible. In actuality both parties went away thinking they had the win and newspapers were divided on who acquitted themselves better. H.L. Mencken declared that Bryan, who sadly died several days after the trial, was brought to his death by shame. That's also not true. If anything the intensity of the trial and the heat possibly hurt his health, but he and his supporters were enthusiastic at the end of the trial, not ridden with shame. So it's interesting to see the events from the perspective of the town itself. Every year at the anniversary of the trial, Dayton puts on Front Page News, a play taken almost directly from court transcripts and put on by townspeople. The play is held in the historic Rhea County courthouse where the trial itself took place. I went this year through the Tennessee State Museum bus trip program that puts on about two trips a year to historic locations. For a modest fee you can get a ticket that takes care of a charter bus seat, lunch, entry fees to anything, and tips. It's a really nice way to see the area. The play is very professionally done and Dayton, a mere speck of a town, still comes across as slightly proud of its moment in the spotlight even if that spotlight hasn't been accurate in their portrayal. It's always fascinating to note that Darrow himself claimed he'd never been treated kinder than in Dayton by people he knew fundamentally disagreed with what he was arguing for. The people of Dayton might have disagreed about things, but there was certainly no lynch mob ready to string up Scopes.
The courthouse has a small, very professional museum in its basement now that explains the trial and has a few artifacts from the trial. The play is well worth going to see if just for the unique setting. Look for it around the 19th of July every year in conjunction with the Scopes Festival. On a side note: You'll probably notice I haven't posted for a while. I've been to Pennsylvania, London, Paris, and Glacier Park, Montana all in the space of two months so I've been a little out of pocket. I'll post some retrospectives, but I've been travelling a lot.
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AuthorA librarian who likes to travel and experience life. CategoriesArchives
June 2022
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