okay. welcome back to history. 134 spies, assassins, martyrs and witches, famous trials in american history at the university of maryland last

class we did the first part of the scopes trial where we talked about the origins of the case and we spent a significant amount of time placing the case in the context of the time in an effort to explain why the case became so sensational, why a good portion of the united states in the world was focused on this trial. certainly europe and part of the story was, although we think of the roaring twenties as this era of gatsby's parties and flappers and jazz and fun and a roaring economy, it was also a deeply divided nation between urban and rural. it's for the first time in 1920, the census announces more people live in cities than in the countryside and their status excited amongst farmers who had been kind of the core of american life between people who wanted to cut off the ellis island era of immigration. the two arrive guys in ku klux

klan that felt that america was sliding into gomorrah, a second rise of the ku klux klan debates over prohibition. people who supported prohibition appalled by the speakeasies and the jazz filled, booze filled clubs in the cities and the flappers, and between within the religious community, a fierce debate between religious modernists who believed that the bible could be interpreted in light of scientific discovery and fundamentalists who believed that sticking to the idea that the bible was absolute truth would be a one way to help keep society from sliding south word. and in the core of that debate is this issue of the teaching of evolution and the movement to ban the teaching of evolution in public schools and universities and in part because the teaching

of evolution could lead some people to question their faith. but also because of the uses to which darwinism had been put. in particular, eugenics. the movement in the 1920s to sterile, wise people who were seen as unfit. tens of thousands of americans are forcibly sterilized by their states. in the 1920s under the theory that you could speed the pace of natural selection and improve the race and as we discussed last time in the little town of dayton, tennessee, some of the cities mucky mucks would meet regularly at frank robinson's drugstore. and we're looking for a way to put the town on the map. and when the aclu, who announced that they wanted a test, created a test case to challenge tennessee vs anti evolution in schools law, the folks at frank robinson's drugstore thought

they could just sense that if we put that trial on here, if we create that test case here suddenly dating, which nobody knows about, will become nationally known. and they were right. and they find a local high school teacher, john t scopes, who had taught out of hundred civic biology, which included a discussion of evolution, who agrees to be part of a test case, to announce that he had taught evolution, and to be arrested and charged under tennessee's law. and the case will really pick up steam when some of the most famous names in america agree to join both the prosecution and defense teams. the three time presidential candidate, the great commoner, the riveting speech giver, william jennings bryan, and the most noted defense attorney of the day and famous agnostic clarence darrow.

and i didn't quite give darrow his due. everyone would have known darrow because he had defended labor radicals, accused bombers. he was opposed to the death penalty, which he thought was a relic of primitive man and regularly represented people who could be put on death row and then those 100 death penalty cases, he litigated only one defendant had been executed and he had the previous year been the defense attorney. in another sensational case. when we're not covering this here in this class, but i urge you to google the leopold and loeb murder case and darrow had saved those defendants from death, from capital punishment. now, the aclu view who created this test case was wary of darrow because they knew that darrow didn't just have a civil liberties agenda.

the darrow, the agnostic, wanted to humiliate. the a.v. lucian forces in particular william jennings bryan, the aclu, who had actually recruited for the defense team, the future chief justice of the united states supreme court. charles evans hughes. but scopes, when he heard darrow wanted to do it, is like, i want darrow and that's going to give this case a lot of extra publicity, but also a anti-religion edge from darrow. that's going to be quite dramatic. and as darrow would say, he believe that, you know, absolute faith was the antithesis of science. he would argue this is darrow, the origin of what we call civilization is not due to religion, but the skepticism the modern world is the child of doubt and inquiry. as the ancient world was the

child of faith and fear. cartoons, darrow telling bryan there ain't no santa claus now, when you see inherit the wind and you hear discussions of the scopes trial, it always looks like it's just darrow versus bryan. but there's both a prosecution team and a defense team. but for the drama, people often boil it down to darrow versus bryan. i just want to highlight one other member of the defense team, which is a four person team, arthur garfield hayes, who was the co-founder of the american civil liberties union. and he had become famous for defending german-americans, who were arrest cited in the anti-german hysteria around world war one. and he also had defended two famous accused anarchists accused of murder, sacco and vanzetti.

another trial we sometimes cover in this course. but they didn't want to publicity and they're going to get it. opening evolution trial brings talent and world notice to dayton. now it's important to note they also wanted this trial to be good for business, and they're not going to get the massive crowds that they thought they were going to get because only so many people can fit in a courtroom. but the folks that do show up are extraordinarily colorful, you know, really the animated event, evangelical preachers and people are going to bring all kinds of monkeys to town, including a famous one named joe mendi and if you were in dayton around the scopes trial, it is a carnival like atmosphere, including a famous anti evolution author tee martin, who will set up a headquarters in

dayton. some of the monkeys that came to play there for all its worth, the town of dayton. also arriving will be over 200 journalists from around the world. remember, this is going to be the first trial ever broadcast on radio. there's going to be film crews doing the films that become the shorts in the movie theaters when they used to do newsreels and tons of print journalists, including the curmudgeonly, sardonic writer for the baltimore sun, h.l. mencken, the gene kelly character hornbeck in inherit the wind is based on mencken and mencken was had a sharp wit. some of his views don't hold up very well to 21st century scrutiny. but the reason why we're

focusing on him is because he kind of epitomizes this this urban rural divide. he holds kind of the folks of the heartland in contempt. here's some famous quotes from h.l. mencken no one has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. nor is anyone ever lost public office, thereby the urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule. democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual will ignorance, immoral ality, the morality of those who are having a better time and he will call lower and middle class americans working class and middle class americans instead of the bourgeoisie, the big bourgeoisie. and most importantly, it will be mencken who dubs this trial, the monkey trial, and he will be the

person that says, i'm here in the bible, i'm here in the buckle of the bible belt. and if you've heard the phrase the bible belt, which is embraced by many religious people today, but it was used by mencken first as a criticism, he's here in the buckle of the bible belt and his reporting from dayton is going to shape what many people in the cities think of this trial. scenes of people preaching outside the scopes trial. and our case begins the set of tennessee versus john t scopes july 10th, 1925, in an unbroken edition. this is classic kind of a early 20th century southern courtroom scene on air conditioned, hot, packed courtroom. and the reports were that there

were almost a thousand people in there in this courtroom. i've never been able when i look at the pictures, i don't see a thousand. but they think they said that there were a thousand people packed into the wray county courthouse. and again, the radio microphones, wgn. and the judge will become an important figure in this trial. he's a state court judge. he is a fundamentalist methodist and a huge fan of william jennings bryan. this guy is excited that his hero has come to town. and ralston regularly quoted scripture in his opinions. and he is going to allow each day of the trial to open with a voluminous prayer by local, methodist and baptist ministers.

there is ralston as ralston with his hero. and joining brian on the prosecution team is going to be the state's attorney general. remember, this is for all the the import of an anti-evolution statute. it's a misdemeanor case, but it's going to draw in this case. tennessee's attorney general and assistant attorney general are both going to join the prosecution team. that's how much import of tennessee we not only have a three time presidential candidate in secretary of state, but the state's attorney general involved. and assistant attorney general mckenzie is going to frame things this way as he speaks at a rally in dayton as the trial begins. as for the northern lawyers who have come down here to teach the, quote unquote ignorant yokels, what to believe, they

had better go back to their homes. the scene of thugs, thieves and haymarket rioters and educate their criminals rather than try and process the light here in the south, where people believe in the christian religion and know that genesis tells the full and complete story of creation. this is ralston. it's so hot. he has a local police officer fan him throughout the trial looks like a scene from ancient egypt with the pharaohs. and there's an immediate fight with darrow over these prayers that are open. the trial and darrow says, can we can we skip that? and ralston says, no. ralston says, i do not think it hurts anybody. and i think it may help somebody. so i overrule the objection. darrow says, well, could we have a rabbi or a unitarian minister

speak? and ralston says, well, i'll turn that suggestion over to the local pastoral committee. and everyone laughs in the courtroom. all right, jury selection, voir dire. we've talked about this in our previous cases, where many trials can be shaped by who gets on the jury and who doesn't. two things to keep in mind here. number one, darrow and the defense actually want to lose because they want to appeal this case. they're hoping this case can be used as a way to get freedom of religion and freedom of speech through the tennessee supreme court and up to the united states supreme court. but darrow nevertheless, is going to put up a little bit of questioning of these jurors, who largely come from the countryside around dayton. almost all of them are men who are fundamentalists. and he's going to use up his peremptory challenges and then turn to ralston occasionally to

try to dismiss some juries for cause. because of their really pronounced fundamentalist views. and ralston will reject those challenges under the theory as put forward by the attorney general in trying to argue against darrow. he says, look, if a man is subject to challenge by the defendant because he believes the bible conflicts with the theory of evolution, then for the converse reason, the state would have grounds to challenge for cause. anyone who believe the theory of evolution and the result would be that everyone on earth who could be brought here would be challenged. and darrow was like, yeah, i don't we haven't had too many of these jurors who are believe in the theory of evolution. and he says, if you can find any man on the jury that believes in evolution, will promptly challenge you. so the jury is going to be an all white male jury.

and again, if you take my constitutionalist course, we go into great detail on how this how it lasted so long that juries in many places were all men. but in here, no, the tennessee will not have a female juror until 1951. and and so it's going to be these are going to be men of traditional views. and you they adjourn the trial after the jury is selected over the weekend. william jennings bryan delivers a sermon at the local methodist church and judge ralston is in rapt attention in the front row. all right, now here's the complicated part. try to listen in. we'll go over this again next tuesday. but here's the strategy of the defense. they are going to open this case by trying to quash the indictment, by arguing

constitutional issues. and they want to argue that this law, the the butler act, the anti evolution law, violates both the united states and the tennessee state council. the tution. now, you folks remember from our discussions of the lizzie borden case that the concept that the bill of rights in the constitution was for most of american history into the 20th century, applied against the federal government, not the state government. and for protection against your state government, you had to look to your state's constitu option. but there was a moment beginning in the late 19th century where people started to use the new 14th amendment. no state shall deny anyone life, liberty or property without due process of law to try to protect rights from the bill of rights and other rights against their

state. okay. and one of the rights that darrow and the aclu are trying to use here is to use the 14th amendment's due process clause to now protect against the state the protections of free speech, free free exercise of religion and against the establishment of religion that were included in the first amendment. because, again, the 14th amendment says nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law. and the supreme court had started to accept the idea that certain laws that deny people certain liberties, the liberty to contract freedom of speech might be protected against state action, using the due process clause. all right.

now, july 1925 is the scopes trial. the previous month, the supreme court had issued two important decisions that could help shape the scopes trial. and one of them was the case that darrow had been involved in. it was the case of a new york socialist who will become a communist, who had written a political manifesto urging workers to take over the means of production and he had been prosecuted under new york state law and in his defense, darrow and others had argued that he has freedom of speech, which should be protected by the 14th amendment due process clause and the supreme court had an get low for the first time, said, you know what, freedom of speech is an essential liberty. it is protected, but get low. speech was too dangerous.

but as a month earlier in a darrow case, the supreme court says, you know, we are going to protect freedom of speech against state action. however, ever get low speech is too dangerous to be protected. so it doesn't say get low, but the supreme court is now on record and now in the scopes trial, they're hoping to argue, well, how about this freedom of speech case, academic freedom. and this is one that actually, if we could appeal this to the supreme court, we could get really expensive. and this new protection against your state in federal court, all right. in addition in addition, the supreme court issued another famous opinion, pierce versus society of sisters. and in this one, the ku klux klan in the state of oregon. and this bill is replicated it in some other states, had passed the law requiring all children to attend public school because

klansmen wanted to close the parochial, in particular, catholic schools. because they believed that un-american doctrines were being taught in the catholic schools and oregon had passed the law. remember, the klan becomes a national organization, and in this period, an end, oregon had done this and the schools had challenged the law in court in pierce versus society of sisters, and the supreme court had sided with the parochial schools. and what they said is that the law forcing you to send your children to public school denied parents their liberty protected by the 14th amendment's due process clause to educate their children as they see fit. but the state could require that if they go to parochial school that certain lessons be taught

there so that they learn american values and other things. it's known as the pierce compromise. parents have the right to send their kids to private schools, but the state can say to an extent what's taught in those private schools and judge ralston in particular is going to like this case because he's going to argue it reaffirms the tennessee state's position, parents should say. and in tennessee, the hand that writes the paycheck should say what goes on in the schools and that the states can say to an extent it's not to all free speech all the time. states can say what happens in schools. darrow and company are also going to look to the tennessee state constitution, which is where you had traditionally look to protect your rights against the state law and the tennessee state constitution included. one line in its bill of rights. it said no preference shall ever

be given by law to any religious establishment or mode of worship. and they say this law, this evolution law, preferences, fundamentalists teachings, another said another piece of the tennessee state constitution said the free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the invaluable rights of man. and every citizen may or may freely speak right in print on any subject free speech. and finally, the tennessee state constitution also included a line that says it shall be the duty of the general assembly in future periods of government to cherish literature and science. and they argue the anti-evolution law does not cherish science. but judge ralston is going to dismiss all of this and he's going to say this act doesn't interfere with anyone worshiping god. they can go to whatever church they want and worship however they want. he says this doesn't violate

free speech scopes can go out on the street corner and talk till his hoarse about evolution. but he's a state employee and as a state employee has to do what the state wants him to. he can quit his job and go do go somewhere where he can say whatever he wants, but when you sign on as a teacher, you sign on to teach what the state wants you to teach. and he says this cherished literature and science is just kind of a broad directive to the legislature. and it's not anything that rises to a constitutional right. and then for the questions of the the of the same point on get low he says free speech is great but he's no one's constraining his free speech and he says this pierce versus society sisters shows that the supreme court would side with tennessee. all right. so that's really the most important part of this case in some ways, because what darrow

and company want is now to say, okay, he's ruled incorrectly here. we're going to appeal it. we want to get this to the tennessee supreme court and try to overturn the law under the tennessee constitu tution. plus, we want to appeal it eventually to the united states supreme court and maybe really expand freedom of speech and maybe even get a freedom of religion. question in here. and so now we've got our appeal. so the rest of the trial, what darrow was trying to do with a national audience look looking on is make his points about the battle between religious religion and science. and in part, he wants to humiliate the leader of the anti-evolution movement, william jennings bryan. all right. and there's all kinds of moments in this trial where people but the trial just stops as people make these long speech. is darrow bryan other members of the to defense the prosecution teams and some of the things that are said if evolution wins

christianity goes and of course bryan is arguing the people who pay for schools have a right to determine what's taught in the school scopes is an employee. he can say whatever he wants on his own time. and darrow is going to argue back. the state has a right to say what's taught in schools within reason. and he says evolution has been taught in tennessee for years. and then along come legislatures who say science interferes of their religious beliefs. so you can't teach it anymore. and he's going to say, don't copy this down. just let me read you some quotes from some of bryan darrow's oration. this law makes the bible the yardstick to measure every man's intellect, to measure every man's learning. he says scopes isn't on trial. civilization is on trial. the prosecution is opening the doors for a reign of bigotry equal to anything in the middle ages, where law brought us this

law brought us back to the 16th century, when bigots burned men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind. the state of tennessee has no right to teach. the bible is the divine book. then, then that the koran is one or the book of mormon, or the book of confucius or the essays of emerson. and he specifically blames bryan for the passage of what he calls a foolish, mischievous and wicked act as brazen and bold, an attempt to destroy liberty as it was ever seen in the middle ages. but the defense says our goal is not to destroy christianity, but the bible story is not scientific, incorrect, and has no place in a science classroom. now, bryan, in the prosecution of a very straightforward case, they ask the court to take notice of the creation story in the book of genesis.

is the earth being created in seven days? the adam and eve story. then they introduce the tennessee act, which says it is illegal in any place taking public school funds to teach any theory that denies the story of divine creation is man is taught in the bible. so again, they're not saying you have to teach the book of genesis, just you can't teach a theory that that is in counter to the book of genesis. then they introduce hunter civic biology and the discussions of evolution there in that scopes admits he taught out of now very quickly hundreds of biology doesn't stand up to 21st century scrutiny. this is the stuff william jennings bryan was concerned of. this is in hunter's civic biology. the races of man at the present time there exists upon the earth five races, a variety of men, each very different from other and instincts, customs into

extended structure. these are the ethiope inner -- type. the melee or brown race. the american indian, the mongolian. and then it says at the end. and finally, the highest type of all the caucasians and it includes support for eugenics, saying, you know, such people, people with mental disability, these were lower animals. we would probably kill them off to prevent them from spreading. humanity will not allow this, but we do have a remedy of separating the sexes in asylums or other places. and again, eugenics shows us, on the other hand, the of the families of which are brilliant men and women and so on and so forth. all right. so they put on hunter civic biology, then they put on the head of the rae county schools, who says scopes admitted he taught out of hunter civic biology, of course, is the state's mandated textbook. and then they put on the stand

the the scopes students. seven students will testify that scopes had used hunter civic biology and taught them the theory of evolution. and with that, the prosecution's case is set right. you can't here. this is what the law says. you can't do. here's what scopes admits to doing. here's people who said he did it open and shut. we don't have to go any further. this is a misdemeanor case. that's it. airtight. now for the defense, the constitutional issues have been overruled. those are the that's the heart of the case. the constitutional objections. but darrow had also brought to dayton over a dozen national expert in both evolution and religious modernists who were going to make a number of arguments as to why the why,

what darrow what scopes had done, either didn't violate the tennessee law or that the tennessee law was wrong. and in regard to all of this, here's our experts. and they wanted to argue with these expert witnesses that the law made it illegal to teach any theory that denies the story of divine creation and the religious modernists are going to argue that that doesn't mean that you have to accept a literal interpretation of the bible, that the bible can also be seen as metaphor. and they argue that the adam and eve story in the book of genesis and evolution can be compatible. that god, for example, may have chosen two representatives of -- sapien. and as the man emerges, descends from a lower order of animals.

as adam and eve. or that the genesis accounts were simply convey important inspired theological truths. so for long periods of time and where symbolic stories. and the expert witnesses on science are going to make some smaller technical points, such as the law says you can't teach. instead, that man is descended from a lower order of animals. but the evolutionists are going to make a small point. that man did. and in that band evolution, don't say man evolved from a lower order of animal, but from a different genus. they were all part of the first order of animals. but then we're going to make the bigger point that evolution is so widely accepted, you couldn't ban it without violating the first amendment and the tennessee constitution. all right.

now, ross is like, i don't know. this seems like an open and shut case. you teach evolution, you're guilty. i don't know that. we need to hear all these experts, he says, but i'll let one expert testify. let me hear what that expert has to say. and if it's okay, i'll let the other ones testify so they put on the stand. dr. maynard metcalf from johns hopkins here in maryland, a renowned zoology ists and metcalf will take the stand and he will argue with darrow questioning him that almost all zoology is botanist and geologists, except evolution as fact. he will with darrow leading him be asked to estimate when the process of evolution began. and he says, metcalf says, well, mass extinctions complicate the story, but it was closer to 600

million years ago. then the 6000 years ago that some fundamentalists accepted as the date based on bishop usher's calculations, which we described last lecture. and judge ralston is going to hear this and said, i've heard enough. and he says, this scientific testimony is inadmissible. first of all, the non-expert mind can comprehend what we mean by descended from a lower order of animals. something more primitive than humans. we don't need experts to dance on the head of a pin. but he also says the question of evolution that's not what's on trial here. the question is, did scopes teach it? that's it. the state is allowed to say what's taught. scopes taught it. that's what's on trial here. we're not going to now go deep into the story of evolution. and he bans all of darrow's expert witnesses from the stand this this will also be part of

darrow's the appeal. but nevertheless, a big part of part of what darrow was trying to do now out, which brings us to one of the famous famous moments in american trial history, which is a frustrated darrow who will be cited for a time for contempt of court, for his back and forth with ralston. he's going to say, look, you won't let me put you know what if denied me my entire defense, i want to put somebody on the stand to testify here that i think you'll agree is an expert. william jennings bryan and ross is like, what? and again, under his theory, this is an open and shut case. the only is did scopes teach evolution or not? but he wants to hear his hero go toe to toe with darrow. and he says, okay, and we have this moment. we have this moment. oh, sorry. quick, quick. darrow as part of that is

allowed to have the experts put into the record the testimony they would have given, which gets reprinted in all the newspapers and becomes kind of a national biology lesson. you'll be reading a little bit of that a section next week. but it is but it is denied for the jury to it. but here's the thing. the courtroom was so hot, the floor was creaking, the ceiling was starting to crack from the new ceiling fans they had put in for the trial. and they decide they're going to move these final days of the trial outside. so you have this spectacle that on a stage they had built outside in preparation for the crowds coming to dayton. this is now where the trial is going to move. and in front of a crowd of thousands since you're going to have this moment where clarence darrow, the great agnostic, is going to have william jennings bryan on the stand to testify

about the bible scenes from this moment. and there was a big sign on the side of the county courthouse that said, read your bible and and darrow said, either take that down or put up a second one that says, read your darwin. europe is amazed by the scopes case, but in this grilling, darrow headlines from around the country. william jennings bryan, as he's sitting down, says, i'm simply trying to protect the word of god against the greatest, greatest atheist or agnostic in the united states. i want the papers to know i'm not afraid to get on the stand with him and let him do his worst. i want the world to know, too, while the applause and darrow then grills him on what an absolute literal interpretation

of the bible would mean, he says, do you really believe that until the tower of babel or every human being spoke the same language? do you believe that jonah could have been swallowed by a big fish and lived for three days? and the fish? his stomach did joshua make the sun stand still is you know, when the bible is written it was believed that the sun rotated around earth. does the sun revolve around the earth? do you really believe that a great flood 2000 to 48 years ago destroyed all living things except those on the ark and bryan's response is essentially, yes, and that yes, there is the loss of science, but god created the laws of science and he can change them when he wants to. so miracles are moments where god changed the laws of science. so get over it. and there's these famous exchanges, and this is one where

they're debating bishop usher's estimate that the earth began in thousand four b.c. bryan says, well, i don't know if that's accurate, although he in his defense, isn't too far different from bishop usher. but then there's they're discussing how usher reached reaches calculations. there's this exchange darrow but what do you think that the bible says? don't you know how it was arrived that. bryan i never made calculation. darrow a calculation from what? bryan i could not say. darrow from the generations of man. that's where how usher made his calculations. bryan i would not want to say that. darrow what do you think? bryan i do not think about things. i don't think about. darrow how do you think about things you do think about? bryan well, sometimes and in this grilling, depending on who's listening and who's reading, the accounts, have very

different takeaways in kind of the urban and h.l. mencken world. darrow made bryan look like a buffoon. but the people who loved william jennings bryan and like the anti evolution law, bryan firmly defended the faith. there's a key moment, however, where bryan admits that there's some things in the bible that don't have to be taken little orally, and some are small, he says. some of the bible is given illustrative. lee, for instance, you are the salt of the earth. i would not insist that man was actually salt or the flesh of salt, but it's used in the sense of salt as saving god's people. but you also can seed under bryan's grilling that the six days in bible creation could be a larger period of time than 24

hours, but periods of time lasting many years and darrow so so you interpret this and that opens the door for religious modernism and there'll be some people who criticize from the fundamentals point of view that bryan caved on this point. but nevertheless that's depending on your position. that was a kind of a turning point in this grilling. and by the end of this exchange, men are red faced and shouting and bryan will say, the world shall that these gentlemen have no other purpose than ridiculing every christian who believes in the bible. and darrow shouting back, we have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the united states. and you know it. and this is a ferocious exchange at the heart of the cultural battles of the 1920s.

at the end, bryan o'dell pulls a fast one by and had been for days working on his closing arguments. and he this is a guy famous for his cross of gold speech and famous speeches. he was going to give the speech that would change people's views on this issue. you're going to read it for a section next week. but bryan says there's a codicil in the tennessee law that if you're planning on appealing an and you know where things are going, you can ask for a directed verdict. you can ask for the jury to bring in a verdict guilty so you can appeal. and in the process you can cut off the closing arguments. and darrow does that denying bryan the stage for what was going to be his greatest moment and with that, the jury will be given instructions on the law by judge ralston, and they'll go

and they'll deliberate on the courthouse lawn for 9 minutes and come back with a verdict of guilty. the by judge bryan, even ralston will realize, given the other experts that he had not to testify was irrelevant. and he asked that that bryan testimony be removed from the record. all right. the jury finds scopes guilty and judge ralston will find scopes $100, about 1500 dollars today. they could have him up to $500. but his fines going to be paid by the editor of the baltimore sun anyway. and now darrow will have his chance to appeal. they give scopes, his one chance

to speak in court and he says, your honor, i feel that i have been convicted of violating an unjust statute. i will continue in the future, as i have in the past, to oppose this law in any way i can, any other action would be in violation of my ideal of academic freedom. that is, to teach the truth is guaranteed in our constitution of personal and religious freedom. i think the fine is unjust. so scopes, who had just been kind of talked into being this test case guy, now is rising to what he realizes is going to be his place in american history. and everybody knows what's just occurred is going to be remembered. here is darrow. i fancy that place where the magna carta was wrested from the barons in england. runnymede was a very small place, probably not as big as dayton, but events come along as they come along. i think this case will be remembered because it is the first case of this sort since we stopped trying. people in america for witchcraft, because here we have

done our best to turn back the tide. that is sort to force itself upon the modern world of testing every fact in science by a religious dictum scopes found guilty. that's the london times. all right. sadly, william jennings bryan, after a big meal, dies of a stroke a week after the trial. and they found william. they found clarence darrow hiking in the smoky mountains and ran up and said, bryan is died. what do you think? and he muttered something like they said, did he die of a broken heart? and darrow muttered something like, no, he died of a busted belly, but then said he, it's a great loss for the american people. they appeal the case, as you know, even if it's federal

constitutional issues, the state goes up the state chain first and then the tennessee supreme court pulls a fast one on darrow, who's hoping to get a decision on the tennessee constitution out of the tennessee supreme court and then appeal to the federal supreme court on the federal constitutional matters. but the tennessee supreme court is going to dismiss the appeal on a technicality that they didn't get it filed in time and the fine overturned the the conviction of scopes under the theory that the law the fine how much it should be $100 or $500 should have been set by the jury, not ralston, but they dismiss the case rather than send it back. saying nothing is to be gained by prolonging the life of this bizarre case. and they crush darrow's appeals.

and the butler act will stay on the books in tennessee for the next 40 years. and as we've talked about in this class, we want to know why these trials are so famous cases that everyone knows that have no precedential value and the scopes trial doesn't have precedential value because the tennessee supreme court undoes the hopes of the aclu and darrow that this could become something on appeal. so instead it's remembered and it is widely remembered because of the cultural import, because how it represents all these divisive divisions of the 1920s. and there's a lot of issues lingering today over parents rights and schools. what over what could be taught and the fred robinson drugstore guys got exactly what they want to date in the stealth tourist. i'll go to dayton to see the site of the scopes trial. they get to play inherit the wind. there is a university that gets

created by fundamentalists in dayton, bryan college, named for william jennings bryan and the scopes trial lives on. there's a scopes festival today took a step back during covid but it's back in dayton. you can go to the monkey town brewing company in dayton and the trial stillgood evening.

and welcome to the truman library. i'm kelly anders deputy