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The Hot Summer of 1925
The Scopes “Monkey Trial”
As Viewed from Taylor County
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Have you ever wondered how Abilene might have reacted to the current dinosaur
exhibit at the Grace Museum if the year was 1925? A new special exhibit
at Buffalo Gap Historic Village, opening on July 12, may help answer that
question.
Editorial cartoon, Abilene Daily Reporter, August 2, 1925
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“The Hot Summer of 1925: “The Scopes ‘Monkey Trial’ As Viewed From Taylor
County” is a special temporary exhibit that will open on July 12 at the
Historic Village’s Cottonwood Flats School. The exhibit will focus on the
local reaction and press coverage of the celebrated Tennessee court case
when schoolteacher John Scopes was put on trial for violating that state’s
law against teaching evolution in a public school. The 1925 trial, held
in Dayton, Tennessee, drew national media coverage including radio. Clarence
Darrow, the Chicago-based attorney, represented Scopes, while nationally-known
politician and former US Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, served
as special prosecutor.
The exhibit will be opening on the seventy-eighth anniversary of the start
of the trial.
“The exhibit is not about which theory was right or wrong, so we’re not
debating creation vs. evolution,” notes site manager Kevin Young. “Instead,
we’re simply looking at the local reaction to a world-famous event. We
interpret this area in 1925 and do a 1925 school program, so we thought
this would be an interesting way to tie into some of our existing educational
programming.”
Headlines
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There is certainly plenty of material to draw from. Transcripts of the
trial exist, and it was heavily photographed. On the local scene, it was
front-page news. Abilene Daily Reporter Editor Frank Grimes took a special interest in the story and ran editorials
about it. William Jennings Bryan’s weekly column was featured in the paper
as was Will Rodgers, so one not only had news, but editorials from both
sides. Grimes was, never the less, anti-evolution, often running copies
of church sermons against it. He was a great admirer of Bryan and did not
like Darrow, especially after he represented child killers Leopold and
Loeb in 1924.
Two Synder men, J. D. Boren and W. R. Faifer, traveled to Dayton to watch
the trial. They also had written a jazz tune, “Darwin’s Monkey Trot” which
they promoted by giving both Bryan and Darrow a copy. They sold three thousand
copies of the song.
The trial, which lasted from July 10 to the 21, ended with Scopes being
found guilty. He was fined $100. “It was what Darrow and the rest of the
defense team wanted,” noted Young. “They wanted to be able to get the case
appealed to a higher court and then get the law thrown out.”
For Bryan, the trial was a final drama in a long career of public service
and speaking out in favor of Christian ideals. He died five days after
the trial. “Bryan was very popular in the Abilene area,” remarked Young.
“He carried the county in the presidential elections of 1896, 1900, and
1908. Bryan visited Abilene twice, once on a personal visit in 1909, and
the second to speak at Simmons College (now Hardin Simmons University)
in 1917.
The debate outside the courtroom
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According to the Handbook of Texas, two Texas legislators introduced an antievolution bill in 1923. If they
had passed, Texas would have predated the Tennessee law that Scopes violated
by two years. The Texas House still passed a resolution condemning the
theory of evolution. Despite the lack of a formal law, Texas Governor Miriam
Ferguson worked with the state’s textbook commission and the board of education
to ensure that Texas would not adopt any biology texts that mentioned evolution.
For those who might base their impression of the Scopes Trial solely on
the play and two film versions of “Inherit the Wind,” Young says to be
prepared for a surprise. “The play, the film (with Spencer Tracy and Fredric
March), and the television version (with George C. Scott and Kirk Douglas)
are only loosely based on the actual trial. For drama’s sake and the author’s
intent, a lot was changed. It really is not an accurate representation
of the trial, the townspeople of Dayton, or Bryan.”
Young has a special interest in the story. “Turns out John Scopes lived
for a while in the same town in Illinois that my family grew up in and
William Jennings Bryan was a friend of my great, great, grandfather.”
For those seeking further information, there is a lot on the web. Doug
Linder at the University of Missouri/Kansas City’s School of Law has a
series of pages on famous trials, including the Scopes trial. Bryan College in Tennessee also has material on the trial.
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