Evolution on Trial | A Clash of Giants | 1

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0:24Imagine it's May 5th, 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. You're sitting at a small table beside the soda fountain in Robinson's Drugstore. Two friends sit across from you, the school board president, Fred Robinson, who is also the owner of the drugstore, and school superintendent, Walter White. The three of you sit in silence, each watching the drugstore door for the fourth person invited to this meeting. Scopes, there you are at last. You and your friends exchange looks of anticipation as high school science teacher John Scopes approaches you in tennis whites, his blonde hair and boyish face glistening with sweat.

1:00I'm glad you could make it. Here, pull up a chair. Scopes walks towards your table, peering at you warily through horn-rimmed glasses. As he sits down, Robinson hands him a glass of Coca-Cola. He takes a gulp and wipes the sweat from his brow, and then eases into his chair with a relaxed confidence. All right, what's all this about? I'm in the middle of a match. The shop boy said he couldn't wait, though. Yes, well, we've been talking. Hand me the textbook, Fred. Robinson passes you a copy of the high school biology textbook he sells in the store. You hold it up for Scopes to see. Now, have you been teaching your children from this block?

1:36Scopes lights a cigarette and frowns. Yes? Then that means you've taught them evolution. Well, sure, I assigned them the chapter. You know that means you broke the law. What do you mean I broke the law? Now, don't worry, it's a good thing. Scopes gives you a confused look. Well, let me explain. The Tennessee legislature just passed a law banning schools from teaching evolution. Some lawyers in New York want to stage a trial to get it overturned. They just need a teacher to be the defendant, and that's where you come in. I'm sorry, I don't follow. They need someone who's taught evolution and is willing to get arrested.

2:10The case will go to trial, and we'll see if we can get this cockamamie law struck down. These Christian fundamentalists have gone too far, you know, trying to banish science from our classrooms. I'm sorry, you want me to get arrested? Are you crazy? What if I'm convicted? Oh, you won't go to jail if that's what you're worried about. The maximum penalty is a$500 fine. And if it comes to that, we'll all pitch in. It's going to be worth it. But why me? Well, you're a popular fellow. You're the football coach, for heaven's sake. Everybody likes you. No one will suspect an ounce of malice on your part.

2:41Well, if you say so. Oh, I do say so. Trust me, this is going to be the best thing that's happened to Dayton in a long time. What do you mean by that? Well, the ironworks shutting down has been terrible for Dayton. This will get us back on track. Think about all the publicity we'll get. This is our chance to turn things around. And anyway, don't you want to take a stand for academic freedom? Scopes takes another drag from his cigarette and gazes out the window, his brow furrowed. Well, of course I do. It's my job to teach these kids the truth. And evolution is the truth, plain and simple. We shouldn't let laws dictate what goes on in the classroom.

3:14Well, here's your chance to push back against those Bible thumpers who want to take us backwards. What do you say? Scopes stamps out his cigarette and pushes his chair back. Well, all right, I'll do it, but you have to promise me I won't be paying that fine. I'm on a teacher's salary, after all. Absolutely, you won't pay a cent, and you can get back to your match now. As Scopes rushes out the door, you raise your soda to Robinson and White in a toast to Dayton. You take a swig of Coke, then grin. Your mind is already racing with thoughts of reporters, cameramen, and tourists flooding Market Street.

3:49You know this is your shot to finally bring your town back to life.

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5:01From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story.

5:23On our show, we take you to the events, the times, and the people that shaped America and Americans. Our values, our struggles, and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday people as history was being made. And we'll show you how the events of the times affected them, their families, and affects you now. In 1925, the Tennessee legislature banned the teaching of evolution in public schools. By then, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was widely accepted in scientific circles, but conservative lawmakers were responding to a campaign led by Christian fundamentalists who viewed evolution as a direct threat to the Bible's authority and traditional moral values.

6:02The American Civil Liberties Union, a small civil rights organization that had been founded only five years earlier, saw this Tennessee law as an attack on academic freedom. So in the spring of 1925, they placed an ad seeking volunteers to challenge the anti-evolution law in court. When residents in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, read about the ACLU's request, they saw an opportunity to stage a publicity stunt to jumpstart their local economy. So they volunteered a well-liked 24-year-old teacher named John Scopes. What followed was one of the most sensational trials in American history, pitting two of America's greatest orators against one another.

6:40The famous liberal trial attorney Clarence Darrow led the defense, while the prosecution boasted the star power of William Jennings Bryan, a Christian fundamentalist himself, a progressive hero, and three-time presidential nominee. Over the course of eight days that July, crowds packed a sweltering courtroom to witness this clash of titans. A flood of reporters descended on Dayton alongside fire and brimstone preachers, hot dog vendors, and trained chimpanzees, transforming this sleepy town into a circus-like spectacle. It would be one of the largest mass media events the country had ever seen.

7:14But at its core, the Scopes Trial was about a broader struggle over the direction of American society. The Dayton Courthouse became a battleground over the meaning of freedom, the role of science and religion in the classroom, and the conflict between tradition and modernity. It laid bare the fundamental tensions of a rapidly changing society and forced all of America to take sides. This is Episode 1 in our three-part series, Evolution on Trial, A Clash of Giants.

7:45In early July 1925, 65-year-old William Jennings Bryan boarded a train bound for the small Tennessee hamlet of Dayton, where he had volunteered to lead the prosecution in an unusual case, one he saw as an opportunity to defend traditional religious values. As he traveled, Jennings strategized how he would convince a jury that the teaching of evolution in public schools was nothing less than a threat to the moral fabric of America. But by the time Jennings boarded his train to Tennessee, he was in the twilight of a long career in progressive politics, having been an icon in the Democratic Party and someone known for his ability to speak to the struggles and aspirations of ordinary Americans.

8:24His more recent crusade against evolution led some to wonder if he had abandoned his progressive ideals, but Bryan's road to the trial in Dayton began years earlier during his childhood in Salem, Illinois. William Jennings Bryan was born in 1860 to a devout Protestant family. His father had served as a Democrat in the Illinois State Senate, and when Bryan was 14, he was baptized as a Presbyterian after attending a revival led by a traveling preacher. He would later reflect that, My father taught me to believe in democracy as well as Christianity. And for Bryan, religion and politics were inseparable.

9:00His deep Christian faith and his firm belief in the will of the majority formed the basis for a lifelong commitment to political reform. After earning a law degree, Bryan moved to Nebraska and started a law practice, then jumped into a career in politics. In 1890, he was elected to Congress as a Democrat, advocating for populist policies such as the federal income tax and campaign finance reform. His eloquence and youthful passion earned him the nickname The Boy Orator. And in 1896, Bryan was just 36 years old when he won the Democratic nomination for president. At the party convention, he delivered the most powerful speech of his career, an attack on gold-backed currency, which he believed benefited the wealthy at the expense of ordinary people.

9:43For the climax of this speech, he combined Christian rhetoric with a stirring plea for majority rule, declaring, You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. He then threw his arms back in a Christlike pose, and the convention exploded in rapturous applause. Then, after securing his party's nomination, Bryan set out on an unprecedented national campaign, traveling 18 ,000 miles and delivering more than 600 speeches. So that in a time before radio, more than 5 million Americans heard him speak. He was a politician ahead of his time, the first major presidential candidate to champion reforms such as banking regulation, the direct election of U.S.

10:27senators, a graduated income tax, and women's suffrage, earning him a new nickname, the Great Commoner, in honor of his populist policies and rhetoric. But these positions alienated urban voters and conservative Democrats. Bryan lost the 1896 election. But his defeat did not dampen his passion for reform. He went on to run for president again in 1900 and 1908, although he was unsuccessful both times. But after helping elect Woodrow Wilson as president in 1912, he was rewarded with an appointment as Secretary of State. However, Bryan was a staunch pacifist, and he resigned his position in 1915 after becoming convinced that Wilson was leading the nation into World War I.

11:09But after leaving government, Bryan continued speaking and writing on religion and politics. He moved to Miami, where he became wealthy through the Florida land boom there. By 1920, though, he was 60 years old, and his health had declined. He was balding and paunchy, and his voice cracked when he spoke. For many, he now seemed like a relic of a previous era. By the 1920s, America was shedding the past and speeding into a modern age. Young people were embracing a faster, freer way of life embodied by automobiles, jazz music, and bootleg whiskey. But as America grew more urban, modern, and forward-thinking, Bryan feared the country was losing its way.

11:47So he fashioned himself into a defender of traditional Protestant values. Bryan was not alone in his fears about modern society. In the 1920s, American Protestants were beginning to splinter over how to adapt their faith to a changing world. Although Protestantism remained the dominant faith in the U.S., its influence had begun to wane under the pressures of immigration, urbanization, the embrace of science, and an increasingly secular culture. These tensions sparked deep divisions among Protestants, and various denominations split into modernist and fundamentalist camps. The modernists attempted to reconcile their Christianity and the Bible with science and the realities of modern life.

12:27On the other side, the fundamentalists insisted on literal interpretations of the Bible to preserve traditional values and prevent moral decline. They turned to Brian as a leading voice. Fundamentalism was growing in part as a response to the widespread acceptance of evolution. During the first two decades of the 20th century, scientists had amassed a large body of evidence supporting Charles Darwin's scientific theory that humans had evolved from ape-like ancestors through natural selection. And as evolution gained broad acceptance within the scientific community, it also made its way into high school curriculums.

13:01By the 1920s, the expansion of public education in the United States meant that more and more young people were exposed to modern science, and popular biology textbooks taught evolution as scientific fact. But Bryan and other fundamentalists feared those teachings were undermining religious faith and moral values. They condemned evolution, arguing that it contradicted the Bible's creation narrative and denied God's role in humanity's origins. But Bryan's stance against evolution had itself evolved over time. As a younger man, he had been open to the possibility that evolution was compatible with Christian faith.

13:35But as he grew older, he became convinced that evolution was responsible for the wrongs of the modern world. He watched the rich and powerful use the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest to justify oppression and inequality, a concept known as social Darwinism. Then, upon the outbreak of World War I, he saw evidence of Germany using those same ideas to justify military aggression. Bryan declared, Evolution is the merciless law by which to strong crowd out and kill off the weak. And Bryan had long seen himself as a champion of the weak and defenseless against the forces of a harsh, indifferent world.

14:11In the 1890s, he had worked to defend ordinary Americans against the forces of corporate greed. And three decades later, he set his sights on defending the public against evolution. But Bryan lacked a clear objective until late 1921. In December of that year, Baptist leaders in Kentucky gathered for an annual meeting, where they passed a resolution imploring lawmakers to ban the teaching of evolution in public schools. Bryan adopted the cause as his own and campaigned throughout the state. But despite his endorsement, the bill narrowly failed in the Kentucky state legislature. But the anti-evolution movement surged ahead nonetheless, and Bryan thrust himself into the fight, leading the charge as its fiercest advocate.

14:54Imagine it's March 1922 at the WJH radio station in Washington, D.C. You are a paleontologist and the president of the American Museum of Natural History. You've traveled down from New York to record a special program with William Jennings Bryan on the topic of teaching evolution. The radio producer has just finished your introductions, and he holds up his fingers, giving you a silent countdown, then points to Bryan to give his opening statement. Good evening. I come here tonight not only as a Christian, But as an American citizen concerned about the spiritual and moral decay of our youth, children are being taught that they have descended from apes, that they were mere accidents, beasts in an indifferent world, rather than souls made in God's image.

15:36They are being fed an unproven theory that denies the divine origin of mankind. The producer then points to you, and you give Brian a nod. Mr. Brian, I am sure the youth are heartened to have such an esteemed public figure as yourself, championing their welfare. But I assure you evolution is no mere theory. Brian lifts an eyebrow, unimpressed. Oh, more than 70 years have passed since Darwin, and scientists still have not found proof of natural selection. Well, there I am afraid you are mistaken, Mr. Brian. That evidence is widely available. You may be an expert in the area of political debate, but you may know little of the debate among scientists, so let me explain.

16:12While we may disagree over the particulars of how evolution occurs, there is no debate about the truth of evolution itself. Brian smiles into his microphone, as if he's sharing a private joke. Oh, you speak with such certainty. You profess to know the entire lineage of man, from a stray tooth dug up from a gravel pit? A mere tooth? Well, not just a tooth, Mr. Brian. Skulls, jawbones, footprints, the curvature of an ancient hip and spines. I invite you to visit my museum and see the fossil for yourself. I don't need fossils to know the truth. All I need is the Bible. Well, so heed its advice. Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee.

16:49The book of Job, chapter 12, you know. There's no conflict between science and religion, between morals and empirical facts. The study of evolution does not remove God from the universe. It reveals him in my estimation. It deepens the wonder and marvel of creation. It is God's method of creating living things. At the end of the broadcast, Brian pulls off his headphones, his face a bit flushed. You offer him a polite nod, satisfied that you've held your ground and proven yourself a worthy adversary. But you know Bryan is not one to shrink from a challenge, and you fear that opposition to his crusade will only make him fight harder.

17:29In his campaign against evolution, William Jennings Bryan debated scientists, lobbied politicians, and gave hundreds of speeches nationwide. He attacked evolution in articles, books, and his syndicated columns that reached more than 15 million readers. Returning to themes that had long guided his career, he framed evolution as something forced upon the country by an elitist scientific oligarchy without any concern for democracy or majority rule. He argued that most Americans agreed with him and that public schools should reflect taxpayers' beliefs. And before long, Bryan had transformed the teaching of evolution into a major political issue.

18:06In 1923, six southern states considered anti-evolution bills, though only two minor measures passed. In Oklahoma, a new public textbook law restricted the promoting of evolution. And in Florida, legislators adopted a non-binding resolution calling the teaching of evolution improper and subversive. But Brian himself had drafted the language and was eager for more political wins. So soon, Brian would take his crusade to Tennessee, turning this state into the next big battleground in his war against evolution. But even as he rallied lawmakers and citizens alike, he failed to predict that his campaign would ignite one of the most explosive legal cases America had ever seen.

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19:43In January 1924, William Jennings Bryan took the stage at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. Standing before an audience of state officials, he delivered a stirring attack on evolution in which he declared, We cannot afford to turn over our children to be educated and have their hearts robbed of their faith. He also complained that Darwin did not even allow us to come from a good American monkey, but instead traced human origins to African apes. The crowd roared its approval, and printed copies of this speech were distributed throughout the state, with 500 pamphlets provided to members of the Tennessee State House.

20:19One of the recipients was Representative John Butler, a Baptist farmer and longtime admirer of Bryan. And in January 1925, Butler introduced a bill in the State House to outlaw the teaching of any theory that denies the story of the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible. Butler later admitted, I didn't know anything about evolution when I introduced the bill, just that boys and girls were coming home from school and telling their fathers and mothers that the Bible was all nonsense. But the details of evolution mattered little to Butler and his colleagues. The bill sailed through the Tennessee House, passing just six days later in a vote of 71 to 5.

20:56Then it moved to the state Senate, where opposition was stronger. So as the Senate wavered, anti-evolution crusaders sharpened their weapons and coordinated their attack.

21:10Imagine it's February 1925 at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, where you serve as a Democratic state senator. As you round a corner, you're greeted by the familiar scent of pipe tobacco and shoe polish. You take a seat on a worn oak bench, joining a line of men waiting to have their shoes shined. You recognize the man beside you as a younger colleague, Senator Daniels. You give his shoulder a friendly bump. Well, if it isn't just the man I've been looking for. Daniels nods politely, but his gaze narrows. Oh, is that right? It sure is. Mind if I bend your ear a moment? It's this anti-evolution bill coming up for a vote, and I want your support.

21:46Oh, that? I don't know. Just hear me out. I've got no quarrel with scientists digging up fossils, theorizing all they want, but that doesn't mean that we should be teaching unproven theories to our children. Well, unproven or not, I'm not so sure it's our job as lawmakers to go around banning ideas just because a few preachers say we should. Well, this isn't about preachers. It's about rights of parents, the very people who sent you and me to the state capitol. It's our job to carry out their will. The people of Tennessee are decent, God-fearing people, and they don't want their children's classrooms contradicting their churches.

22:18Well, I don't know that's what's happening. You've got kids, don't you? I do. Two boys, 12 and 16. 12 and 16, an impressionable age. Ask yourself, how would you feel if their science teacher told them Everything you learn in Sunday school is wrong. Genesis is just a myth. You are not made in the image of God. You're descended from apes. What would you think, Dan? Daniel shifts in his seat. Well, I'd have words, I suppose. Exactly, as would I, because science teachers are driving children from the faith they were raised in. This isn't about banning ideas. It's about setting a boundary. Well, it may be, but if this bill does pass, the rest of the country is going to think we're nothing but a bunch of backwoods hicks.

22:57Oh, I don't care what Yankees think. This isn't about them. This is about Tennessee, our people, our values. What will your constituents think if you vote against the bill? What will your pastor think? Daniels rubs his jaw and then sighs. Well, you've made a point. This is about Tennesseans, after all. And I wouldn't want to tell any parent that the school they trust their children to is contradicting their faith. So I can count on your vote? Well, probably. Let's just say my view on the matter is evolving. You laugh and clap your hand on his shoulder. You'll circle back to him and try and shore up his support, but right now you feel like you've got a good chance at one more vote in your campaign to take evolution out of the classrooms.