Evolution on Trial | Monkeytown | 2

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0:24Imagine it's late May 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. You're the owner of a dry goods store on Market Street, and you're standing in the window arranging a display of stuffed monkey dolls. You look up to see a regular customer named Frank walk through the door. He takes a long drag on his cigar as he eyes your display. What, you selling toy monkeys now? Nah, just responding to the demands of the market. Hey, would you mind giving me a hand with something? Well, maybe what? You reach behind you and pull out a large sign you've been working on. Above a drawing of a monkey swinging from a coconut tree are words painted in bright red, stop monkeying around and start shopping.

1:03Frank squints at the sign and shakes his head. What in the world's that? That's for the trial of Mr. Scopes, you know, the fellow that taught evolution over at the high school. Folks are going to be coming to Dayton from all over, and I've got to get ready. Well, I know about the trial, and I don't like it one bit. I'm glad they passed that law. I mean, imagine, teaching kids that we came from apes? It's blasphemy. Well, what does it matter? Monkeys are no monkeys. Evolution's all in the past. You've got to think about the future, is what I say. Well, it matters to me. It's not like the law's going to get overturned.

1:31Not with William Jennings Bryan on the prosecution. He's got them licked. In the meantime, though, there's money to be made. People are going to travel miles to see him thunder on about Genesis. You position a stool in front of a wooden beam and climb up the steps. Hey, could you pass me that hammer on the shelf behind you? Come hold this up. Frank rolls his eyes, but does as he's told and holds the sign against the beam where it will be visible to people passing by. You tilt your head, eyeballing to make sure it's straight. Hey, push it up a little to the right. How's this? Ah, it looks good.

2:03You grab a nail from your shirt pocket and hammer the sign into place. Satisfied that it's secure, you step down to admire your work. Well, ain't that a beauty? If you say so. You really think this trial's going to drum up business? Oh, I know it will. I'm already selling those toy monkeys, and the trial hasn't even started yet. Yeah? For how much? Fifty cents. Fifty cents. For how many? Fifty cents each. And people are buying them at that price? I'm selling them as fast as I can unpack them. Frank takes another puff of his cigar and scratches the back of his neck. Well, maybe all this monkey business ain't so bad.

2:38Getting folks in stores, bringing money into town? Just as long as our kids aren't getting corrupted. I don't think you have anything to worry about. This is a God-fearing town. Nothing's really changed except now. More customers, more money. Frank nods. All right, well, I'm glad for you. Just don't expect me to buy any of those monkey dolls. You give Frank a hearty clap on the shoulder. you're counting down the days until the trial begins you don't really care about who wins just as long as there's money in your pocket when it's all over

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4:35From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers. Our history, your story.

4:57In May 1925, the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, eagerly anticipated the looming trial of John Scopes, the high school science teacher accused of violating the state's law banning the teaching of evolution in public schools. Local merchants, hoping to cash in on the publicity, filled their stores with monkey-themed souvenirs and shop window slogans. But while Dayton's merchants prepared for incoming crowds, the prosecution and defense teams plotted their legal strategies. The anti-evolution crusader and three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan prepared to go up against the famous criminal defender Clarence Darrow, known as the attorney for the damned.

5:34But no matter how carefully they crafted their strategies, no matter how many witnesses they summoned or headlines they chased, neither side could truly prepare for what would unfold when religion and science finally had their day in court. This is Episode 2, Monkey Town.

5:53In May 1925, the citizens of Dayton, Tennessee threw themselves into preparations for the trial of John Scopes. A group of civic boosters voted to raise a$5 ,000 advertising fund to promote local businesses during the trial. One resident explained, since Dayton had found her way into the headlines all over the country, I cannot see why Dayton should not reap the benefits. Journalist H.L. Mencken dubbed Dayton Monkey Town, and the monkey quickly became the symbol of the looming trial over evolution. Local businesses decorated their shops with pictures of monkeys, Robinson's drugstore offered a simian soda, and even the constable placed a sign on his motorcycle that read Monkeyville Police.

6:34Meanwhile, the legal proceedings against Scopes move forward. On May 25th, a grand jury convened at the Ray County Courthouse in Dayton to decide whether there was sufficient evidence to formally indict Scopes. The district attorney, Tom Stewart, presented the case for the prosecution. He began by introducing the textbook Hunter's Civic Biology and reading out passages that explained how humans evolved from earlier life forms through natural selection. Next, he called on three male students to testify that Scopes had used this textbook to teach evolution. Scopes had encouraged the students to testify against him, and he had carefully coached them in their answers.

7:11But when questioned by reporters, the boys seemed confused about the particulars of evolution. One student told a journalist, I believe in parts of evolution, but I don't believe in the monkey business. A reporter lamented the student's poor understanding of the science, affirming this was the real crime established in the jury room. The presiding judge was John T. Ralston, a conservative Christian circuit judge who was up for re-election. He relished the spotlight and believed that God had chosen him to oversee this trial. His blend of personal ambition and religious conviction would shape the proceedings.

7:45He had already fast-tracked the case by convening the grand jury in special session and offering to start the trial within a month's time. Now he was determined to secure an indictment against Scopes. And after lead prosecutor Tom Stewart finished his presentation, Ralston read out the Tennessee Anti-Evolution Statute in the entire first chapter of Genesis. He all but instructed the grand jury to indict, describing the evil example of a teacher openly and flagrantly violating the law of the land. The jurors did as they were told and quickly returned with an indictment against Scopes. Ralston concluded the court session by scheduling the trial to begin in Dayton on July 10.

8:23Both the prosecution and defense would spend the next six weeks preparing for what the press was already hailing as the trial of the century. It pitted two very different legal teams against each other. For the prosecution, District Attorney Tom Stewart would serve as lead prosecutor, assisted by three Dayton-based attorneys as well as star lawyer William Jennings Bryan. During May and June, Bryan traveled up and down the East Coast, making public speeches attacking evolution. But despite his busy schedule, the prosecutors managed to meet for two joint planning sessions, and Brian was open about the prosecution's strategy.

8:57In his public statements, he was adamant that the trial was about defending the right of the state legislature to control public education, as opposed to a debate over evolution itself. He anticipated a speedy trial that would end with a conviction. But privately, Brian hoped not only to win, but to discredit evolution through expert testimony. He wanted a moral victory as well as a legal one. But because of his lack of trial experience and his unfamiliarity with Tennessee law, Bryan delegated the particulars of the case to local attorneys. Meanwhile, he took charge of recruiting anti-evolution scientists and theologians to serve as expert witnesses.

9:33But he had a hard time finding witnesses willing to testify against evolution who were also credible scientific experts. And Bryan grew increasingly worried about the prosecutor's lack of courtroom experience compared to the formidable lineup of trial attorneys who had joined the defense. The defense team had grown since the disheveled Knoxville law professor John Neal drove himself to Dayton and appointed himself as lead counsel. At the time that the famous criminal defense attorney Clarence Darrow joined the case, he was consulting with a friend, international divorce attorney Dudley Field Malone.

10:06Malone was eager to provide his own services to the defense because a decade earlier, he had served under Brian in Woodrow Wilson's administration, and he still harbored animosity toward his former boss. Malone was witty and debonair, and he could be counted on to deliver a stirring speech in court. The fourth and final member of the defense team was Arthur Garfield Hayes, a free speech advocate and general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, often working without pay, defending protesters and labor organizers. The ACLU had sponsored this test case, so in early June, John Scopes and lead counsel John Neal traveled to New York City to meet with ACLU officials.

10:44They quickly learned that the ACLU wanted Darrow off the case, fearing his involvement would turn the trial into a broader assault against religion itself.

10:56Imagine it's early June 1925 in New York City, and you're sitting down at a conference table at the headquarters of the American Civil Liberties Union. You and your lawyer, John Neal, are meeting with the ACLU executive director, Roger Baldwin. Ever since they arrested you for teaching evolution, things have been moving fast on the legal front, perhaps too fast. So Baldwin called you to discuss your legal strategy. You and Neil exchange nervous glances as Baldwin paces back and forth. Well, I don't know what you were thinking, accepting Darrow's help without consulting near the team. Neil's eyes flash with anger.

11:31You shake your head at him and clear your throat. Well, Mr. Neil was thinking about winning. We'd be crazy to turn down Darrow. He's offering his services for free. I mean, Clarence Darrow. Baldwin stops and folds his arms across his chest. Well, be that as it may, I'd like to discuss alternative options. I've spoken with two law professors who may be interested. They're bright, serious men with stellar reputations. One's from Harvard. The other teaches at Columbia. Well, do they have any experience in criminal defense? No, but they have written extensively on academic freedom. This isn't a murder trial.

12:02We don't need an expert in defending anarchists and killers. Darrow doesn't belong anywhere near this case. he's more interested in garnering headlines than defeating the anti-evolution law. Well, with all due respect, there are going to be headlines either way. With William Jennings Bryan on the prosecution, why should Bryan hog all the attention? I think we need some publicity on our side, too. Yes, but with Darrow on the case, the press is going to frame this as a great battle between atheism and religion, between Darwin and the Bible, between Darrow and Bryan. But this is supposed to be about civil liberties, about the state of Tennessee stifling academic freedom.

12:34Well, the way I see it, it's about me. You know, I don't know Darrow well, but I do know that last year he saved two murderers from the electric chair. This isn't a murder trial, but it's still my neck on the line, my name in the headlines, and I want the best defense lawyer there is. Baldwin throws up his hands in frustration. This is supposed to be a test case, not a boxing match. Well, it still is. And more than anything, I want to make sure science wins. Darrow's our best shot, and I'm sticking with it. And the case will have to proceed without my involvement. You can deal with my colleagues here at the ACLU, but I'm not going to be a part of this circus.

13:10Baldwin walks out the door. You look at Neil, and he just shrugs. It seems like you've lost the support of the top man at the ACLU, but you wonder if that really matters. You're going into battle this summer, and with Darrow, you know you've got a fighter by your side.

13:28When John Scopes traveled to New York, ACLU officials tried to persuade him to kick Clarence Darrow off the case. Scopes would later write, The arguments against Darrow were various, that he was too radical, that he was a headline hunter, that the trial would become a circus. But as Scopes found himself at the center of a growing media frenzy, he insisted that Darrow was the man with the right experience for the job. He later recalled, It was going to be a down-in-the-mud fight, and I felt that situation demanded an Indian fighter rather than someone who graduated from the proper military academy.

14:01But Darrow wasn't the only attorney the ACLU didn't approve of. They also tried to persuade Malone, a divorced Catholic, to stay away from Dayton and assist the case from afar. But Malone refused to back down in what the Chattanooga Times called another victory for those who want to introduce a dramatic setting into the case, the jazz factor, as it were. When a reporter questioned Scopes about Darrow and Malone, Scopes simply replied, I would certainly be an imbecile not to accept them. But although ACLU officials had failed to assemble the legal team they wanted, they did succeed in carefully managing Scopes' public appearances.

14:35Both the defense and the prosecution sought to demonstrate that their arguments reflected the values of everyday Americans. So to project the image of an all-American teacher, the ACLU staged photo ops with Scopes in front of the Statue of Liberty in Capitol Hill. At the same time, they urged him to avoid speaking about his personal political and religious beliefs. And the ACLU also arranged public appearances with America's most prominent evolutionary scientists to demonstrate scientific support for Scopes' case. But while the ACLU focused on optics, the defense team got to work on strategy. As a test case, their goal was not to get Scopes acquitted, but to secure a conviction that could be appealed.

15:15They wanted a higher court, ideally the U.S. Supreme Court, to declare the laws forbidding the teaching of evolution were unconstitutional. But in order to attack these anti-evolution laws, they needed to frame the case in the right way. They planned to focus not just on the actions of Scopes, but on larger issues of intellectual freedom, science, and religious interpretation. This broader view would give them a better chance of proving that the Tennessee law violated constitutionally protected freedoms when their appeal reached the higher courts. And in the meantime, they could use the trial to educate the public about evolution.

15:48And just like William Jennings Bryan, the defense made no secret of their plans. In the weeks leading up to the trial, the defense lawyers made frequent public statements announcing distinguished scientists who might appear in court as expert witnesses, despite not having any guarantee that the scientists would actually testify. These statements were designed not only to build public support for their side, but also to keep the prosecution off balance. Because when Bryan and the other prosecutors learned of the defense's plan to use expert scientific testimony, they were determined to oppose, as part of their goal of keeping the case to a narrow discussion of state control over public education.

16:25So Bryan depicted the defense's proposed expert witnesses as a group of scientific elites trying to override the will of the common people. But Darrow did his best to undermine Bryan's claims of elitism with his down-to-earth manner. In the month leading up to the trial, Darrow made speeches and public statements promoting the defense. And in late June 1925, he made high-profile visits to Dayton and Knoxville, where, despite his reputation as a radical and an agnostic, Darrow won over the locals with his folksy manner. Scopes remembered, it was easy to like him. He drawled comfortably and hadn't any airs.

17:00But while he was trying to win over the locals, Darrow always kept a national audience in mind, consistently framing the trial as a fight for tolerance and personal freedom, warning, the country has fallen upon evil times. It seems that every organization has some law it is endorsing to force upon the people. Darrow and Bryan viewed this case as a serious moral issue. For Bryan, democracy and majority rule were at stake. And for Darrow, individual freedom was under threat. But despite the attorney's warnings, the nation's media was treating the looming trial as a joke. And soon, the circus was on its way to Dayton.

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18:50In early July 1925, the residents of Dayton, Tennessee transformed their town in anticipation of an influx of visitors. The Southern Railway added extra passenger service to Dayton, and workers built the county's first airstrip in a nearby pasture so that newsreel cameramen could fly out footage of the trial to northern cities. In the meantime, state officials sent experts to oversee sanitation and ensure that there was safe drinking water. The finest hotel in town raised its rates and then even placed cots in the hallways to make more room for guests, while a temporary tourist camp was also set up to accommodate the large numbers of people expected to stay as the trial proceeded.

19:28Other preparations were made to facilitate media coverage of the trial. Western Union stationed 22 telegraph operators in town and strung extra wires to nearby cities. A storage loft above a hardware store was turned into a makeshift press room, and workers updated the courthouse with a fresh coat of paint, 500 additional seats, a bank of telephones, and a newsreel camera platform. The jury box was moved from the center of the chamber to the corner to make room for three microphones connected to loudspeakers installed on the courthouse lawn. This trial was the first in American history to be broadcast live, with the microphones transmitting the proceedings not just to the lawn outside, but to millions of Americans across the nation through the Chicago radio station WGN.

20:12Two hundred reporters would cover the event for newspapers as far away as London, joined by dozens of photographers and newsreel camera crews. Officials also roped off six blocks at the town's main street to turn it into a pedestrian mall, which was soon packed with vendors and proselytizers. Peddlers sold Bibles, toy monkeys, lemonade, and hot dogs. Preachers took to the streets to shout about the evils of evolution, and atheists drew crowds as they spoke out against Christianity. Visitors could even shake hands with a trained chimpanzee dressed in a plaid suit and fedora. A New York Times reporter who described the scene concluded, Whatever the deep significance of the trial, if it has any, there is no doubt that it has attracted some of the world's champion freaks.

20:54But despite the circus-like atmosphere in Dayton, most Americans were not deeply invested in the debate over evolution. Public interest in the trial was more focused on the famous figures involved and the prospect of a dramatic face-off. As one tourist told a reporter, he simply wanted to see the show. And there could be no doubt the main attraction of the show was William Jennings Bryan. Despite a July heat wave that sent temperatures soaring into the 90s, crowds swarmed the station to greet Brian as he stepped off his train from Miami three days before the trial was set to begin. By arriving early to Dayton, Brian was able to monopolize the spotlight.

21:30He strolled through town munching on radishes, which he believed to be good for his diet. Along the way, he stopped to pose for cameras and speak to reporters. The Dayton Progressive Club hosted a banquet in Brian's honor, where he gave a speech warning, the contest between evolution and Christianity is a duel to the death. By contrast, two days later, the New York defense attorneys arrived in Dayton without much fanfare. Divorce lawyer Dudley Malone joked, Am I too late for the trial? I had been reading Mr. Bryan's speeches in the newspapers, and I thought the trial had already begun. Later that same evening, Clarence Darrow rolled into town on the last train.

22:06Newsreel cameras captured footage of him embracing his client John Scopes at the depot. But for the most part, Scopes faded into the background, a bit player in the looming contest between science and faith, starring Brian and Darrow. Before leaving New York, Clarence Darrow had summed up the stakes of the case, declaring, Scopes is not on trial. Civilization is on trial. Nothing will satisfy us but broad victory, a knockout that will prove that America is founded on liberty and not on narrow, mean, intolerable, and brainless prejudice of soulless religiomaniacs. The following morning, nearly 1 ,000 people streamed into the Ray County Courthouse for the trial's opening, walking beneath a banner with the words, Read Your Bible, that locals had hung over the courthouse door.

22:49Some arrived as early as 7 a.m., two hours ahead of schedule. Reporters claimed the best seats in front, while spectators spilled out into the aisles and hallways, craning their necks for a view of the action. Overflow crowds sat under the shade of maple trees on the courthouse lawn. Some farmers and overalls had even traveled over mountain roads and mule-drawn wagons for the day's proceedings, though they were not the wealthy tourists Dayton leaders had hoped for. But there were still plenty of people to witness the spectacle, despite temperatures predicted to reach 100 degrees. The crowds who jammed the upstairs courtroom waved palm leaf fans in the air, desperately seeking relief from the stifling heat, made worse by the exploding flash powder of the photographer's cameras.