It was called “The World’s Most Famous Court Trial” because in 1925 the attention of the world was focused on what was happening in a courtroom in Dayton, Tennessee.
More than 2 million words were transmitted by telegraphers from their stations in Dayton, giving the world a record of the arguments that defined the Scopes Trial, and Destiny in Dayton follows that path.
We invite you to visit Dayton, Tenn., each July to see a dramatization of the Scopes Trial, presented in the courtroom where William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow and their colleagues argued a misdemeanor case, an argument that reverberates today.
John Scopes was charged with violating a new state law that prohibited teaching in public schools any theory of human origins that contradicts teachings of the Bible. That may have been the heart of the case, but the lawyers had an awful lot to say about parents’ roles in public education, academic freedom, majority and minority rights, the role of government and the place of religion in public life.
Using a script that is taken almost entirely from the trial transcript, see how the people of 1925 saw the conflict of ideas, and how what they said then is reflected in today’s headlines.
Presented by a community cast—with jurors chosen from the audience—get a fresh look at this landmark case in American history.
