In this July 23, 2016, photo, a woman walks by a sign hanging on the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, Tenn. The sign is a replica of one that was displayed during the 1925 Scopes “monkey trial,” and is placed on the courthouse during the annual Scopes Festival.DAYTON, Tenn. – In 1925, two of America’s most renowned figures faced off in the southeast Tennessee town of Dayton to debate a burning issue – whether man evolved over millions of years or was created by God in his present form.
Today, only one of the two, the Christian orator William Jennings Bryan, is commemorated with a statue on the courthouse lawn. A group of atheists hopes to change that.
Bryan defended the Biblical account while trial lawyer and skeptic Clarence Darrow defended evolution in the “Scopes monkey trial” – formally, Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes. The case became front-page news nationwide and is memorialized in songs, books, plays and movies.
Nearly a century later, the debate pitting evolution against the biblical account of creation rages on nationally and locally. Nearly all scientists accept evolution, but many Christians see it as incompatible with their faith. Just two years ago in Dayton, professors at a Christian college named for Bryan were fired in a dispute over whether Adam and Eve were historical people.
One might expect a town that reveres Bryan to resist efforts to memorialize his antagonist, but Reed Johnson, managing editor of The Herald-News in Dayton, said that vocal resistance hasn’t materialized. He doesn’t recall angry letters to the editor.