The latest Scopes 100 coverage from the Chattanooga Times Free Press, part of our Local section.
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People from far and wide traveled here for the Scopes Trial Centennial Celebration, which continued Wednesday with the first day of the Scopes Symposium, a series of lectures spanning two days covering everything from the people of the trial to Christian responses to evolution.
The challenge with teaching evolution in 2025 is the same each semester, said Elizabeth Barnes, now approaching her fifth year on the biology faculty at Middle Tennessee State University.
On a recent spring morning, Dayton was looking fine beneath a sky dotted with feathery clouds. Front yards were coming alive following winter's hiatus. Tall forsythia bushes, bending under the weight of blossoms, created fountains of yellow. Tulip stems, having broken through the crust of dark soil, pointed to the stratosphere, a promise of delicate flowers in pastel colors soon to come. Catkins, nature's delivery system for scattering oak tree pollen, dropped lazily to the ground, their usefulness served.
What occurred a century ago this month in the courtroom of the Rhea County Courthouse refuses to be forgotten. The utterance of a name — Scopes — is a reminder of those two torrid weeks in July 1925 when the world's eyes were on Dayton.
They called it the "monkey trial." It was supposed to be a publicity stunt.
