[ORCHESTRA MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR 1: John Scopes, a young teacher of Tennessee,

had taught, contrary to state law,

Darwin's theory of evolution.

The Tennessee country people believed

this was contrary to biblical doctrine,

and Scopes' trial got worldwide publicity, with the Tennessee

fundamentalists lined up against the liberals

and intellectuals of America.

William Jennings Bryan, old and full of oratory,

defended the beliefs of the fundamentalists.

He was aided by the prosecuting zeal of old judge Ben McKenzie,

a local politician influential in the area, who helped to make

the trial an inquisition.

The courtroom was packed as the case reached a climax.

Arthur Garfield Hays, defending Scopes,

explained Darwin's theory of evolution,

and Dudley Field Malone, another liberal,

added his plea for tolerance to the cause

of freedom of thought.

Then the defense threw in another artful veteran,

Clarence Darrow, for what turned out to be

the cross-examination of Bryan.

Darrow, in the shirtsleeves analysis,

reduced the elder statesman's antiquated ideas

to intellectual rubble.

NARRATOR 2: After the closing remarks,

Judge Raulston charged the jury, and they

retired with their deliberations on a verdict.

On the day of the announced decision,

the two opposing sides waited calmly in the courtroom.

The jury foreman, Captain Jack Thompson,

delivered the verdict of guilty as charged.

John Scopes received the decree of his $100 fine

without any outward show of bitterness.

Two years later, the decision was

to be reversed in the appellate court of appeals.

William Jennings Bryan died five days after the end

of the famous trial.

Although victorious in the courtroom,

he and the fundamentalist cause had been destroyed.

The encounter in Dayton, Tennessee

had solved the basic struggle of thinking and education

in the modern day world.