One hundred years ago, a small town in eastern Tennessee captured the attention of the entire country.
A biology teacher in Dayton was accused of teaching human evolution to his students — which was illegal in Tennessee at the time. The teacher went on trial for his crime, and it quickly became 1925’s biggest media event and one of the most sensationalized trials in U.S. history.
From July 10 to July 21, two nationally known, powerhouse lawyers — prosecutor William Jennings Bryan and defense attorney Clarence Darrow — traded barbs in acrimonious court proceedings that were about far more than one small-town teacher violating a state law. The trial