DARROW GIVES OPINION OF EVOLUTION TRIAL ADVERSARY WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN
New York City (JFK+50) On May 18, 1925, famed Chicago lawyer Clarence Darrow, who joins in the defense of Tennessee public school teacher, John T. Scopes, who is charged with violation of "the law forbidding the teaching of evolution", gave his opinions on William Jennings Bryan* who will be his adversary for the prosecution.
Mr. Darrow said...
"Nero tried to kill Christianity with persecution and law. Bryan would block enlightenment with law. Nero failed as will Bryan. More persons are studying evolution in Tennessee now than before the law was passed."
Darrow and fellow attorney Dudley Field Malone will pay the expenses for the evolution trial to be held in July in Dayton, Tennessee "in order that day may triumph over night."
JFK+ 50 NOTE
The law in question is the Butler Act (1925) passed by the Tennessee State Legislature & Senate and signed into law by Gov. Austin Peay. The law prohibited public school teachers of the state of Tennessee to deny the account in the book of Genesis of man's origin or to teach the theory of evolution.
The Butler Act was sponsored by Rep. John Washington Butler who represented Macon, Trousdale & Sumner counties north of Nashville.
*William Jennings Bryan was a driving force in the Democratic Party having been nominated 3 times for POTUS. WJB also served as Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church & a strong opponent of the doctrine of evolution.
SOURCE
"Darrow Likens Bryan to Nero as Futile Opponent of Great Doctrine's Spread," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., May 18, 1925, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
