JFK+50: Volume 6, No. 2034
RHEA COUNTY COURTHOUSE TO GET CLARENCE DARROW STATUE
Dayton, Tennessee (JFK+50) Ninety-one years ago last month the Scopes Monkey Trial, held at the Rhea County Courthouse here in Dayton, made national headlines. The two major protagonists of the trial were William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense.
The courthouse lawn has been adorned with a statue of Mr. Bryan for many years but there has been none for Mr. Darrow. Associated Press's Travis Loller says that is about to change. He writes..."a group of atheists" is responsible for a statue of Clarence Darrow which is now a work in progress by Zenos Frudakis of Glenside, Pennsylvania.
William Jennings Bryan was both a three-time Democratic candidate for president of the United States and a Christian fundamentalist. He professed belief in the creation of man as described in the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible. Clarence Darrow, on the other hand, took the side of evolution as supported by science.
Mr. Loller writes that there has not been much "vocal opposition" in the community to the addition of a statue of Darrow. It has been argued, however, that Bryan's statue is on the courthouse lawn not merely because of his role in the trial, but because he is the namesake for Bryan College founded in Dayton in 1930.
The Rhea County Courthouse is still serving the people of the community today and its' basement houses a museum of the Scopes Trial.
SOURCE
"New Scopes trial statue stirs echoes of event," by Travis Loller, Knoxville News-Sentinel, August 8, 2016, www.knoxnews.com/
Rhea County, TN Courthouse
Dayton, Tennessee
Photo by Calvin Beale (2006)
