How a Clarence Darrow statue shows the staying power of the Scopes trial

In 1925, two legal giants debated the origins of mankind inside a southeastern Tennessee courthouse. More than 90 years later, a bronze statue of lawyer and skeptic Clarence Darrow brings the "Scopes monkey trial" adversaries back together.

The statue, which will be dedicated Friday, joins one of Darrow's opponents and Christian orator William Jennings Bryan that already stands on the Rhea County Courthouse lawn.

The addition of the seven-foot-tall Darrow statue funded primarily by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation illustrates how the case is a rallying point in the ongoing debate pitting the theory of evolution against the biblical creation story.

More:Evolution debate rages on at Tennessee home of 'Scopes monkey trial'

The 1925 Scopes trial, formally known as the State of Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes, challenged the state legislature's passage of the Butler Act, which banned the teaching of evolution in public schools.

At the time, the American Civil Liberties Union sought a test case, and Dayton teacher John Scopes was willing to break the law by teaching evolution. The heavily publicized trial drew widespread attention and ended in a guilty verdict. Scopes was fined $100, but the verdict was later reversed on a technicality. 

People on all sides of the debate are drawn to the Bible Belt town, which embraces the case's legacy and hosts an annual Scopes Trial Festival, which starts Friday.

The relevance of the Scopes trial persists because it tackled essential life questions that were puzzled over well before the 1925 case, said Raymond Legg, who played William Jennings Bryan for 16 years in the community's annual reenactment of the Scopes trial.  

"We're talking about all of the things that have been with us since ancient times. Who are we? Why are we here? And where are we going?" said Legg, who also is an English professor at Bryan College, which is in Dayton. 

The school was founded in William Jennings Bryan's name, and requires its staff to affirm God's role in creation, Legg said. The college also commissioned the statue of Bryan.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which successfully sued to halt religious instruction in Rhea County public schools by Bryan College students, contributed $150,000 to the newly installed Darrow statue. The organization wanted to make sure Darrow was given equal representation at the courthouse.

"When you’re talking about someone's religion, you're striking at the core of their being," Legg said. "Or if you’re striking at the heart of their conviction that science has all the answers, you’re striking at the core of their being." 

The Scopes trial was just the beginning of the American Civil Liberties Union's long legal fight to protect academic freedom, said Hedy Weinberg, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. 

The creation versus evolution legal fight the Scopes trial started has evolved over the decades through the court system. It's shifted from banning the teaching of evolution to keeping biblical creation out of science class, but not out of the schools entirely, Weinberg said. 

The broader issues like freedom of expression, fair treatment and justice raised in the Scopes trial carry on today, Weinberg said.   

"Religion and science continue to do battle with one another in contemporary politics. A leading example is the debate over global warming which illustrates this tension between science and politics," Weinberg said. 

The Darrow statue has faced some opposition. A county commissioner spoke against it and the conservative Tennessee Pastors Network and the Tennessee Committee for the Bill of Rights held a protest earlier this month. 

But Ralph Green, the president of the Rhea County Historical and Genealogical Society, said most people in town don't have an issue with it.  

The historical and genealogical society, which is involved with the Scopes museum in the basement of the courthouse, approved the Darrow statue created by Pennsylvania artist Zenos Frudakis, Green said.

"This to us was just a sense of balancing out the recognition of these two giants," Green said. "It's just history. It's the way it happened and the Scopes trial would not have had been what it was without these two." 

Reach Holly Meyer at hmeyer@tennessean.com or 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.