Students invited to special showing of Scopes Trial play

DAYTON — Parents’ rights, free speech, students’ rights — hot-button issues today — are nothing new, and the Scopes Trial Players want to show why.

On March 19-21, public, private and home school students are invited to three special presentations of “How It Started,” a dramatization of the 1925 Scopes Trial, which captured all these issues, and the still debated question of origins—creation or evolution.

In that famous trial, teacher John Scopes was tried for violating a new state law that prohibited teaching the Darwinian theory of human origins. Lawyers argued about academic freedom, freedom of speech, parents’ role in their children’s education and much more.

Presented in the historic Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton where the trial was held, the play tells the story of that legal battle, and highlights the clash of William Jennings Bryan (defending the law) and Clarence Darrow (defending the teacher).

The hour-long play will be followed by a lecture/discussion led by Dr. Ray Legg, a retired professor from Bryan College. Legg, who portrayed Bryan for many years in the Scopes Trial play in July, will discuss the trial’s issues and how they are reflected in today’s headlines. Guests also will be invited to a guided tour of the Rhea Heritage and Scopes Trial Museum in the courthouse. Each student will receive a detailed study guide to America’s most famous trial.

This program is sponsored in part by Humanities Tennessee and the Rhea Heritage Preservation Foundation and is free, but reservations are required. The program begins at 10 a.m. each day and concludes at 1 p.m. For more information or to register, email admin@rheaheritage.com.