Editing Dayton, Tennessee (section)

===Scopes trial===
In 1925, the famous [[Scopes Trial]] was held in Dayton and, for a period of time, filled the town with [[huckster]]s of every description and journalists from around the world. The participants included [[William Jennings Bryan]] in the role of prosecutor and [[Clarence Darrow]] as the principal defense counsel. The trial was over the issue of whether evolution should be taught in public schools. [[John T. Scopes]], the defendant in the trial, was a local science teacher who was recruited by [[George Rappleyea]] to begin to teach evolution in his science class, and at the provocation of the ACLU ([[American Civil Liberties Union]]), despite it being against Tennessee law at that time. Rappleyea believed that this conflict would create an enormous amount of publicity for the town, and he was proven correct.<ref>{{cite web|title = Digital History|url = http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3390|website = www.digitalhistory.uh.edu|access-date = September 30, 2015}}</ref>  The town bustled with activity as people began to flock from near and far to hear the verdict on this controversial issue.

Although this trial is often represented as being pivotal in the movement to allow evolution to be taught in American schools, it actually marked the beginning of a major decline in the teaching of evolution which did not start to recover until the early 1960s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Moore|first=Randy|date=September 1, 2001|title=The Lingering Impact of the Scopes Trial on High School Biology Textbooks|url=https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/51/9/790/288261|journal=BioScience|language=en|volume=51|issue=9|pages=790–796|doi=10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0790:TLIOTS]2.0.CO;2|s2cid=85706061 |issn=0006-3568}}</ref> Likewise, the [[Butler Act]], which Scopes was supposed to have violated—though it was never invoked again—remained on the books until 1967, when it was repealed by the [[Tennessee Legislature]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/the-scopes-trial/|title=The Scopes Trial|last=Randal Rust|website=Tennessee Encyclopedia|language=en-US|access-date=February 4, 2019}}</ref>

[[H. L. Mencken]] famously covered the trial for the [[The Baltimore Sun|Baltimore ''Sun'']] and recruited [[Clarence Darrow]] to lead the defense team.

Immediately after the trial, Bryan continued to edit and deliver speeches, traveling hundreds of miles that week. On July 26, 1925, he drove from [[Chattanooga]] to Dayton to attend a church service, ate a meal, and died (the result of diabetes and fatigue) in his sleep that afternoon&mdash;just five days after the Scopes trial ended.