The ‘20s: Culture, Consumption, and Crash 125it by reading from a biology textbook in his class. He was immediately
arrested, jailed, and was the main character in the “Monkey Trial,” so named
because critics claimed that Darwin was disrespecting God by saying that
men emerged from apes. A group of lawyers for the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU), led by Clarence Darrow, defended Scopes. Darrow
was perhaps the most famous lawyer of the day, having gained fame as a
defense attorney in the first “Crime of the Century” trial, a murder trial that
featured the first insanity plea as a defense [the case of Leopold and Loeb].
The state of Tennessee had its own team of lawyers that was assisted by the
equally famous William Jennings Bryan. Bryan, the former presidential can-
didate and Populist reformer, was also a self-appointed “expert on the
Bible,” ready to defend its literal accuracy. In a highly unusual move,
Darrow called Bryan – a member of the prosecution team – as an expert
witness, and ridiculed him during his testimony. On the stand, Bryan assured
Darrow that a big fish really did swallow Jonah, and that Joshua had make
the sun “stand still.” “The Bible states it,” Bryan vehemently announced, so
“it must be true.” When Bryan protested that Darrow was “ridiculing every
Christian who believes in the Bible,” Darrow had a ready reply. “We have
FIGuRE 3-3 The Scopes Trial