Ed Larson, who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the trial called "Summer for the Gods," said that Dayton has historically been hospitable to both sides, and that outrage over the teaching of evolution in 1925 was manufactured.
The trial is often remembered as the persecution of teacher Scopes for teaching evolution, which Tennessee had outlawed, but it actually began as a publicity stunt for Dayton, Larson said.
Larsen explained that locals had responded to a newspaper advertisement by the American Civil Liberties Union looking for someone to test Tennessee's anti-evolution law in court. No one had complained about Scopes or his teaching; he was recruited to be the defendant, Larson said. Scopes never spent time in jail and was offered his job back after the trial, Larsen said — and Bryan even offered to pay his fine.
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