From the probably overfunded Smithsonian mag:The Scopes Trial Redefined Science Journalism and Shaped It to What It Is Today
In one photo, as if in testament to the success of the town’s publicity stunt, three men stand posing behind a small round table. On the table is posted a sign that reads:
“At this table the scopes evolution case was started May 5, 1925.”
Perhaps the men had not quite grasped the extent to which Dayton was being ridiculed around the country as a reservoir of ignorance and zealotry. More.
Principally due to the activities of fashionable bigot H. E. Mencken, adored by the cocktail crowd, then and now. Except, it isn’t funny any more.
William Jennings Bryan, don’t let’s forget, had good reason for concern over the teaching of “evolution” in Tennessee schools, as he had been US secretary of state at the dissolution of Germany’s Second Reich (and its war on black people), guided by Darwinian eugenics principles. (See vid link below.)
The method may have been mistaken but the purpose was just and timely. Much harm has come in consequence of ignoring the power of Darwinian eugenics over those who think themselves to be the superior race.
When is the fact that it’s not cute or funny any more going to matter? See also Pants in knot: “Creationism in Louisiana schools?” Also: Louisiana, the Bible, and Darwin
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This 14-minute documentary tells the little-known story of the influence of Social Darwinism on German militarism leading up to World War 1, including an exploration of the German military’s genocidal policies in Southwest Africa (modern Namibia). The video features the work of California State University historian Richard Weikart, author of the book From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany (Palgrave Macmillan).