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Preface xiii “monkeys [who] see no logic, speak no logic and hear no logic,” and Bry- an’s son (also one of Scopes’s prosecutors) was branded “a chip off the old blockhead. . . . Like father, like son, and we don’t like either.”24 Some of Bryan’s critics even admitted that they “would not have liked [Bryan’s speeches] no matter how eloquent or stirring” they were. These biases and confusing reporting prompted historian Garry Wills (b. 1934) to conclude that “almost everything about the Scopes Trial has been misrep- resented, and it is the ‘educated’ part of America that accepted the distortion.”25 Scopes, who acknowledged that many reports about his trial included “large errors of emphasis,” refused requests for interviews for many years, but that didn’t stop reporters from perpetuating biased stories that were often wrong about even the trial’s most basic facts Scopes and other par- ticipants were misidentified (e.g., “Scoaps,” “Stokes,” “Scopez,” “Scoats”), and some articles even placed his famous trial in other states.26 An article by one of the trial’s expert witnesses derisively claimed that “None of the residents [of Dayton] would provide accommodations for the defense,” yet that same article included a photo of members of the defense in front of a local resident’s home where Darrow was staying.27 As Scopes later told his sons and others, “the reporters missed a lot.” As a result, it is often diffi- cult to determine what “really happened” at the Scopes Trial, for what “really happened” has been replaced by legend that usually favors Scopes and his defenders. I hope that this book helps remedy some of those biases and misrepresentations. This book represents more than 25 years of research in Dayton and elsewhere about the Scopes Trial. Over the years, I’ve found much new information, including stories from John Scopes’s friends’ and family scrapbooks, public records, and interviews with John Scopes’s children, relatives, and friends. Some of this new information confirmed what had already been reported, other information corrected long-standing errors, and some of the rest—presented here for the first time—provided new insights about the trial, its aftermath, and its lingering impact.28 By the time you finish this book, you’ll understand why and how the trial started, what happened, what it meant, and why it still matters. I hope you enjoy The Scopes “Monkey Trial”—America’s Most Famous Trial and Its Ongoing Legacy. Randy Moore July 21, 2022 Dayton, Tennessee