David Jones and Roger Smith
10:00 am - 12:30 pm | Tuesday, July 29

Marking the 2025 centennial of the Scopes “Monkey” Trial, this retrospective and introspective seminar examines the 1925 trial of educator John Scopes in Dayton, Tennessee as a collision of science and religion which drew the nation’s attention as a media spectacle, in addition to the trial’s ramifications a century later.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:

 • THE ROAD TO DAYTON  Post-WWII anxieties, Tennessee’s Butler Act, the biology textbook

• KEY PLAYERS & PIVOTAL MOMENTS  William Jennings Bryan, Clarence Darrow, John Scopes, H.L. Mencken

• TRIAL AS THEATER  Evolution v creation, cross-examination, verdict and vindication

• SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND LEGACY  Rise of fundamentalism, racial undertones, trial aftermath, modern controversies

David Jones holds a PhD from Indiana University and spent his career in both business and academia. He engages in a variety of history topics for The Learning Center.

Roger Smith is director of The Learning Center with a background in American literature and history. He studied at Armstrong State and Georgia Southern Universities.