Darrow and Bryan are called Henry Drummond and Matthew Harrison Brady in the play, Inherit the Wind.
Introduction: In 1925 the famous trial lawyer, Clarence Darrow and the well known lecturer and political figure, William Jennings Bryan met in a Dayton, Tennessee courtroom to do battle. Darrow was working for the American Civil Liberties Union, and Bryan agreed to defend the state's right to determine what can be taught in their public schools.
Darrow and Bryan are called Henry Drummond and Matthew Harrison Brady in the play, Inherit the Wind.
As you read the play Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, you will decide who has the stronger intellectual argument in the Scopes Monkey Trial. The play Inherit the Wind is only based on the Scopes Monkey Trial and the figures involved it. It is by no means a detailed documentary of the real trial. John T. Scopes, the teacher who was prosecuted for teaching evolution in a public school classroom, willingly agreed to be part of a test case to challenge Tennessee's state law banning the teaching of that scientific subject matter. The trial was also a publicity stunt by the town of Dayton, Tennessee to achieve name recognition and notoriety. You will have to sift through the motives of the real life figures and the characters in the play to determine how valuable intellectual truth and freedom are to them, and likewise, you will have to make up your own mind and decide how valuable intellectual freedom is to you as an individual in our society. The trial is about to begin.
The Scopes Monkey Trial: Who are we really descended from?
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