Dayton's Rise to Fame (scopestrial)

Dayton's rise to Fame

There are many places across the globe that catch people's attention in either good or bad ways. Sometimes certain events or people play a role in the way places are judged. Dayton Tennessee, for example, was looked at as a down side of the South. Southerners were starting to lose hope that their society would never improve in the future. When a man by name of John Scopes, a biology high school teacher was being trialed for teaching conspiracies about how the Earth was created. He violated the Tennessee's Butler Act, which was an act that prohibit schools from denying of teaching Biblical of creation. It also prevented the teachings of theory of Evolution. Dayton gained an edge from this incident for their own advantage. After this trial was over, the South improved its image and became a better society.

Situated midway between Knoxville and Chattanooga in the valley carved by the Tennessee River in the rising foothills of East Tennessee, the town of Dayton in Rhea County lacked both a sense of tradition and confidence in the future. The old south was farmland with nothing interesting as they thought. Coming into the New south many factories and railroads were built (87). The North funded the south to build many of those things including the three story courthouse. Being that the railroads were built it was the main highway for their strawberry production (88). No longer people depended on slave labor and raising of cotton.

"Something has happen that is going to put Dayton on the map!" The show has begun (91). That was a start of something new since it was a slow town and publicity for Dayton. It was a good idea to have the trial there because it educated people on the evolution. People mind were open to the new theory that did not deal with religious aspects.

"The basic issues of the case, indeed, seems to be very little discussed at Dayton. The number one question was, what interests everyone is the strategy. It was found that the interest was for publicity , but would it be good publicity or bad. Many Tennesseans did not like the whole idea of the publicity stunt (93).

Since the 1920s was a period of big transition for the south the media was a big deal at that time. Reporters, writers, and spectators of all sorts came to witness the trial. The city of Dayton wanted publicity and that would have been the perfect way to let everyone know and bring their conflicts to America. The Chattanoga Times, Nashville Banner and many other newspapers printed articles about the trial saying positive and negative opinions.

The Scopes trial was the most controversial issue making Dayton a very attractive and non forgetting city in history. The political landscape had changed for the better and no one was stuck on the old way of theories. Equal protection for their ideas appeared more appropriate to some