Jerry Summers
On Sept. 9, at the monthly meeting of the Chattanooga Area Historical Association (CAHA) experienced court reporter, Linda Hershey, gave a lecture on the role of court reporters at the historic State of Tennessee v. John T. Scopes trial in Dayton, Tn., from July 10-21, 1925.
Her talk included a powerpoint presentation that contained era photos and newspaper articles describing the battle over the constitutionality of the Anti-Evolution Act (Butler Bill) passed by the Tennessee General Assembly in March 1925 and the “speedy trial” that started on July 10, 1925.
One of her slides projected the results of a poll that named the “Top 10 Trials in History Up to 2000” with the Scopes legal controversy over Fundamentalism versus Modernism being ranked No. 5 and the Impeachment of the 42nd president of the United States for perjury and immoral conduction heading the list as No. 1.
An individual in the audience commented that the “man versus monkey” issue seemed more important than the moral misconduct of the Prez from Arkansas but sexual innuendos in America have always ranked high in the eyes (and ears) of the public.
Back to the subject at hand, Linda Hershey’s talk also demonstrated significant historical research in an area not previously discussed in the millions of words and photos of the famous events.
The introduction to the group of the identity of court reporters who actually participated in the transcription of the in court testimony, non-jury testimony, testimony of one expert witness, and submission of affidavits of several others, preserved history.
Her dedication to identifying the transcribers and attempt to obtain an actual copy of the trial transcript are indicative of a self appointed investigator and not just a stenographer.
Edith McClaskey and Vivien Spitz were just two of the alleged six daily reporters that covered the first national radio broadcast over station WGN in Chicago.
A closer representative of the multiple court reporter corps would be W.R. Norvell of Signal Mountain, who would later become a practicing attorney.
In July 2025 the 100th Anniversary of the Scopes Trial will be held at Bryan College and the Rhea County Courthouse under the auspices of the Rhea County Historical Society.
Mark your calendar to attend one or all of the proceedings that are part of the legal community history from 1925!
(A trip to the Scopes Museum in the basement of the building will also provide additional knowledge of the “True Trial of the Century.”)
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