Time is running out to sign up for FFRF’s Clarence Darrow Dinner Party in Chattanooga on Thursday, July 13, celebrating the installation that day of a statue of the famed Scopes Trial litigator in Dayton, Tenn. The dinner party will be followed with the public dedication of the statue in Dayton on that Friday. Dayton is about 40 miles from Chattanooga.
Talented sculptor Zenos Frudakis will give a short visual presentation at the dinner party and FFRF Co-President Dan Barker will entertain at the piano. Special guests will be Nicole Jacobsen and Andrew Kersten. Jacobsen grew up in Dayton and her family members were the unnamed plaintiffs in FFRF’s federal lawsuit ending a legacy of the Scopes trial — weekly bible instruction in the public schools by bible students from William Jennings Bryan Bible College. Kersten, the dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences at the Univeristy of Idaho, wrote the book Clarence Darrow: American Iconoclast in 2011.
That Friday also marks the first day of the 29th annual Scopes Trial Play and Festival.
Tickets are available for the play, performed annually in the historic courthouse where the trial took place in Dayton. Purchase tickets directly from the Tennessee Valley Theater at 423/365-7529 or at scopesfestival.com. Space is limited!
Dinner party registration is $45 per person, which covers the buffet, 20 percent service charge and 9.25 percent state tax. Registration will be cut off on Thursday, July 6, or when capacity is reached. Be sure to phone FFRF before mailing your registration, as we are close to reaching capacity. Register online at ffrf.org/Darrowdinner or by phone at: 800/335-4021.
And don’t forget to reserve your room now at the Chattanoogan Hotel, 1201 Broad St., Chattanooga, Tenn. The hotel is holding a courtesy block of rooms while they last on Thursday and Friday, July 13-14. Make your own arrangements, using the code “Clarence Darrow Party.” (FFRF’s event webpage, ffrf.org/Darrowdinner, will also link directly to the hotel registration while rooms last.) Other nearby hotels include the Marriott and Staybridge.
