We are (beep) nine visions of black excellence.

We will go to school and we'll change the world.

It'll be great.

- Hello.

Today we're going to talk about the Scopes Monkey Trial.

(mouth slurping)

The 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, the economy was tanking.

George Rappleyea was a lawyer.

One day he saw an open letter in the newspaper.

The ACLU, which is a new organization

offers to represent any teacher that wants

to challenge the new Tennessee state law

that forbids the teaching of evolution.

This gives George an idea.

Hey, if someone locally challenged this law,

it could become the trial of the century

and it could help the economy in our (beep) little town

that nobody knows about.

George Rappleyea, who I want to call Appleyea,

because it's the only way I can remember his name.

Apple yay!

But his name is Rappleyea.

- Right. - Yeah.

Don't call them Appleyea.

Okay, I call him Rappleyea.

So they pitched this idea to John Scopes

of the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Isn't it terrible that there's this law?

You're a science teacher.

Yeah, I'm a football coach.

I also took,

I'm a football coach.

I also teach a little science

and I personally believe in evolution.

The ACLU, they hire the greatest defense attorney,

probably ever, Clarence Darrow.

Public schools should teach science and facts.

That's what I think.

William Jennings Bryan comes in to fight

for the Tennessee state statute, which he inspired.

You can't teach evolution.

Yeah, legally you can't teach it.

On the first day of the Scope Monkey Trial

Williams Jenning Bryan,

why does that not sound like I'm saying it right?

Williams Jenning Bryan says to the court,

"If evolution wins, Christianity goes."

And to that Clarence Darrow argued

that Scopes isn't on trial.

Civilization is on trial.

This was like a boxing match.

This was the trial of the century,

and for the first time,

people were able to hear a trial on their radios.

There was a point in the trial in which Clarence Darrow

asked scientists to explain the theory of evolution.

But the judge in the Scopes Monkey Trial was John Raulston.

And he believed, "I have been called on by God

"to be the judge in this case.

"So I don't care what all these scientists have to say.

"They can't give testimony."

So Clarence Darrow decided, "Okay, all my witnesses,

"they can't give testimony.

"So I'll ask someone who's an expert on the Bible

"to give testimony.

"Hey, what is your name, Bryant?

"I know you're on the other side of this case,

"but why don't you go on the witness stand

"and I'll question you about the Bible?"

Now, Williams Jenning Bryan was so excited about this.

He was like, "Oh my God,

"I'm gonna destroy you as a witness.

"I will go on the witness stand."

Now the judge didn't want him to do this.

The judge was (muffled speaking).

(BJ laughing)

When Clarence Darrow puts William Jennings Bryan

on the Bible, he asks,

"Do you believe all the stories of the Bible literally?"

And the first answer of William Jennings Bryan is,

"Yes, the Bible is literal.

"I believe in it literally."

And then asking him specific questions.

Where did Kane's wife come from?

He made Adam and Eve.

And then all of a sudden there are other people

and Kane finds a wife.

Where did Kane's wife come from?

William Jennings Bryan gets flustered and says,

"Well, I leave that up to you agnostics to find out."

That's all Clarence Darrow needed.

So you're not interpreting the Bible literally?

Clarence Darrow goes on

to destroy William Jennings Bryan on facts.

- [Derek] Are you still spinning or how do you feel?

- Well, I'm, I'm dizzy.

I feel weird.

I feel like I think I know where I'm going,

and then I get utterly confused

about where I thought I was going.

Ah, nope.

Gonna get Facebook responses for this.

This was the complete destruction

of William Jennings Bryant

and William Jennings Bryant looks like a fool.

But William Jennings Bryant

knows I have the most amazing closing argument to make.

So the entire country listening to the radio agrees,

Clarence Darrow just mopped the floor

with William Jennings Bryant.

But William Jennings Bryant

has the most amazing closing argument to make.

Unfortunately for him,

Clarence Darrow also knows that he probably

has a pretty amazing closing argument.

So when the judge asks, Clarence Darrow

says, "I don't want to make a closing argument."

By law William Jennings Bryant now cannot

make his closing argument.

He was like, "You scumbag.

"You know what a (beep) scumbag you're being right now."

He was just humiliated

and now he can't even make the closing argument

he's been working on for the entire trial,

because he knew that at least in the minds

of those listening to the trial on the radio,

he had won and that's all he wanted.

Because he knew he was gonna lose.

He wanted to lose so that a higher court

could decide on this bigger law.

Six days after the trial,

William Jennings Bryant died

and the press reported that William Jennings Bryant

didn't die of diabetes.

He died of a broken heart.

- You think they were right? - No,

I think he died of diabetes.

- [Derek] Perfect ending.

- Hey everybody, I'm Amber Ruffin,

and I'm here to talk about the Little Rock Nine.

I can't reach you.

- I got you. - Oh, you got up.

- One more nine.

♪ Do it again ♪

♪ We're gonna celebrate ♪

♪ One more nine ♪

♪ Oh yeah ta pop oh pop oh ♪

Our story starts in Arkansas,

Little Rock to be specific.

It's 1957.

The Supreme court has just ruled in a case

of Brown vs. The Board of Education

that separate is not equal.

So their local NAACP went out to the black community

and found nine kids to go to Central High School,

the premier high school in little Rock, Arkansas.

So this kids are like, "We are the Little Rock Nine.

"We are (beep) nine visions of black excellence.

"We will go to school and we'll change the world.

"It'll be great."

So then the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus,

finds out that these kids are planning to integrate

and this bitch, Orval Fartbus.

(Derek laughing)

You can fart all you want on a fart bus.

Anyway, Orval Fartbus was like,

"Hey, if these kids integrate,

"the streets will run red with blood."

Orval Fartbus is a bitch.

(both laughing)

So then the kids show up to school on September 4th, 1957,

the first day of school.

The senior in the group of the Little Rock Nine

is Ernest Green.

And he is like, "Oh my gosh,

"there is an ass load of angry white people."

This angry white mob was like, "We don't like you.

"You need to go away.

"We are going to beat you up

"and hang you from a tree (laughs)."

This is not funny.

Meanwhile, on the other side of school,

Elizabeth Eckford, the ninth of the Little Rock Nine

is like, "Oh (beep), I'm here all by myself.

"Oh my God, there's a huge mob of white people.

"This is terrifying.

They're yelling and they have signs

and they're shouting shit.

And they are like, "Hey, you're white.

"I mean, I'm white and you're black.

"So that means I don't like you."

So she gathers herself and this girl is G'd up.

(beep) face stone cold and walking through these people

who want to pick her up and break her in two,

just walking through like a G.

And she sees the Arkansas National Guard.

"They must be here to help me," she thinks.

She quickens her pace and she goes,

"Hey, these white people are trying to kill me.

"Please save me."

And they like block her entrance.

They are letting other white students in and she's like,

"What is the deal?

"You are the National (beep) Guard.

"If anybody needs to be guarded it's me here now."

So she leaves school.

She sits down at the bus stop

and the white people are surrounding her.

And they're like, "We don't like you, you are poopy."

She went several minutes for the bus.

The bus pulls up and she's like,

"Thank God, I can finally get out of here.

"This isn't the last I will see of you,

"but also (beep), can I just get a (beep) education?"

So (burps) that was the first attempt and they lost.