Scopes Trial

Scopes Trial, prosecution, in 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee, of a high school teacher who taught the theory of evolution. The teacher, John T. Scopes (1900-1970), was accused of having violated the Butler Act while serving as a substitute instructor in a high school biology class. The Butler Act was a Tennessee law that forbade the teaching of the theory of evolution in public schools because it contradicted the account of creation in the Bible. The trial received worldwide publicity and was conducted in a circuslike atmosphere. The press dubbed it the Monkey Trial because, according to popular belief, evolution meant that humans were descended from monkeys.

Clarence Darrow, one of America's leading criminal lawyers, appeared for the defense, and former U.S. secretary of state William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution. The defense argued for the scientific validity of evolution and against the constitutionality of the Butler Act, but it did not deny that Scopes had broken the law. He was convicted and fined $100, but the verdict was later reversed on technical grounds by the state supreme court. The Butler Act remained on the books until 1967.