A Tennessee Teacher Is Convicted for Teaching Evolution

In March 1925, Tennessee Governor Austin Peay signed the Butler Act into law, making it a misdemeanor for public school teachers in the state to teach any theory denying the biblical account of divine creation and teaching instead that humankind descended from a lower order of animals. Seeking to test the constitutionality of the statute, the American Civil Liberties Union offered legal defense to any teacher willing to face charges. Local civic leaders in Dayton, Tennessee, led by coal company manager George Rappleyea, quickly saw an opportunity to bring commercial attention and publicity to their town. They approached twenty-four-year-old John T. Scopes, a high school science teacher and coach who had substituted in biology classes, and persuaded him to stand as a test defendant.

Scopes himself was uncertain whether he had ever directly taught evolutionary theory to his students, though he had reviewed the state-approved textbook, George William Hunter's Civic Biology, which presented the topic. To ensure an indictment, Scopes encouraged several students to testify against him before a grand jury, which charged him in May 1925. The proceedings rapidly grew far beyond a local legal dispute. Prominent politician and anti-evolution campaigner William Jennings Bryan, a former United States secretary of state and three-time Democratic presidential nominee, joined the prosecution team on behalf of the World Christian Fundamentals Association. In response, renowned defense attorney Clarence Darrow entered the case to head Scopes's legal team alongside attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union.