John Scopes Trial

The Scopes Trial John Scopes was a teacher in Dayton, TN, beginning around 1924. He is best known for the controversy that he caused over teaching one very touchy subject to his students, Evolution. In 1925, Tennessee passed the Butler Act which made it illegal for any teacher in a public school "to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” John Scopes was not a biology teacher, but he was a substitute teacher for a biology class. He taught the class using a book in which supported evolution which was enough to get him tried under the law. He was found guilty, but his convictions were overturned. He never taught again, but started a family and worked for an oil company.
John Butler was in the Tennessee House of Representative from 1923-1927. He is most famous for introducing the Butler Act in 1925 which would prohibit the learning of any subject in school that contradicted the word of God. The law was specifically targeted at the teaching of evolution. The act is also referred to as the Tennessee Anti-Evolution Act, or “Monkey Law”. After participating in the writing of the Butler act and Scopes …show more content…
Later, the American Civil Liberties Union (or ACLU) offers to pay court cost for anyone who is willing to test the Butler Act. “Fearful that if the Tennessee law went unchallenged other states would soon pass similar bills, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) immediately announced it would defend any teacher charged with violating the Butler Act.” says Bradbury. The ACLU was an organization which would try to figure out if laws were unconstitutional or not. On May 5, John Scopes, science teacher, volunteered to become ACLU's defendant in a trial testing the Tennessee anti-evolution