The Scopes trial is one of the most fameous trials in American history.  The controversy over whether evolution can be taught in schools is still being fought.  According to evolution, each species produces more offspring than can survive (ex. one tree produces a thousnd seeds).  Because of this, there is a constant competition for resources among animals.  The fittest animals survive the struggle and can obtain resources.  The weaker die.  As time goes on, the species with the best traits survive and pass on their traits to the next generation.  Slowly, a species change over time as more traits are passed on.  The theory of evolution is considered to be one of the most important processes in our understanding of science.  Its creation shows us the groundbreaking advancements our species has made in science and discovery over our history.  And yet many people found, and still find, find it a chalenge to their religious beliefs because of it's lack of God and its apparent contradiction of the bible.  Others find it repugnent that we are descended from lower animals.  Because of this creationists have opposed the idea of evolution from its birth.  In 1925, the issue of teaching evolution in schools was the issue of one of the most dramatic trials in American history.

The drama started with the passage of the Butler Act which outlawed the teaching of evolution in American Schools.  Soon after, the American Civil Liberties Union, offered to support anyone who would break the law.  A group of citizens in Dayton Tenessee decided to take the ACLU up on the offer in part to gain attention for the town of Dayton.  They succeded in convincing a 24 year old teacher named John Scopes into being the defendant.

John Scopes a month before the trial.

"The conspirators" who convinced Scopes to participate in the trial. 

Soon after the trial was anounced, other people began to offer to help either Scopes or defend the anti-evolution law.  One of the first people to get involved in the trial was Matthew Harrison Brady. a fameous orator, former secretary of state and three time presidnetial canidate.  He was the leader of a national campain to prevent evolution form being taught.  Brady offered his services to the prosecution.  Soon after this, the most fameous defence lawyer in the country, Clarence Darrow, offered his services to the defence.  Darrow was known for offereing his services to people who society felt didn't deserve to be defended.  After these two people became involved, the trial, which had been receiving only scant attention, became a national story.

The prosecution's strategy was simple.  It intendend to show that Scopes had taught evolution in the classroom.  To that end it called several students as wittnesses to testify that Scopes had taught evolution.  The prosecution then rested its case.  The arguments for the defense were more complicated.  They intended to show that evolution contradicted the bible and had to be taught in schools.  They brought a number of scientists as witnesses to testify about the factuality of evolution and how hard it would be to not teach it in school.  However, the judge ruled their testmony to be irrevelant to the case and disallowed all  the defenses witnesses.  Then the defense called the prosecuting attorney Williams Jennings Bryant to the wittness stand to give testmoney on the bible.  The point of this was to show how hard it would be to make classroom education agree withe the bible.  When Clarence Darrow questioned Williams Jennings Bryant, Darrow made Bryant look like a fool who had no knowlege of history and didn't care about science or finding out new knowlege.  This episode was seen as a setback for the evolutionists because the leader of their cause had been humiliated. At that point, town leaders began to worry about all the disorder the trial was bringing to Dayton (death threats had been made against both Darrow and Bryant).  They talked to the judge who agreed to disallow further wittnesses.  Afraid that the jury might find Scopes innocent and not get a chance to challange the law in the state supreme court, Darrow made a speech to the jury that Scopes was guilty and the jury should convict him.  After this, the jury adjourned and found Scopes guilty.

In the above two pictures, we see Darrow examining Bryant during the trial. The trial, at that point, had been moved outside for all the spectators

Bryant came to be mocked in the newspapers as an ignorant bigot, especially after his humiliation by Darrow.

The case went to the Tenessee Supreme Court where Scopes was found guilty.  He was not given a punishment, however, due a techinicality.  The case was not allowed to move on to the Supreme Court and the Butler Act remained in effect (it was repealed in 1967).  Scopes did not return to teaching but instead, with the help of people who had supported his cause during the trial, went to the University of Chicago and became a geologist.  Williams Jennings Bryant died five days after the trial.  In the long run, the trial was a victory for the evolutionists because teachers and school boards became too afraid to teach evolution.  Eventually, the idea of evolution gained more acceptance and it is now taught more widely.  However, creationists, continue to oppose the teaching of evolution.   Today, anti-evolution campaingers try to take out overt reference to religion in their argements instead hiding creationism in a veneer of science.  For example, they will say that evolution is just a theory and you should teach "intelligent design" with evolution.  In the 1980s, a court ruled that "creation science" and teaching it violated the constitution.  However, attempts to ban or discourage the teaching of evolution continue.  For example, the Kansas school board in 1999 made an attempt to discourage the teaching of evolution by dropping it from a list of subjects on standardized tests.  The school board was removed in the next election by the voters.