What is the Scopes Trial?

The Scopes Trial brought about a prosecution in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. The prosecution was of a high school biology teacher who taught the theory of evolution. The teacher, John T Scopes, was accused of having violated the Butler Act, 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 press dubbed it the Monkey Trial because, according to popular belief, evolution meant that humans had evolved from monkeys. The defence 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 Supreme Court. The Butler Act remained on the books until 1967.