Scopes trial

The 1925 Tennessee court case in which teacher John T. Scopes was prosecuted for teaching human evolution, testing the state’s Butler Act.

John T. Scopes: An American teacher prosecuted in 1925 for teaching evolution in a Tennessee public school. His prosecution made the Butler Act’s classroom restrictions a test case.
Evolution education bans: Laws or policies that restrict teaching evolutionary theory in schools. The Butler Act was an early state example of this broader policy conflict.
Modernist–fundamentalist controversy: An early twentieth-century conflict among American Protestants over biblical authority and modern thought. Opposition to evolution in schools formed one public front in this religious dispute.
Inherit the Wind: A 1955 play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, loosely based on the Scopes trial. The play transformed the trial into a lasting drama about intellectual freedom and religious authority.
Clarence Darrow: An American lawyer and leading defender in high-profile criminal and civil-liberties cases. He defended Scopes and challenged the prosecution’s case for the law.
American Civil Liberties Union: A United States organization that litigates and advocates for individual rights and civil liberties. The ACLU advertised for a teacher to challenge Tennessee’s ban.
Christian fundamentalism: A Protestant movement emphasizing the authority of the Bible and traditional Christian doctrines. Bryan’s opposition to evolution drew on fundamentalist concerns about scripture and morality.
Epperson v. Arkansas: A 1968 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down an Arkansas law banning evolution instruction. It later applied constitutional limits to a different state evolution-teaching ban.
William Jennings Bryan: An American politician and Christian orator who opposed the teaching of evolution. He assisted the prosecution and testified about biblical interpretation.
American Biology Textbook: A biology textbook by George William Hunter that presented evolutionary theory. Its use in Scopes’s class supplied the alleged violation at the center of the case.

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