The '''Scopes Trial''', sometimes known as the "Scopes monkey trial," took place in [[Tennessee]] in 1925. It was engineered as a challenge to the state's Butler Act which prohibited public schools from teaching the theory that man had evolved from more primitive life forms. The willing defendant was , John T. Scopes (1900- 1970), a teacher who had volunteered for the challenge. Scopes was duly convicted, and the conviction although this was soon later overturned on a technicality and never appealed. The trial gained notoriety after it was one of dramatized for both stage (1955) and screen (1960). Titled ''[[Inherit the most watched epsiodes in Wind]]'', both dramatizations distorted the history facts of American religious and American education. It was seen as a confrontation between modern science the case and were promoted to harm [[FundamentalismChristianity]] .<ref>"'Inherit the Wind' relentlessly distorts what happened in its belief Dayton, Tenn., in 1925."[http://www.beliefnet.com/story/2/story_226_1.html]</ref><ref>As recently as April 17, 2007, the inerrancy ''Village Voice'' endorsed a new Broadway rendition of ''Inherit the BibleWind'' as "a dramatization of the 1925 [Scopes] trial. "[http://www.villagevoice.com/theater/0716,feingold,76394,11.html]</ref> The dramatic highlight of the trial was when famed defense lawyer [[Clarence Darrow]] called procesution lawyer agreed to testify as a witness if [[William Jennings Bryan]] top would also testify as an expert . First Bryan testified before a huge crowd, but when Darrow's turn came he instead reneged on his deal and ended the Bibletrial by asking the jury to find his client guilty, which ended the trial.
== Publicity Motivation ==
== The Trial ==
Darrow brought the Scopes case in the hopes of winning a public relations and legal victory. Historians agree that the publicity typically believe in evolution and declare victory went to for Darrow, but the prosecution won a legal victory in fact Darrow and the trial when Scopes was convictedACLU lost the case badly and Tennessee continued to limit the teaching of evolution in [[public schools]] for roughly another 50 years.
The [[ACLU]] challenged a Tennessee statute, the Butler Act, that imposed a fine for teaching in government schools that man descended from more primitive life forms. The statute did not prohibit teaching most aspects of [[evolution]]. The textbook at issue in the case suggested indirectly (through a tree-like diagram) that man descended from lower life forms.