USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -On this day in 1925, Tennessee authorities arrested John Scopes, a substitute high school teacher, for teaching evolution. They charged him with having violated a newly enacted law that criminalized the teaching of human evolution in the state’s public schools.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Scopes “monkey trial” was the moniker journalist H. L. Mencken applied to the 1925 prosecution of a criminal action brought by the state of Tennessee against high school teacher John T. Scopes for violating the state’s Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in public schools.

Detailed explanation-3: -John Scopes was playing tennis when a group of businessmen called him to the town gathering place, Robinson’s drugstore. They asked if he would be willing to be indicted for teaching evolution. Though he couldn’t remember actually teaching Darwin’s theory, Scopes believed in evolution and agreed to the plan.

Detailed explanation-4: -The ACLU had originally intended to oppose the Butler Act on the grounds that it violated the teacher’s individual rights and academic freedom, and was therefore unconstitutional. Principally because of Clarence Darrow, this strategy changed as the trial progressed.