In the scorching summer heat of small-town Dayton, TN, in July of 1925, crowds of reporters and local residents gathered at the courthouse to watch the showdown between Charles Darwin and the Christian Church.
The trial was of John Thomas Scopes, a 24-year-old high school teacher and football coach with “carrot-colored hair” and a “pleasant demeanor,” who, with backing from the American Civil Liberties Union, had violated the newly passed Butler Act by teaching evolution in his classroom. It was the first U.S. trial ever to be broadcast live on the radio, and the whole world listened to hear the fate of evolution in America.
In the end, Scopes lost (although the verdict was eventually overturned on a technicality). But the Monkey Trial, as it came to be known, was an important milestone in Darwin's road to becoming a permanent fixture in the American classroom.
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