The Scopes “monkey” trial, 100 years later

A century ago, a high school teacher from a small Tennessee town ignited a national debate over human evolution

“On the surface, the trial was about something that seemed small—whether a high school teacher who taught evolution in his biology class broke the law,” says Brenda Wineapple, author of Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy and the Trial That Riveted a Nation, published last year. “But it was really about change, and how we embrace it or resist it.”

Read the feature story at Smithsonian’s website.

In this scene from the Scopes trial in Dayton TN in 1925, we see participants gathered on the lawn in front of the courthouse.
In this scene from the Scopes trial in Dayton TN in 1925, we see participants gathered on the lawn in front of the courthouse.