John T. Scopes

John T. Scopes (3 August 1900-1970), at the age of 24, was charged on May 25, 1925 with violating Tennessee's Butler Act, which prohibited the teaching of evolution in Tennessee schools.

In the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial, he was defended by Clarence Darrow and others from the ACLU, and prosecuted by William Jennings Bryan. The case ended with a guilty verdict, and Scopes was given a $100 fine, which was later overturned on a technicality. After the trial, Scopes was mainly employed by the oil industry, in both America and Venezuela.

From then on, he kept away from schools.

In the USA, the controversy between creationists and evolutionists is still being carried on, although with minor strength. One fact to be remembered: only in 1957, after the sovietic Sputnik was shot in space, a textbook including Darwin's theory of evolution was distributed in part of american school districts.

Maybe this decision stemmed from a feeling of being at crossroads in history: there was the chance of clinging to the past or look on, to the future.

The decision was, nonetheless, adversed by most christian fundamentalist and conservative groups. We'll have to wait until 1968 till the supreme court declares Arkansas' law unfit, according to the first amendment of the american constitution, which prohibits the states (and consequently, public schools) to promote a specific religion.