The Monkey Man Himself: John Scopes and his effect on The World.
John Thomas Scopes was born in Paducah Kentucky in 1900. John was a simple kid who enjoyed simple things. John's family was on the move through most of his childhood. John's first love was books, he loved to read. In high school John spent most of his time in the library. Ironically when Scopes graduated from Salem High School in Southern Illinois, the man that would later prosecute him, Williams Jennings Bryan was the guest speaker. John graduated from the University of Kentucky five years later. In his years there he learned of a subject that was taught by his favorite teacher that would change his life forever, evolution. Then in 1924 John was offered a job in Dayton Tennessee as a teacher and a football coach at Rhea High School. Little did he know this decision would lead to his name and his town into the history books.
John Washington Butler was in the Tennessee House of Representative when he introduced the bill that would change Tennessee forever. It was named the Butler Bill.
"The bill would make it unlawful for teachers working in schools financed wholly or in part by the state, to teach any theory that denies the story of divine creation of man as taught in the bible. If the law was broken the punishment would be a misdemeanor and a fine no less the 100 dollars but no more then 500 dollars" (Kingstone 28).
The bill went though both houses of the state will ease. The reason that this happened was because most of the politicians thought that the governor of Tennessee would veto the bill. As it turns out the governor passed the bill in order to be some political support. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was worried that the bill would spread to other states, so they decided to offer legal and financial support to anyone who would test the law. .
One day shortly after the school year had ended, John was summoned too the local drugstore, which was like the town hall where most of the decision for the town were made.