This, of course, meant Darwin's theory of evolution. The issue at hand was really whether Scopes had committed a crime by teaching this theory to a class for which he substituted, but considering the times and the content, it was made out to be something much larger. Indeed, it seemed to many that the entire Bible was on trial. The decision that Scopes was guilty truly showed the conservative and old-fashioned mood of the time. While much of the public turned to conservatism as a response to the war, for one group that very war made way for new opportunities and change. This group was the African Americans. World War I created many business opportunities, mostly located in the north. As a result, a great number of African Americans chose to leave their typically poor roots in the south to seek economic opportunity elsewhere. A few also got the chance to attend college, as was the case with writer, Zora Neale Hurston. Unfortunately, this improvement in economic conditions did not lead to an improvement in the treatment of black people in this country. Zora recounts an incident where a black man came into a white barbershop where she was working and tried to get a haircut: "And in a minute, barbers, customers all lathered and hair half cut, and porters were all helping to throw the Negro out" (Firsthand II, 183). This and other such incidents prove that though wars are fought to bring about change, the majority of the general public has more of a tendency to resist change and cling to the past after a major conflict.
World War II had a very similar impact on the lives of American citizens. Its devastating effects were apparent in the men and women who fought overseas. Captain Marion Lawton recounts his experience as one of the captured Americans who was forced into the infamous Bataan Death March by stating, "We started marching, I can't remember hours or specific days, but as we moved on it got hotter and we got more fatigued.