Not only did he .
attack the theory, he went so far as to attack Mr. Huxley personally. Thus proving the fact .
that the traditionalists who believed in creation wouldn't accept the another theory .
contradicting their beliefs. They thought of it as a poison to society, Thomas Huxley and .
Richard Owen continued on to have many debates over man's decent from an ape-like .
ancestor. A debate that still continues with no conclusion in sight.
The Scopes trial pitted the traditionalists, versus the modernists. John Scopes, a .
twenty-four year old substitute teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, assigned his students to .
read part of the book,"Hunters Civic Biology." The readings he assigned had to do with .
evolution, which violated Tennessee state law, The Tennessee Evolution Statutes states, " .
Be it enacted by the general assembly of the state of Tennessee, that it shall be unlawful .
for any teacher an any of the Universities, Normals and all other public school of the state .
which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to .
teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the .
Bible, and to teach instead that man has decended from a lower order of animals. .
"Because Mr. Scopes violated this statute, he is subject to a whopping one-hundred dollar .
fine." He violated a statute that violated his constitutional right to freedom of speech. .
This created a media frenzy that put Dayton on the mirror.
William Jennings Bryan headed a fundamentalist crusade to banish Darwin's .
theory of evolution from being taught in schools. He, like Richard Owen before, resented .
any theory that would undermine traditional values which he long supported. By 1925, .
Bryan succeeded in getting legislation introduced in fifteen states to ban the teachings of .
evolution. In February of that year, John Butler introduced Tennessee's anti-evolution .
statute. The traditionalist movement was making itself known to the country.
