on may 25,1925 a school teacher in dayton, tennessee named john thomas scopes was charged in court for violating tennessee is butler act. he was being punished because this law did not allow public school teachers to teach the theory of evolution in school. at the time, schools were only allowed to teach creationism, which argued that man was a creation of god.
after charles darwin published his book the origin of species in1859, evolution began to gain popularity as a scientific explanation to how humans came into being. however, the united states was a very conservative society at the time of scopes trial, and people did not even consider the thought that humans had evolved from apes.
scopes trial became very popular because there was much controversy over what to teach in publiv school biology classes-evolution or creationism. in 1968, the united states supreme court ruled that creationism was an explantion of man is origin put forth by a particular religion,and said that it should not be taught in classrooms. however, the debate over which theory is correct continues even to this day.