Claim: William Jennings Bryan was an American politician.

The Scopes Trial , formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial , was an American legal case in July 1925 in which a substitute high school teacher , John T. Scopes , was accused of violating Tennessee 's Butler Act , which had made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school . The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton , Tennessee , where it was held . Scopes was unsure whether he had ever actually taught some evolution , but he purposely incriminated himself so that the case could have a defendant .   Scopes was found guilty and fined $ 100 -LRB- $ in -RRB- , but the verdict was overturned on a technicality . The trial served its purpose of drawing intense national publicity , as national reporters flocked to Dayton to cover the big-name lawyers who had agreed to represent each side . William Jennings Bryan , three-time presidential candidate , argued for the prosecution , while Clarence Darrow , the famed defense attorney , spoke for Scopes . The trial publicized the Fundamentalist -- Modernist Controversy , which set Modernists , who said evolution was not inconsistent with religion , against Fundamentalists , who said the word of God as revealed in the Bible took priority over all human knowledge . The case was thus seen as both a theological contest and a trial on whether `` modern science '' should be taught in schools .