100 years after the Scopes trial, science is still under attack

Teaching human evolution went on trial a century ago. What’s the case’s legacy?

Two people having a discussion among a crowd of people watching.

In July 1925, celebrity lawyers William Jennings Bryan (seated, left) and Clarence Darrow (standing, right) sparred over whether Tennessee could bar the teaching of human evolution.

Watson Davis/Smithsonian Institution

One hundred years ago, a small town in eastern Tennessee captured the attention of the entire country.