In July 1925, Dayton, Tennessee received national attention by staging the first live radio broadcast of a trial that would determine if high school teacher John T. Scopes was guilty of violating the Butler act, which had made it illegal to teach evolution in state-funded schools.
The locals’ purpose was to bring attention and publicity to their small town; the lawyers’ purpose was to eventually determine whether states could constitutionally exclude evolution from the curriculum.
A group of scientists was assembled in Dayton to testify for the defense.
Kepner would become the 11th President of the Virginia Academy of Science, 1933-34.
Scopes was found guilty of violating the Butler act and fined $100. The long process of determining the larger issue had begun, culminating in the 1968 supreme court ruling that invalidated an Arkansas statute prohibiting the teaching of evolution (Epperson vs. Arkansas).
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William Allison Kepner (1875-1971) was a professor of biology at the University of Virginia. He had been invited by the defense to appear as an expert witness at the 1925 Scopes anti-evolution trial. Kepner was not allowed to testify on the stand but his statement appeared in the court record. Photograph by Frank Thone.
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Wilbur Armistead Nelson (1889-1969) was a professor of geology at the University of Virginia and that state's official geologist.