Members of the Fundamentalist movement played a major role in the Scopes Trial, also known as the "Monkey Trial" in 1925.
The Butler Act prohibited the teaching of natural selection or any evolution theory that would contradict the Bible in schools in Tennessee.
High-school teacher John Scopes defied this law and was trialed. Fundamentalist prosecutor William Jennings Bryan arged the case against Scopes and eventually won. The Butler Act would not be repealed until 1967, but the trial set the debate to teach evolution or creationism in American schools.