[3] Scopes relocated to Dayton, Tennessee where he became the Rhea County High School football coach, and occasionally served as a substitute teacher.

A group of businessmen in Dayton, Tennessee, especially engineer and geologist George Rappleyea, considered this an opportunity to get publicity for their town, and Rappleyea spoke with Scopes, stating that while the Butler Act prohibited the teaching of human evolution, the state required teachers to use the assigned textbook, George William Hunter's Civic Biology (1914), which included a chapter concerning evolution.

After some discussion he told the group gathered in Robinson's Drugstore, "If you can prove that I've taught evolution and that I can qualify as a defendant, then I'll be willing to stand trial".

[5] By the time the trial had begun, the defense team included Clarence Darrow, Dudley Field Malone, John Neal, Arthur Garfield Hays and Frank McElwee.

The elder Bryan had spoken at Scopes' high school commencement, and remembered the defendant was laughing while he was giving the address to the graduating class six years earlier.

In a 3–1 decision written by Chief Justice Grafton Green, the Butler Act was held to be constitutional, but the court overturned Scopes's conviction because the judge had set the fine instead of the jury.

For example, the character of Bertram Cates is shown being arrested in class, put in jail, burned in effigy by frenzied, mean-spirited, and ignorant townspeople, and taunted by a preacher.

The character of Matthew Harrison Brady, an almost comical fanatic, dramatically dies of a "busted belly" while attempting to deliver his summation in a chaotic courtroom.

Evidence of harassment by the press was mentioned by Frank Thorne:[clarification needed] "You may be interested to know that Mr. John T. Scopes of anti-evolution trial fame expects to take up the study of geology as a graduate student of Chicago this fall…Please do what you can to protect him from the importunities of Chicago reporters….He is a modest and unassuming young chap, and has been subjected to a great deal more limelight than he likes.

[citation needed] Having failed in education, Scopes attempted to build a political career and he began an unsuccessful bid as a candidate of the Socialist Party for the U.S. House of Representatives for Kentucky's only at-large congressional campaign, during 1932.