<P> The issue has remained contentious, with various US states debating, passing, or voting down alternative approaches to creationism in science classrooms . There is no bar in US law to creationism being taught in civics, current affairs, philosophy, or comparative religions classes . </P> <P> Until the late 19th century, creation was taught in nearly all schools in the United States, often from the position that the literal interpretation of the Bible is inerrant . With the widespread acceptance of the scientific theory of evolution in the 1860s after being first introduced in 1859, and developments in other fields such as geology and astronomy, public schools began to teach science that was reconciled with Christianity by most people, but considered by a number of early fundamentalists to be directly at odds with the Bible . </P> <P> In the aftermath of World War I, the Fundamentalist--Modernist Controversy brought a surge of opposition to the idea of evolution, and following the campaigning of William Jennings Bryan several states introduced legislation prohibiting the teaching of evolution . Such legislation was considered and defeated in 1922 in Kentucky and South Carolina, in 1923 passed in Oklahoma, Florida, and notably in 1925 in Tennessee, as the Butler Act . The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) offered to defend anyone who wanted to bring a test case against one of these laws . John T. Scopes accepted, and he started teaching his class evolution, in defiance of the Tennessee law . The resulting trial was widely publicized by H.L. Mencken among others, and is commonly referred to as the Scopes Trial . </P> <P> Scopes was convicted; however, the widespread publicity galvanized proponents of evolution . </P>

Who led the crusade to prohibit the teaching of evolution