Thre 1920s was a complicated time. People were becoming more libral, but also rasicm was becoming worse with the KKK and the red scare. The monkeys in the cartoon make people think about charles darwins theory of evolution, and this was tought in schools but it was forrbiden in Tennessee. This was called the Butler Act but it was later replaced by tennessee legislature in May 1967. After that, the Kansas Board of Education removed evolution from tests, and makes the teaching of evolution a local option.
http://historicalthinkingmatters.org/scopestrial/
http://americainclass.org/sources/becomingmodern/divisions/text2/text2.htm