Probably the most celebrated American lawyer of the 20th century, Clarence Darrow worked as defense counsel in many widely publicized trials. He was notable as a defender of the underdog and civil rights. He was an distinguished speaker on agnosticism, liberalism, freethought and humanism.

Clarence Darrow was born on April 18, 1857, near Kinsman, Ohio. He attended Allegheny College and the University of Michigan briefly before being admitted to the Ohio bar in 1878 at the age of 21. In 1887 he moved to Chicago, where he soon was appointed city corporation counsel and later the general attorney for the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. He resigned this position in 1895 to defend Eugene V. Debs, president of the American Railway Union, and other union leaders who had been arrested on a federal charge of contempt of court over difficulties arising out of the Pullman strike of 1894. Through this trial Darrow established a national reputation as a labor and criminal lawyer.

In 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him an arbitrator in the Pennsylvania anthracite coal strike. In 1907 he secured the acquittal of labor organizer William D. "Big Bill" Haywood for the murder of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg. After World War I he defended war protesters charged with violating state sedition laws.

The two most famous trials in which he participated took place in the 1920s. The first of these trials was the notorious Leopold-Loeb murder case of 1924. He saved Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb from execution--but not from prison--for the murder of 14-year-old Robert Franks. In July 1925 Darrow defended high school teacher John T. Scopes, who was charged with violating Tennessee law by teaching evolution. The prosecuting attorney in this famous "monkey trial" was William Jennings Bryan. Bryan died a few days after the trial.

In his writings and speeches Darrow promoted freedom of expression and the closed shop for unions. He opposed capital punishment and Prohibition. Once, when asked his attitude toward religion, Darrow replied: "I feel as I always have, that the earth is the home and the only home of man, and I am convinced that whatever he is to get out of his existence he must get while he is here." At another time, Darrow said: "I am an Agnostic because I am not afraid to think. I am not afraid of any god in the universe who would send me or any other man or woman to hell. If there were such a being, he would not be a god; he would be a devil."

He gained notoriety for moving, 11 hour closing arguments presented without notes. He made his cases important by tying the fate of one lonely persecuted outcast into the entire notion of America and humanity and freedom - that we might challenge our fears and actually try to live the dreams of equality by realizing that we are all brothers.

It is interesting to note that many of the sources lauding Mr. Darrow and his legal prowness do not make mention of the Eastland criminal trial, in which he successfully defended Joseph M. Erickson, chief engineer. While it is unfair to levy the full responsibility for the disaster on Erickson's shoulders, certainly gross negligence and mismanagement occurred, and Darrow's skills were used to secure a certain travesty of justice.

His fame did not decline over the years: in the 1970s his life was the subject of a one-man stage production starring Henry Fonda. He died in Chicago on March 13, 1938.

Further Reading

An Eye for An Eye by Clarence Darrow
Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom edited by Arthur Weinberg, Chicago, Illinois, The University of Chicago Press: 1989
Farmington by Clarence Darrow
Resist No Evil by Clarence Darrow
The Story of My Life by Clarence Darrow
A Hero in Spite of Himself by Robert M. Crunden
Clarence Darrow by Arthur and Lila Weinburg
Clarence Darrow for the Defense by Irving Stone, New York, New York, Doubleday & Company, Inc.: 1975
Clarence Darrow: A One-Man Play by David W. Rintels, Garden City, New York, Doubleday & Company, Inc.: 1975
Darrow: A Biography by Kevin Tierney, New York, New York, Thomas Y. Crowell Publishers: 1979
I Confess by Bengamin Gitlow
The People v. Clarence Darrow by Geoffrey Cowan

Here are some of his cases featured in Attorney for the Damned: Clarence Darrow in the Courtroom:

1898 THE KIDD CASE, OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN: Kidd, a union organizer, is charged with conspiracy, growing out of a strike in the large sash-and-door factory in Oshkosh.
1903 ANTHRACITE MINERS, SCRANTON AND PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA: Darrow represents the United Mine Workers' union before President Theodore Roosevelt's Anthracite Miner's Convention, investigating conditions in the mines.
1907 STEVE ADAMS, WALLACE, IDAHO; HAYWOOD, MOYER, AND PETTIBONE, BOISE, IDAHO: Haywood, first of three union leaders tried for the murder of ex-Governor Steunenberg.
1912 DARROW IN HIS OWN DEFENSE, LOS ANGELES: Darrow is indicted and tried for attempted bribe of a juror in the McNamara case.
1924 DEBATE, NEW YORK: Darrow debates Judge Talley who challenged Darrow's views on crimes and capitol punishment.
1924 LEOPOLD AND LOEB, CHICAGO: Teen-age sons of two millionaires attempt the perfect crime: kidnapping and murder. They killed 14-year-old neighbor Bobby Franks for intellectual sport - Darrow worked to save them from the death penalty as they received life in prison
1925 THE SCOPES EVOLUTION CASE, DAYTON, TENNESSEE: Darrow meets William Jennings Bryan in the famous "Scopes-Monkey Trial", defending John Scopes.
1926 THE SWEET CASE, DETROIT: A white mob in Detroit attempted to drive a black family out of the home they had purchased in a white neighborhood. In the struggle, a white man was killed, and the eleven blacks in the house were arrested and charged with murder. Dr. Henry Sweet was brought to trial and after an initial deadlock, Darrow argued to the all-white jury: "I insist that there is nothing but prejudice in this case; that if it was reversed and eleven white men had shot and killed a black while protecting their home and their lives against a mob of blacks, nobody would have dreamed of having them indicted. They would have been given medals instead..." They were found not guilty.
1932 THE MASSIE CASE, HONOLULU: A strange and puzzling case, a study of psychology; kidnapping and murder because of honor.