Historic Humanist Series

Clarence Darrow

(1857-1938)

April 1997

Clarence S. Darrow was born on April 18, 1857, in Kingsman, Ohio. Darrow studied law for a year at the University of Michigan, and began practicing law in Ohio in the early 1880's. He also attended Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1878 and was there for 9 years. In 1887 he moved to Chicago and worked as an attorney for the city of Chicago.

Darrow became active as a defense attorney for labor unions and served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1903-1905. He started to specialize in criminal cases. He was nearly 70 years old when he tried his two most spectacular cases. In 1924, he defended Nathan F. Leopold, Jr., and Richard A. Loeb. In 1925, he helped attract widespread attention to the Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee. Clarence Darrow was the most famous American lawyer of the early 1900's. His goal was to keep youth from receiving the death sentence, which he strongly opposed. He was a popular lecturer and debater, and published a number of books, including his autobiography and a novel. He was a trial attorney in about 50 murder cases; not one client suffered capital punishment. He died in Chicago on March 13, 1938.

--Glenna Fagan

Most famous among humanists for his work with the "Scopes Monkey Trial," here are two poetic descriptions of one of the greatest modern day attorneys:

This is Darrow,
Inadequately scrawled, with his young, old heart,
And his drawl, and his infinite paradox
And his sadness, and kindness,
And his artist sense that drives him to shape his life
To something harmonious, even against the schemes of God.

This is a man with an old face, always old...
There was pathos, in his face, and in his eyes.
The early weariness; and sometimes tears in his eyes,
Which he let slip unconsciously on his cheek,
Or brushed away with an unconcerned hand.
There were tears for human suffering, or for a glance
Into the vast futility of life,
Which he had seen from the first, being old
When he was born.

--Edgar Lee Masters (1922)

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/DARPOEM.HTM

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Quotes from Clarence Darrow
  • Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.
  • To think is to differ.
  • Some day I hope to write a book where the royalties will pay for the copies I give away.
  • If you lose your power to laugh, you lose your power to think.
  • I had grown tired of standing in the lean and lonely front line facing the greatest enemy that ever confronted man--public opinion