The Untold Truth Of Clarence Darrow

Clarence Darrow is one of the most famous lawyers in American history. The Philadelphia Inquirer has called him "the defender of the underdog." Others referred to him as the "attorney for the damned" (via University of California). Whatever people called him, though, it was clear that Clarence Darrow was a towering figure during his lifetime. In trials where he demonstrated his skills of oratory, he represented labor leaders, murderers, seditionists, and evolutionists (per Britannica). As described by Middle Tennessee State University, he fearlessly took on cases that were unpopular, taking on a mythical status in law, while making perhaps just as many enemies and admirers. He had a "passion for lost causes," The New York Times printed in 1925.

As the Chicago Reader describes him, he was both cynical and an idealist. He rejected dogmatic religions and embraced doubt as central to human progress. He had a steady, but unique rise from a simple country lawyer to a man being discussed in every newspaper across the nation. He was, in many ways, a man who was never complacent and always critical of himself and the world in which he lived. Here's his untold truth.

Clarence often cited his parents as a significant influence in his life. Despite Amirus Darrow initially wanting to become a Methodist minister, by the time Clarence was born, his extremely well-read parents had both become freethinkers and rejected organized religion, which would have an important role in shaping the way in which Clarence viewed the world (per New York Times).  As described in John A. Farrell's "Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned," Amirus considered himself an intellectual, someone who thought in the same realm as Thomas Jefferson or Thomas Paine.

Clarence describes in his memoir how his father, who proudly became known as Kinsman's "village infidel," always had his head in the clouds (or face in a book), whereas his mother Emily was more pragmatic, had much better sense, and kept the house as well — as her husband's carpentry business — organized and operating smoothly. 

Both of his parents were strongly against slavery, strongly in favor of women's rights and suffrage, and both were very gentle in their parenting, although not at all affectionate (per New York Times). Sadly, Emily Darrow succumbed to cancer while Clarence was still a teenager. He later wrote how, of his two parents, she was the more significant influence on him and, although he had forgotten much about her, he recalled her "mastering personality" and that her endless kindness and compassion for others were always guiding forces for him. 

After being admitted to the Ohio bar, Darrow decided to stay close to home initially. As he describes in "The Story of My Life," he was completely broke and didn't really know too many people in law who could assist him, so he opened a practice ten miles away from Kinsman in the small community of Andover, Ohio. "I did not succeed at first," he wrote, saying that much of his lawyering during this time was related to grudges, debts, fraud, and the occasional crime. He also argued numerous cases at the Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court and even helped Andover in its quest to be recognized by the county as an official village (per Star Beacon). 

In 1880, he married a neighbor and family friend named Jessie Ohl and together they had a son named Paul. Soon, they relocated to the more populated Ashtabula on the shores of Lake Erie, where he found more success. Darrow even dabbled in politics there, getting elected as the city solicitor while still practicing law (per University of Minnesota Law Library). In his memoir, he recounts how he gained valuable experience during these years in Ashtabula, as he began to improve his public speaking abilities during trials that he described as "filled with color and life and wits." He went as far as saying country lawyers, while never worth much money, were as intelligent and good of lawyers as the ones making millions of dollars in the city. By his own admission, he was quite content, but soon a city would be calling his name.

In 1912, Clarence Darrow's career as a lawyer almost came to an end due to a scandal. Darrow had been brought on to defend laborers accused of detonating a bomb near the anti-union Los Angeles Times building that killed 21 people (per University of California Library). According to the University of Minnesota Law Library, Darrow entered guilty pleas on their behalf, but as he began to recognize their guilt, he attempted to get his clients to accept a plea deal, which might be their only chance of avoiding a death sentence. 

Long story short, there were bribery attempts involving the jury. According to Smithsonian, while early biographers defended Darrow against such allegations, some historians today have argued that Darrow was almost certainly involved. Esteemed biographer John A. Farrell has contended that it may never be fully known if Darrow had been involved in the briberies or not, but that ultimately, humans are complex and Darrow has to be accepted for his good and his bad. Whatever the case, Darrow was found not guilty and, according to the Los Angeles Times, a relieved Darrow promised to spend the rest of his life helping those in need.

Perhaps Darrow's most famous case is what is often referred to as the "Scopes Monkey Trial." This took place in July 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee and Darrow represented a teacher named John T. Scopes who had been charged with the crime of teaching evolution to his high school students (per Britannica). Like his parents, Darrow considered himself a freethinker and identified himself as an agnostic. He also understood the challenge of taking this case in a courtroom that, according to PBS, opened with a prayer by the judge every day. 

Predictably, the trial turned into a show and newspapers all across the nation covered each day's proceedings in detail. To packed courtrooms, Darrow gave long and passionate speeches as a part of his defense, declaring that such a law was a violation of the freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment (per NPR). On a day that was particularly hot, the judge moved the trial outside and in front of a crowd of thousands, where Darrow questioned the prosecuting attorney William Jennings Bryan as his only witness, embarrassing him greatly as Darrow swiss-cheesed his arguments in front of rowdy spectators (via History.com). Darrow lost the case. Scopes was found guilty. Yet, this skyrocketed Darrow's superstar into the most well-known lawyer in the United States of America.

Race relations were extremely volatile throughout the United States during the 1920s. Somewhere between two and five million white Americans were in the Ku Klux Klan (per The Atlantic). As detailed by the NAACP, lynchings of Black Americans, particularly in southern states, were still common. In most places, segregation was still the rule, not the exception. It was in the midst of this that Clarence Darrow took on one of his other most famous cases: the defense of Dr. Ossian Sweet and his family. As described by the Detroit Historical Society, Sweet was a distinguished and well-known Black doctor who bought a house in an otherwise all-white community in Detroit. This led to a white mob of hundreds outside of his house. When someone within the house fired a gun into the crowd, killing one and injuring another, every person in the household was arrested and charged with murder. 

In "Clarence Darrow: American Iconoclast," author Andrew E. Kersten explains that the NAACP pursued Darrow for the defense partially due to his fame: it'd help bring national attention to the case. Darrow was initially reluctant as he was leaning towards retirement, but took on the case anyway. He was described as brilliant during the trial, particularly the cross-examinations. In his own recollection, it revealed the hypocrisy of white northerners who went to church every Sunday, yet couldn't practice what was preached. It resulted in a mistrial. The second trial resulted in an acquittal. Darrow wrote that this was one of the cases for which he was most proud and stated that he was not resentful against the white community, only the racism that they had been taught.

One of the reasons that Darrow continued to write, speak, and lecture, even after retiring from law was that the Great Depression had crushed his finances. According to biographer John A. Farrell, he had lost almost his entire life savings in the stock market crash after finally being financially secure for the first time in his life (per Boston.com). According to the University of Minnesota Law School, Darrow and his son Paul's stocks were estimated to be $300,000 before the crash ... only to fall in value to $10,000 afterwards. "Clarence Darrow: American Iconoclast" details how Darrow had actually predicted the crash was coming, but Paul had been the one who held onto them too long and, indeed, Clarence did blame his son for the loss.

In his memoir (which was actually written during this financially difficult time), Darrow explained that this is also why he took on some of the more unlikely cases in his later law career. He simply needed the money. In a private letter, he insisted to a friend that he wasn't broke, but that he didn't want to end up dependent on anyone.

Pessimism was increasingly a driving force of Darrow's worldview as he aged, so it should come as no surprise that near the end of his life, he openly doubted that he had accomplished much of anything worthwhile throughout his eight decades of living. Approaching his seventies, he published an essay based on a lecture of his titled "Facing Life Fearlessly: The Pessimistic Versus the Optimistic View of Life." In it, he maintained the pessimists had better and more realistic views of the world and were better equipped to handle adversity. "I wouldn't want to be an optimist because when I fell I would fall such a terribly long way," he wrote. "The wise man trains for ill and not for good." He argued that was life was pleasant sometimes, it was filled with tragedy and the pessimist was better prepared. 

He wrote in his memoir that he didn't necessarily have regrets, as he felt that those were vain, but he questioned if he had done enough over his life. He noted that he appreciated the simply pleasures of life each day that he awoke, but he wondered whether there was any point to it all. "It is possible that no life is of much value," he considered, "and that every death is little loss to a world that seems bent on its way." Darrow died on March 13, 1938. He was 80 years old. In his New York Times obituary, they described him as "one who thoroughly understood human nature yet loved his fellow-man." Perhaps for someone like Darrow, there could be no better compliment.