“I speak for the poor, for the weak, for the weary, for that long line of men, who in darkness and despair, have borne the labors of the human race.”
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Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer and politician who became famous in the 19th century for high-profile representations of trade union causes, and in the 20th century for several criminal matters, including the Leopold and Loeb murder trial, the Scopes "monkey" trial, and the Ossian Sweet defense. He was a leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a prominent advocate fo…
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politics · American lawyer and politician (1857–1938) · lawyer · writer · jurist · politician · also Clarence Darrow, Clarence Seward Darrow, Clarence S. Darrow, Darrow
Born 18 April 1857 · Died 13 March 1938 · Q449791
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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 man 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....
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2026· 3 entries
“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 man 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....”
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Santa Cruz Sentinel: Clarence Darrow in the redwoods | Ross Eric Gibson, Local History
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2025· 1 entry
Chicago Tribune: On centennial of the Scopes trial, Chicagoans honor Clarence Darrow at Jackson Park bridge named in his honor
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2024· 1 entry
Yahoo: Before Scopes, Clarence Darrow fought another battle. He was accused of bribing a jury
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2023· 1 entry
BroadwayWorld: Two-Part Annual Commemoration Of Clarence Darrow To Take Place Monday, March 13
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2022· 1 entry
insider.si.edu: Clarence Darrow : American iconoclast / Andrew E. Kersten
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2018· 1 entry
PBS: Clarence Darrow
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2017· 1 entry
And stands just a few feet away from a statue of Darrow's Scopes Trial opponent, William Jennings Bryan, erected in 2005
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2014· 1 entry
“The Oshkosh Woodworkers’Strike of 1898: A Wisconsin Community in Crisis”
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2012· 1 entry
c-span: Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned
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2011· 1 entry
Smithsonian Magazine: Everything You Didn’t Know About Clarence Darrow
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1976· 1 entry
“The Ancient People and the Newly Come”
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1953· 1 entry
“Clarence Seward Darrow, 1857-1938”
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1938· 13 entries
At his home in Chicago, of pulmonary heart disease
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Died 1938-03-13.
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“Religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don't believe in either.”
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“All men do the best they can. But none meet life honestly and few heroically.”
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“I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.”
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“Variant: I believe that religion is the belief in future life and in God. I don’t believe in either. I don’t believe in God as I don’t believe in Mother Goose.”
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“There is no such thing as justice — in or out of court.”
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“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.”
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“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.”
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“Calvin Coolidge was the greatest man who ever came out of Plymouth Corner, Vermont.”
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“When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. I’m beginning to believe it.”
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“History repeats itself. That's one of the things wrong with history.”
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“I have suffered from being misunderstood, but I would have suffered a hell of a lot more if I had been understood.”
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1929· 1 entry
Darrow delivered a speech, later titled "Why I Am An Agnostic", on agnosticism, skepticism, belief, and religion
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1925· 1 entry
A white mob in Detroit attempted to drive a black family out of the home they had purchased in a white neighborhood
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1915· 1 entry
“Chloroform unfit children. Show them the same mercy that is shown beasts that are no longer fit to live.”
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1911· 2 entries
The McNamara brothers changed their pleas to guilty, in open court
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The American Federation of Labor (AFL) called on Darrow to defend the McNamara brothers, John and James, who were charged in the Los Angeles Times bombing on October 1, 1910, during the bitter struggle over the open shop
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1905· 1 entry
By newly elected Chicago mayor Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne to serve in the position of "Special Traction Counsel to the Mayor", assisting Dunne in his attempts to resolve the city's traction problem
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1899· 1 entry
And worked with Darrow until his death in 1902
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1898· 1 entry
And the United Mine Workers in Pennsylvania in the great anthracite coal strike of 1902
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1897· 1 entry
His marriage to Jessie Ohl ended in divorce
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1894· 2 entries
Darrow represented Eugene V
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Darrow took on the first murder case of his career, defending Patrick Eugene Prendergast, the "mentally deranged drifter" who had confessed to murdering Chicago mayor Carter Harrison III
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1880· 1 entry
Married Jessie Ohl, and eight years later he moved to Chicago with his wife and young son, Paul
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1857· 2 entries
The fifth son of Amirus and Emily Darrow (née Eddy), but grew up in nearby Kinsman, Ohio
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Born 1857-04-18.
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