Darrow, Clarence S. (1857–1938)

Clarence S. Darrow rode to fame in education law with his unusual defense of high school teacher John T. Scopes in the infamous “Monkey Trial” in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925. His innovative strategy of putting the prosecution's attorney, William Jennings Bryan, on the witness stand for the defense to illustrate the flaws in Christian fundamentalist assaults on Darwin's theory of evolution was later embedded in the Broadway play and the film, Inherit the Wind. But this foray was not Darrow's only work in education. The Chicago attorney also donated his time to assist Catherine Goggin and Margaret Haley, leaders of the Chicago Teachers Federation, in their pursuit of having corporations pay their fair share of property taxes for public education in Chicago. This entry summarizes ...