On October 8, 1925, James Weldon Johnson telegraphs Clarence Darrow's Chicago office to give him the information about Ossian and the others' case, which he calls a "supreme test of the constitutional guarantees of American Negro citizens" (229). Darrow's secretary replies that Darrow isn't in Chicago, but in Manhattan visiting his friend and fellow attorney, Arthur Garfield Hays. Johnson, Walter White, Arthur Spingarn, and Charles Studin, Spingarn's law partner, head to Hays' home to visit Darrow. They find the man dressed but propped in bed. Spingarn lays outs Ossian's case for Darrow, who feigns resistance to taking it on, though he knows he will. Darrow decides to accept, partly out of a lifelong interest in the plight of black Americans, but also to further the celebrity status his past cases have conferred on him. His friend, Arthur Garfield Hays, also says he will join the defense.

On Saturday, October 10, Walter White travels back to Detroit to break the news to Julian Perry, Cecil Rowlette, and Charles Mahoney. Though White anticipates resistance from the attorneys, they accept the addition of Darrow and Haysto their team; White promises each of the men fifteen hundred dollars, to be paid by the Detroit branch of the NAACP.