Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Hugo Black - An Ex-KKK Supreme Court Justice

Hugo Black was Franklin D. Roosevelt's first nomination for the Supreme Court. Black was born in Alabama to a relatively poor family. After enrolling in medical school and law school, Black enlisted as a soldier in World War I, but he was not sent to Europe. Afterwards, in 1926, Black ran for the Senate as a Democrat from the state of Alabama. He defeated his opponent, winning almost 81% of the white vote. In 1935, he became the chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, where he stayed for the remainder of his Senate career.

Shortly after the court packing plan failed, Roosevelt wanted to nominate a justice who would be strongly in favor of the New Deal, as well as someone from the south. In the Senate, Black voted for all 24 of the major New Deal programs, becoming favorable with Roosevelt. After the Judiciary Committee dealt with his nomination, eventually passing it with a 13-4 vote, the Senate approved Black with a 63-16 vote to confirm him.

After Black was appointed to the Supreme Court, a rumor got out that he used to be part of the Ku Klux Klan. Eventually, Black's resignation letter from the Klan from 1925 got out in the newspapers and stirred up controversy. He did state that his time in the Klan was no more and that he had many friends who were of the "colored race."

On the Supreme Court, Black leaned towards the liberal side, advocating for Civil Rights and the Bill of Rights, but was also accused of being a communist because of his defense of the freedom of speech of the Communist Party leaders after they were arrested.


Sources:
https://www.history.com/news/kkk-supreme-court-hugo-black-fdr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Black

4 comments:

  1. Nice blog post; I also found Justice Black to be very interesting from listening about him in the documentary we watched. I researched another Supreme Court Case that he presided over, Adamson v. California. In this case, Adamson was charged with first-degree murder but chose not to testify. The prosecutor argued to the jury that not testifying was an admission of guilt, which violated the 5th Amendment. In the Supreme Court, the majority opinion was that the 14th Amendment of due process did not extend to guaranteeing the 5th Amendment in state courts. However, Justice Black dissented and believed that the Bill of Rights should apply to all states completely, which would eventually be confirmed and lead to the Selective Incorporation Doctrine.
    Sources:
    https://www.oyez.org/justices/hugo_l_black
    https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/332us46

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  2. I enjoyed reading this post because I was intrigued by Black during the documentary. It is interesting that he was a confirmed member of the KKK, but during his time on the Supreme Court he pushed for Civil Right reforms. I found out that although Black did maintain his resignation story, he also referred to the KKK as a "a fraternal organization, really" and stated that he sought to keep the organization from being too extreme. While we may never know the exact extent/intentions of Black's time in the KKK, it does serve as an example (of many) of how politicians will do a lot to get people's support.

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/supreme-court-justice-was-kkk-member-180962254/

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  3. I found Justice Black do have a very interesting background. Reading this article in addition to watching the documentary, I became curious as to the requirements of a supreme court justice as Hugo Black didn't even have a high school diploma and was able to succeed as a supreme court justice. According to the U.S. constitution, there are technically no requirements for becoming a justice. There are no limitations on age, education, or profession. James F. Byrnes was another justice that did not have a high school diploma, but was able to pass the bar by teaching himself law.


    https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/faq_general.aspx

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  4. I enjoyed this post, as it supplemented the information about Hugo Black from the Supreme Court documentary nicely. Black was quite a political anomaly, being one of the best justices, but still considering himself to be a "hillbilly" from Alabama. Even though he grew up dirt poor and did not graduate high school nor college, he worked very hard, reading books every day on his quest to gain more and more knowledge. He even went to court rooms for entertainment quite often, to help teach himself the law.

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