Hugo Black concludes his remembrances about his Alabama days as he stands before the Alabama Bar Association at his last public appearance in his home state. Black introduces Chief Justice Warren Burger to Alabama as a "good citizen" and "my friend," terms that are deeply rooted in the Black's Alabama-bred beliefs.

Black stood like a solitary oak rising amid a flattened, infertile field, a near century-old tree shed of all greening, but shaped majestically by a body of broken and crooked branches.

He was a joiner of the here and now, a lover of people, and a lawgiver of enduring knowledge.

Black cast his own life as a story about friends and neighbors, good citizens, loyalty, and personal convictions.

The audience stood up again, in a crescendo of heartening applause and loving sobs of tears, for they instinctively felt a deep sense of gratitude and sorrow. As the handsome, pompous Chief Justice rose like a guardian of a new order....