Hugo Black of Alabama

In 1916, Birmingham residents celebrate the anniversaries of the Emancipation Proclamation, statewide prohibition, and especially their city's hosting of the Confederate Reunion, trumpeted by repeated showings of Birth of a Nation . Jefferson County Solicitor Hugo Black continues his aggressive enforcement of the law, including a string of unique statutes banning illegal liquor and liquor advertisements. This zealous enforcement earns him an unenviable appointment as a special state assistant attorney general to assist Alabama Attorney General Logan Martin with the clean up of massive illegal liquor in Girard, (modern-day Phenix City) on the Chattahoochee River across from Columbus Georgia.

This passage covers the Girard raids and Black's role in the destruction of the liquor.