Hugo Black of Alabama

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Preamble (complete chapter; 104 kb PDF)

In 1970, at the age of 84, US Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black returns to Birmingham in his first public appearance since the Court's 1954 decision of Brown v. Board of Education. It also will be Black's last trip to his home state of Alabama, which twice elected him to the US Senate before he was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1937. After Brown, Alabama politicians distanced themselves from Black who was widely despised and condemned in Alabama and across the South.

This chapter introduces Black's role in American life and his enigmatic past.