Issues of Race and Class in Hugo Black's Alabama Years
(Historical)

Introduction:

Hugo Black grew up in the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction, when America gave up on her ideals of equal justice and the South began restoring a system of racial domination. Hugo Black worked for the first half of his life along the long road from America's Reconstruction to Southern segregation. Black's philosophy of "equal rights for all, special privilege to none" was constantly at war with many prevailing practices in some of the worst days of white supremacy. Black's Alabama years involved many issues, but none was more profound than the issues of race -- and of class.

Questions:

1.  Why did the ideals of equality expressed by Joe Manning and other Populists in Clay County fail to carry the day?  What were the factors in Clay and Alabama that account for their defeat?

2.  What were the systems of racial oppression that Black saw in Birmingham after he arrived in 1907?  What groups profited the most from these systems?

3.  In what ways did Birmingham industrialists use race to protect their own perceived economic interests?

4.  What appeared to be the differences in racial views between the primary conflicting white groups in Birmingham from 1907-1927?

5.  The United Mine Workers union that Black represented in court was one of the few interracial organizations in Birmingham and in the South; however, it had internal conflicts and contradictions about race.  What were the limits and possibilities in the early 1920 for interracialism among workers?

6.  The laws and opinions of Judge Anthony Sayre of Montgomery (Zelda Fitzgerald's father) reveal a strong bias against poor white Southerners.  How would you describe his bias and how did it differ in nature from racial bias?