Interview Transcripts

Steve Suitts' book involved research in libraries, archives, newspapers, courthouses, and with individuals. These excerpts (PDF files) are from individual interviews with early friends of Hugo Black by Suitts and Charles Morgan Jr., who started work on a Black biography that Suitts later took over. They are parts of the original transcriptions of the interviews conducted in the early 1970s.

Barney Whatley (277 kb PDF) was one of Hugo Black's earliest and lifelong friends. Whatley who grew up with Black in Clay County, practiced law with him in Birmingham, and kept up a friendship until Black's death. This excerpt includes recollections about siblings in Clay County, Whatley early life in Colorado, and his help in Black's race for County Solicitor of Jefferson County.

Albert Lee Smith (177 kb PDF) befriended Hugo Black in Birmingham soon after he arrived in 1907. Smith was Black's best friend after Whatley left Birmingham and his business partner and advisor in real estate. They shared most of their social time together while both were bachelors. Here, Smith begins his memory of Black and their days in Birmingham together.

Irving Engel (166 kb PDF) was a young Jewish lawyer in Birmingham during the early 1920s. He and Black were more acquaintances than close friends at that time. Later, after Black entered into business relations with Engel's brothers in Birmingham and Engel served as a leader of the American Jewish Committee, Black and Engel's friendship deepened. In this transcript, Engel remembers Birmingham and Black in the early 1920s.