Hugo Black example essay topic

Hugo Black has been called by scholars "One of a half dozen of the greatest Justices in the history of the U.S. supreme Court in terms of the influence he exerted on the shaping of our law". Black, a member of the United States Supreme Court for thirty-four years, was appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, and resigned from the Supreme Court, in 1971. He was born on February 27, 1886 in Harlan, Alabama, a farm town consisting of all white citizens in the "Deep South". His father owned a general store, and his mother was a postmistress.

In 1889, he moved with his family to Ashland Alabama. In 1899, Black's father William, died in Ashland. He knew little about his father's life, but respected him a great deal even though he was an alcoholic who showed little love. Black did not feel the effects of his father's death until later on in his life. In the 1960's, he became involved in learning about his father's ancestors, and began visiting many different small towns in Alabama, close to the one that he grew up in. In these towns, he pieced together the history of his father's life and the history of many of his ancestors.

Black became captivated with this, and became an amateur genealogist. In 1968, Black even contacted the General Services Administration to find out more about his uncle who died in the Battle of Gettysburg. During his childhood in Alabama, Black looked up to his older brothers. In 1902, he graduated from Ashland College, and then moved on to attend the University of Alabama law school which he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from in 1906. One-year prior, Black's mother Martha, died in Ashland.

After graduating, Black returned to Ashland a slight, short young man. He then established a private practice. One year later, a fire destroyed his law office and library, which he had financed using funds that were given to him by his father. After the fire, he moved west to Birmingham to practice law. In 1918, Black enlisted in the U.S. Army where he was made a Captain.

While in the Army, Black was stationed in Tennessee. Though Black had a very tough time in Officer Training School, he later said that serving in the Army benefited him greatly. Black's infantry was later sent to France. The day they arrived in France to fight, the Armistice was signed. After World War One, Black returned to Birmingham where he earned about $60,000 per year. This was a very good salary for a lawyer of that time.

In 1923, he joined the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan helped Black get elected to the U.S. Senate in 1926, but he resigned the same year. Though he once shared the views of the Klan, Black later fought to end all segregation in the south during the 1960's. In 1927, Black moved to Washington D.C. where for the next ten years, he was a U.S. Senator. In 1937, Hugo Black became Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Later, the news that Black was formerly a member of the damaged his image.

Black told the people that "Raw ambition" drove him to join, and he was "doing the right thing even though I don't like the Klan". Later in his career, Black was know for being a man who fought for equality of all people regardless of their walk of life or race. In 1955, Black was greatly involved in the Joseph McCarthy trials. He used fundamentals from the Constitution, such as First Amendment rights in many of his argument. On September 15, 1971 Hugo Black resigned from the Supreme Court. He died a week after in Bethesda, Maryland.

He will be remembered for his genuine passion for the Constitution. It was said that Black carried a copy in his coat pocket and when he was asked a question about law, would take it out and read a passage from it. Howard Ball, the author of Hugo Black: Cold War Warrior, is a professor of Political Science and University Scholar at the University of Vermont. He has written almost two-dozen judicial biographies on federal judges..