Biography:

Attorney; U.S.Senator; Supreme Court Justice. Born– February 27, 1886, Harlan, Clay County. Married– Josephine Patterson Foster, 1919. Children–three.Married– Elizabeth Seay DeMeritte, 1957.  Education– Ashland College, Birmingham Medical College, University of Alabama Law School, LL.B., 1906. Practiced law in Ashland and Birmingham; elected solicitor (prosecuting attorney) in Birmingham, 1914. Served in the U.S. Army, 1917-1919; attained rank of captain. Returned to law practice in Birmingham;  elected to the U.S. Senate, 1926; reelected in 1932.  A strong supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal; appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by FDR in 1937, championing individual rights as guaranteed by the first and fifth amendments; vigorously supported civil rights. Considered one of the most influential justices of the twentieth century.  The fifth longest serving justice in history. Member Civitan Club and Knights of Pythias. Widely honored; pictured on one of the stamps in the Great Americans series issued by the U.S.Postal Service.  The U.S. Courthouse in Birmingham is named in his honor.  The University of Alabama in Birmingham established the Hugo L. Black Symposium in American History in his honor. Died September 25, 1971.

Source:

McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography; wikipedia.

Joint_Publications;

Mr. Justice and Mrs. Black:  The Memoirs of Hugo L. Black and Elizabeth Black. New York:  Random House, 1986.

Publication(s):

A Constitutional Faith. New York; Knopf, 1968.

“Sincerely Your Friend…”  Letters of Mr. Justice Hugo L. Black to Jerome A. Cooper. University, Ala.; University of Alabama Press, 1973.

Papers;

Collections of papers of Justice Black are held by the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress and by the Bounds Law Library at the University of Alabama.  A number of letters of Justice Black and members of his family are held at the Alabama State Department of Archives and History in Montgomery.