Top of page

Exhibition Drawing Justice: The Art of Courtroom Illustration

Drawing Justice: The Art of Courtroom Illustration

Disorder in the Court of Public Opinion

Mr. and Mrs. J. Allen to Justice Hugo Black. Manuscript letter, March 4, 1970. Hugo Black Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (041.00.00)
Enlarge
Mr. and Mrs. J. Allen to Justice Hugo Black. Manuscript letter, March 4, 1970. Hugo Black Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (041.00.00)
Enlarge
Wallace W. Sherwood to Justice Hugo Black. Typescript Letter, February 17, 1970. Hugo Black Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (042.00.00)
Enlarge
Wallace W. Sherwood to Justice Hugo Black. Typescript Letter, February 17, 1970. Hugo Black Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (042.00.00)
Enlarge

Disorder in the Court of Public Opinion

Unfolding in the wake of the chaotic 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, the trial popularly known as the Chicago Seven case, U.S. v. Dellinger, et al, appealed at 472 F.2d 340 (1972), mirrored both the sensationalism of the convention and the larger cultural issues taking place within American society. U.S. Federal District Court judge Julius Hoffman presided over the case and was often at odds with the original eight political activists on trial and their defense team. These two letters encapsulate opposing viewpoints on the issues and principals at the heart of the case, between which an ocean of public opinion and debate ebbed and flowed.