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Film, Video Hugo Black of Alabama: How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution

Event video

About this Item

Title

  • Hugo Black of Alabama: How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution

Summary

  • Steve Suitts discussed his book "Hugo Black of Alabama: How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution."The event was sponsored by the Library's John W. Kluge Center and the Supreme Court Historical Society. Hugo Black, who served on the Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971, was one of America's most controversial justices. In Birmingham in the 1920s, he became a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Decades later, as a son of the South, he was a staunch judicial champion of free speech, civil liberties and civil rights. In his book, Suitts shows how Black was shaped by his Alabama origins and early influences. More than 25 years in the making, the book offers fresh, dramatic insights into Black's character, philosophy and ethics. It chronicles his struggles with family tragedies, profound racism, biracial poverty and Alabama-style conflicts over American ideals of justice. The Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress holds the papers of Black, which were donated to the Library by his family and friends shortly after his death in 1971. The papers cover many aspects of his personal life and political career, when he was a U.S. senator from Alabama (1927 to 1937), in addition to his contributions to constitutional law. His papers comprise one of the largest of the Manuscript Division's judicial collections.

Names

  • Library of Congress
  • John W. Kluge Center (Library of Congress), sponsoring body

Created / Published

  • Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 2006-01-12.

Headings

  • -  African American History
  • -  Biography, History

Notes

  • -  Classification: History: America.
  • -  Steve Suitts.
  • -  Recorded on 2006-01-12.
  • -  Kids, Families.
  • -  Researchers.

Medium

  • 1 online resource

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021687734

Online Format

  • video
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body John W. Kluge Center. Hugo Black of Alabama: How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -01-12, 2006. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687734/.

APA citation style:

Library Of Congress & John W. Kluge Center, S. B. (2006) Hugo Black of Alabama: How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -01-12. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687734/.

MLA citation style:

Library Of Congress, and Sponsoring Body John W. Kluge Center. Hugo Black of Alabama: How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, -01-12, 2006. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021687734/>.