Hugo Black made his name as an Alabama lawyer and U.S. senator. In 1937, Franklin Roosevelt nominated him to the Supreme Court, and Congress confirmed him. But when the press found out he was a former Ku Klux Klan member, it started an uproar.
The Pittsburgh Gazette got the ball rolling in 1937, accusing Black of joining the Klan for two years, quitting in 1925, and getting a “Golden Grand Passport” with the organization. More exposés followed, leading to calls for Black to resign. Roosevelt immediately distanced himself from the justice, despite Black’s New Deal support, while some senators said they would have never confirmed him had they known about the Klan ties.
Black did not respond immediately to the charges. Instead, according to the Supreme Court Historical Society, he hired a female, Catholic stenographer and African-American (possibly Catholic) messenger. These details then went public, suggesting Black’s office leaked them to showcase his opposition to the Klan’s racial and religious views. He topped it off with a radio broadcast decrying anti-Catholicism and anti-semitism, adding he had many African-American friends.
Ultimately, Black was able to defend himself on the basis of his record. He had made his name by representing an African-American man who was given extra prison labor beyond his sentence. The Klan membership, he claimed, was at the advice of a Jewish friend for political advancement. In 1920s Alabama, a Klan endorsement was a virtual guarantee of electoral victory. He would later vote to overturn Jim Crow segregation laws in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.
