Published On: 08.12.17 | 

By: 9316

On this day in Alabama history: Hugo Black appointed to U.S. Supreme Court

Aug 12 feature

Hugo Black confirmed by Senate. Washington, D.C., Aug. 17. 1937. The new associate justice of the Supreme Court, Hugo L. Black, looks on calmly as Col. Edward A. Halsey, secretary of the Senate, affixes his signature as a finishing touch to the Senate's confirmation of the senator from Alabama to the nation's highest tribunal. The final vote was 63-16. (Photograph by Harris and Ewing, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

August 12, 1937

Hugo Black was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A native of Harlan in Clay County, Black built a lucrative law firm in Birmingham and became a U.S. senator in 1926. He served as an associate justice for 34 years and often supported liberal policies and civil liberties for what he called the “weak, helpless and outnumbered.” He is remembered as a champion of the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment and is regarded as one of the most influential justices of the 20th century. Black was inducted into the Alabama Men’s Hall of Fame in 1993.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.