Hugo Black

Hugo LaFayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1937 - 1971). He is noted for his advocacy of a "literal" reading of the United States Constitution, and for his advocacy of the position that the guarantees of liberties in the U.S. Bill of Rights were imposed on the states via their incorporation in the Fourteenth Amendment. His jurisprudence has been the focus of much discussion. Because of his insistence on a strict textual analysis of Constitutional issues, as opposed to the process-oriented jurisprudence of many of his colleagues, it is difficult to characterize Black as a "liberal" or a "conservative" as those terms are generally understood. Yet his theory of "incorporation" often translated into support for strengthening civil liberties. In the 1920's, Black (like Chief Justice Edward Douglass White) was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and in 1921 he defended Klansmen accused of the murder of priest James Coyle. However, he later publicly disavowed the Klan, and his record on the Supreme Court bench contained some indications of support for the Civil Rights Movement.

Stephenson Trial

On August 11 of 1921, Black was asked to defend the Reverend Edwin R. Stephenson, a Ku Klux Klan member who had been accused of shooting to death Father James Coyle, leader of the large Catholic community at Saint Paul's Church in Birmingham. Stephenson was both a barber and a minister who added to his income by marrying couples at the Jefferson County Courthouse where he was known as the "marrying parson". In the previous two years he had married 1,140 couples, almost half of them in the courthouse.

Related Topics:
August 11 - James Coyle - Catholic

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Ruth Stephenson was Edwin's eighteen-year old daughter who had run away from home and become a Catholic. On August 11 she asked Father Coyle to perform her marriage to a Hispanic male from Puerto Rico named Pedro Gussman so that she would become independent of her parents. Gussman was a Catholic by faith and a paper hanger by trade; he had decorated the Stephenson home.

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Edwin Stephenson knew of his daughter's conversion to Catholicism and of her romance with Pedro, but not of the marriage. Stephenson confronted Coyle at Saint Paul's who then informed Stephenson of the marriage.

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According to Black's defense, Stephenson hurled racist abuse at Coyle who responded with his fists and then Stephenson shot him, following which he wandered back to the courthouse and asked the sheriff to jail him. The facts revealed in the trial by many eyewitnesses, however, indicate that Fr. Coyle was peacefully sitting on his front porch when Stephenson walked up to him and shot him point blank through the head.

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The presiding judge and several members of the courtroom staff were active Klan members and they helped to ensure that several members of the KKK were selected to jury service. According to page 87 of the biography by Roger K. Newman, no official records of this trial exist and their destruction is attributed to the power and influence of members of the Ku Klux Klan at that time. Accounts of some of the trial's events have nevertheless circulated. Black is reported to have communicated with the Klansmen on the jury through the organization's hand signals in order to secure a verdict of not guilty for his client. According to a 2005 speech on the topic by Federal Appellate Judge William H. Pryor, Black is reported to have approached prosecution witnesses with the question "You're a Catholic, aren't you?" in an attempt to discredit them before the Klan-dominated jury. Pryor reports that Black lowered the shades in the courtroom and directed floodlights on Gussman in an attempt to make his skin look darker. When the prosecution responded that Gussman was of Castilian descent, Black is reported to have remarked "he has descended a long way."

Related Topics:
William H. Pryor - Castilian

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