On September 13, 1937, newly-appointed Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black was accused of membership in the KKK. Black had resigned as U.S. Senator from Alabama to accept appointment as a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette discovered that Black was a former member of the Ku Klux Klan during its coverage of FDR’s “court packing” plan. The Justice Black story eventually won the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize.

At the time, Roosevelt, fearing the loss of Black’s vote in the Senate, remarked that he wished the new justice was twins! Immediately after his confirmation by the Senate, reports Black’s two-year involvement with the Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s appeared. In October, 1937, Black admitted his former membership but noted his quick resignation, and in a few weeks the public controversy subsided.

Hugo Lafayette Black was an ardent supporter of FDR and the New Deal. Born and raised in Alabama, Black attended the University of Alabama School of Law, graduating in 1906. During his time as a lawyer Black also served as a police court judge and county prosecutor. Elected to the Senate from Alabama in 1927, Black served as chairman of a Senate investigatory committee and as chair of the Committee on Education and Labor. Black was a supporter of the New Deal and an advocate for the 1937 Court Packing Plan.

In August 1937 was nominated for and then confirmed to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. During his early years on the Court, Black advocated judicial restraint and the idea that the Supreme Court was limited in its potential reach and should not interfere with the legislature. Black also helped to reverse court decisions which narrowed the scope of federal power and had struck down New Deal laws.