Hugo Lafayette Black, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court


  • Born: Feb. 27, 1886, Harlan, Ala. 
  • Educated: Birmingham Medical College, 1903 to 1904; University of Alabama, LL.B. 1906 
  • Married: Josephine Foster, Feb. 1921, died 1952 Elizabeth Seay, Sept. 11, 1957 
  • Nominated: Aug. 12, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt 
  • Commissioned: Aug. 18, 1937 
  • Dates of Service: Aug.19, 1937 to Sept. 17, 1971 
  • Died: Sept. 25, 1971, Bethesda, MD.

Hugo Black served as a police judge and country solicitor in Birmingham, Ala., before entering the private practice of law in 1919. Elected to the Senate in 1927, he remained for two terms. During his 12 years in the senate, Senator Black introduced a bill which later became the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated the senator as an associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. During his years on the court, Black always carried a copy of the United States Constitution in his pocket.