From Wikipedia:
In 1921, Hugo Black successfully defended E. R. Stephenson in his trial for the murder of a Catholic priest, Fr. James E. Coyle. Black, a Democrat, joined the Ku Klux Klan shortly afterwards, in order to gain votes from the anti-Catholic element in Alabama. He built his winning Senate campaign around multiple appearances at KKK meetings across Alabama. Late in life Black told an interviewer:
at that time, I was joining every organization in sight! … In my part of Alabama, the Klan was not engaged in unlawful activities … The general feeling in the community was that if responsible citizens didn’t join the Klan it would soon become dominated by the less responsible members.[4]
News of his membership was a secret until shortly after he was confirmed as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Black later said that joining the Klan was a mistake, but he went on to say, “I would have joined any group if it helped get me votes.”[5][6]
4:04 pm on August 27, 2017
