Editing Hugo Black (section)

==Early years==
Black was born in Harlan, [[Clay County, Alabama|Clay County]], Alabama, on February 27, 1886, the youngest of eight children born to William Lafayette Black and Martha (Toland) Black. In 1890 the family moved to [[Ashland, Alabama|Ashland]], the county seat.<ref name=encyclopedia/> <!-- in a small wooden farmhouse in [[Ashland, Alabama]], a poor, isolated rural [[Clay County, Alabama|Clay County]] town in the [[Appalachian Mountains|Appalachian]] foothills.{{Citation needed|date=September 2019}} --> The family came from a [[Baptist]] background.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GNKBDwAAQBAJ&q=baptist | isbn=978-1588383976 | title=Hugo Black of Alabama: How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution | date= 2018 | publisher=NewSouth Books }}</ref>

Black attended [[Ashland College]], an academy located in Ashland, then enrolled at the [[University of Alabama School of Law]]. He graduated in 1906 with an [[Bachelor of Laws|LL.B.]] degree, was [[Admission to the bar in the United States|admitted to the bar]], and began to practice in Ashland. In 1907, Black moved to the growing city of [[Birmingham]], where he built a successful practice that specialized in [[labor law]] and [[tort law|personal injury]] cases.<ref name=encyclopedia/>

As a consequence of his defense of an [[African Americans|African American]] who was forced into [[Convict leasing|a form of commercial slavery]] after incarceration, Black was befriended by A. O. Lane, a judge connected with the case. When Lane was elected to the Birmingham City Commission in 1911, he asked Black to serve as a police court judge{{snd}}his only judicial experience prior to the Supreme Court. In 1912, Black resigned to return to practicing law full time. In 1914, he began a four-year term as the [[Jefferson County, Alabama|Jefferson County]] [[prosecutor|Prosecuting Attorney]].<ref name=encyclopedia/>

During [[World War I]], Black resigned to join the [[United States Army]]. He served in the [[81st Field Artillery Regiment|81st Field Artillery]], and attained the rank of [[Captain (United States O-3)|captain]] as the regimental adjutant. When the regiment departed for France, its commander was ordered to return to [[Fort Sill]] to organize and train another regiment, and he requested Black as his adjutant. The war ended before Black's new unit departed the United States, and he returned to law practice.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/black-hugo-lafayette |work=Federal Judicial Center |title=Black, Hugo Lafayette |access-date=September 3, 2020 |archive-date=August 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809150530/https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/black-hugo-lafayette |url-status=live }}</ref> He joined the Birmingham [[Civitan International|Civitan]] Club during this time, eventually serving as president of the group.<ref>{{cite book |last=Leonhart |first=James Chancellor |title=The Fabulous Octogenarian |year=1962 |publisher=Redwood House, Inc. |location=Baltimore, Maryland |page=139}}</ref> He remained an active member throughout his life, occasionally contributing articles to Civitan publications.<ref>{{cite book |last=Armbrester |first=Margaret E. |title=The Civitan Story |year=1992 |publisher=Ebsco Media |location=Birmingham, AL |page=56}}</ref>

In the early 1920s, Black became a member of the Robert E. Lee Klan No. 1 in Birmingham, and he resigned in 1925.<ref name=vanderveer/> In 1937, after his confirmation to the Supreme Court, it was reported he had been given a "grand passport" in 1926, granting him life membership to the [[Ku Klux Klan]].<ref name=vanderveer/> In response to this news, Black said he had never used the passport and had not kept it.<ref name="Reimann">{{cite web |url=https://timeline.com/hugo-black-justice-klan-4877fcf6ac75 |title=A U.S. Supreme Court justice was in the Ku Klux Klan – and he remained on the bench for 34 years |last=Reimann |first=Matt |date=August 15, 2017 |website=Timeline.com |publisher=[[Medium (website)|Medium Corporation]] |location=San Francisco, CA |access-date=September 22, 2021 |archive-date=February 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208094357/https://timeline.com/hugo-black-justice-klan-4877fcf6ac75 |url-status=live }}</ref> He further stated that when he resigned he completely discontinued his Klan association, that he had never resumed it, and that he expected never to resume his membership.<ref name="Reimann"/>

On February 23, 1921, he married Josephine Foster, with whom he had three children: [[Hugo L. Black, II]] (1922–2013), an attorney; [[Sterling Foster Black|Sterling Foster]] (1924–1996), and Martha Josephine (1933–2019). Josephine died in 1951; in 1957, Black married Elizabeth Seay DeMeritte.<ref>{{cite news |title=Justice Black At Home |author-link=Edwin M. Yoder |date=March 16, 1986 |first=Edwin M. Jr. |last=Yoder |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=September 25, 2020 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1986/03/16/justice-black-at-home/97157a2d-b863-4f6f-a176-12e4ca40d72d/}} Book review of ''Mr. Justice and Mrs. Black''; The Memoirs of Hugo L. Black and Elizabeth Black.</ref>