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The Klansman on the Supreme Court
The Senate Knew When Confirming Hugo Black and Didn’t Care
There have been Supreme Court Justices and even Presidents suspected of being Klan members. Harry S. Truman paid the $10 membership fee but allegedly refused to take the pledge and asked for his money back. Others considered members include Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Lyndon Johnson. Chief Justice Edward Douglas White was called out by D.W. Griffith, who made Birth of a Nation as a supporter of the film and a Klan member. If he weren’t Black, one might suspect Clarence Thomas based upon his body of work.
Some historians or spokespersons denied the other claims except for Truman, who claims his membership wasn’t consummated by taking the pledge. But we know that Senator Hugo Black was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and other Senators knew it when they confirmed him to the Supreme Court after his nomination by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Roosevelt planned to stack the court with his appointments, attempting to add one member to the court for every member over 70 that didn’t resign or retire. It would have allowed him to appoint up to six Justices to the court had he gotten his way. A lengthy standoff with the Senate ended in his failure to stack the court, leaving him just one appointment to replace the retiring Willis Van…
