How His Roots and Early Career Shaped the Great Champion of the Constitution

I am deep into this new biography of Hugo Black by Steve Suitts this weekend and will have a full book review up soon. There is a lot of new information in this book that goes beyond the biography written a few years ago by my good friend Roger Newman, although a lot of it is too local for national interest.

A couple of the things that fascinate me about this book are the revelations about the role of Alabama's Baptists in electing Black to the U.S. Senate in 1926 and their involvement in the fight over separation of church and state. While the Baptists were a minority denomination in the early 20th century, Suitts' research shows that they claimed a special role in promoting the separation of church and state and helping to establish the public school system - without the predominance of religion in classrooms. What a difference a couple of generations make. Have the Baptists forgotten this important part of their own history?

Maybe Judge Roy Moore should add this book to his bibliography on religion and government. Right after Roy's rock was ordered removed from the state Supreme Court building in Montgomery, I asked him how two Christian lawyers and Sunday school teachers from Alabama, himself and Hugo Black, could come to such different conclusions about the Constitution. I never got an answer to that question, because his PR person had me kicked out of the press conference. Before this campaign for governor is over, I will get an answer.