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Few would-be orators will study the 1,054 words which Hugo Black spoke in 11 of the 30 minutes allotted to him. He began his speech by alleging that the criticism of his former Klan connection was a "concerted campaign" to fan the flames of religious prejudice. Said he, in a nasal Southern drawl: "If continued, the inevitable result will be the projection of religious beliefs into a position of prime importance in political campaigns and to reinfect our social and business life with the poison of religious bigotry. . . . To contribute my part in averting such a catastrophe in this land dedicated to tolerance and freedom, I break with precedents of the past to talk to you tonight."
He ended his speech by saying: "I formed one of the most valued friendships of my life with a son of the Jewish faith."* Sandwiched between was the declaration for which the whole U. S. had been waiting:
"The insinuations of racial and religious intolerance made concerning me are based on the fact that I joined the Ku Klux Klan about 15 years ago. I did join the Klan. I later resigned. I never rejoined. What appeared then, or what appears now, on the records of the organization, I do not know.
"I never have considered and I do not now consider the unsolicited card given to me shortly after my nomination to the Senate as a membership of any kind in the Ku Klux Klan. I never used it. I did not even keep it.
"Before becoming a Senator I dropped the Klan. I have had nothing whatever to do with it since that time. I abandoned it. I completely discontinued any association with the organization. I have never resumed it and never expect to do so. At no meeting of any organization, social, political or fraternal, have I ever indicated the slightest departure from my steadfast faith in the unfettered right of every American to follow his conscience in the matter of religion."
This was hardly news to anyone, for if Hugo Black had never joined the Klan he would obviously have denied doing so a month ago. It could hardly have been news to Franklin Roosevelt or any member of the Senate, for Senator Borah said last week: "Justice Black stated the matter of his relationship with the Klan as I understood it to be when I spoke on the subject in the Senate."
Nonetheless Justice Black's carefully worded admission and disclaimer was interesting for the points it did not cover: it did not deny in any major point the statements made in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's articles about his Klan connections. It did not say whether his original resignation from the Klan was bona fide or merely a 1926 campaign gesture. It did not explain why he had accepted the "unsolicited card" or whether he had tried to give it back. In particular it did not deny the effusive speech attributed to him at a Klan klorero after the unsolicited card had reached him. Most of all it did not tell whether he joined the Klan out of hatred for non-Aryans, and later dropped it in a new spirit of tolerance, or whether he took one or both actions for political expediency.