Ep. 3 David Baugh on ‘Defending My Enemy’

Why did a black defense attorney, who fought against segregation
in high school and battled racism in the courtroom, volunteer to
defend the First Amendment rights of an Imperial Wizard of the Ku
Klux Klan?


David Baugh is a Richmond, Virginia-based attorney, who, while
serving on the Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties
Union of Virginia, volunteered to defend the Klansman Barry Elton
Black’s right to burn a cross at a Klan rally. The case would
eventually make its way up to the Supreme Court of the United
States and set important First Amendment precedent.


Baugh believed Black’s ideas were repugnant. But he also believed
strongly in the First Amendment and that the freedoms enshrined
in that amendment needed to be protected.


“As I was growing up, my mother taught me that a principle or a
moral isn’t really yours until it’s tested,” he told us.


This is the second episode in our two-part series on the topic of
“defending my enemy,” which explores why people who vehemently
oppose certain ideas nonetheless staunchly defend the right of
others to express them.


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