Black privately prosecuted the novel "Last Exit to Brooklyn", when the government had decided on expert advice not to do so. He won the case in the lower courts, but on appeal the publisher, John Calder, won, and, in the view of "The Times", Calder's success virtually ended book censorship in Britain. Black unsuccessfully campaigned against the publication of D. H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover". In 1970 he sued an American publisher and authors for libel. They had described him in print as "an evil person engaged in perversions". Black sought £1,000,000 damages and was awarded £43,000. He also brought successful lawsuits against "Private Eye" for suggesting that he profited from a conflict of interests between his local government and property-development activities, and "Socialist Leader" for calling him a racist.