James Hare (judge)

James Albert Hare Jr. was born May 17, 1906, at Massillon in Dallas County, Alabama.[1] His parents were James Albert Hare and Betty May Kendrick.[1] He received his education through the public schools of Marion Junction and graduated from Marion Military Institute in 1925.[1][2][3] He enrolled at the University of Alabama and earned a bachelor of law degree in 1929.[1][2][3]

Hare served six years as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives from Dallas County (1934–1940).[1][2][3] He was also appointed as an Alabama assistant Attorney General (1940–1942).[1][2][3] He enlisted into the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) as a lieutenant during World War II.[1][2] He served in the China-Burma-India theatre and was honorably discharged as a lieutenant colonel in 1946. Hare was appointed as circuit solicitor (1946–1954) and later appointed Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Alabama (1954).[2][3] The jurisdiction of his court covered Bibb, Dallas, Hale, Perry, and Wilcox counties in central Alabama.[3]

His civic involvements included membership in the college fraternities of Chi Phi and Phi Delta Phi, a board of trustees member of the Sturdivant Museum and Marion Institute, a board of directors member for the Marion Institute Educational Foundation, and part of the congregation of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Selma.[4]

Hare married Katheryn Terrell on September 12, 1942, in Waco, Texas. They had four children - Susan Nowlin Hare, James Albert Hare III, Virginia Terrell Hare, and William Terrell Hare. He died at Selma Hospital on May 20, 1969.[1][3] He is interred at New Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, Alabama.

During his tenure as a judge, Hare made efforts to thwart the civil rights movement in Alabama. In July of the Freedom Summer of 1964, Hare issued an injunction forbidding any gathering of three or more people under sponsorship of civil rights organizations. The injunction, signed by Judge Hare on July 9, 1964, made it illegal to even talk to more than two people at a time about civil rights or voter registration in Selma, even (and especially) during church services. Because it was an injunction, rather than a law, Hare could jail anyone who, in his sole opinion, violated it. As a result, mass meetings were halted, and for the remainder of 1964, there were no public civil rights movement events in Selma. Organization efforts were driven deep underground except for the bravest activists, and the movement was paralyzed.[5]

General works

• Alabama. Legislature. House of Representatives (1969). "House Joint Resolution (H. J. R.) 24. Mourning the Death of Judge James A. Hare of Selma, Alabama". Journal of the House of Representatives, State of Alabama: 195–196, 418, 480.
• Alabama. Dept. of Archives and History (1955). "Alabama Official and Statistical Register". Brown Printing Company: 239–240, 287, +10. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Alabama (1969). "Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama". 1. J. Boardman: 318–319. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Hare, David Hugh; Massegee, R. R. (1993). The Hutch: Here a Hair, There a Haire, Everywhere a Hare/Harr: History and Genealogy of John and Peter Hare of Moore County, North Carolina. Historical Publications. pp. 613–617. ISBN 9781881825043.

Civil Rights Movement

• Aiken, Charles S. (2003). Loyd, Bonnie; Schuyler, David (eds.). The Cotton Plantation South Since the Civil War. JHU Press. pp. 193–194. ISBN 9780801873096.
• Branch, Taylor (2007). Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963–65. Simon and Schuster. pp. 155, 391, 553–554, 561, 565–566, 577, 580, 587–588. ISBN 9781416558705.
• Davis, Townsend (1999). Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 110. ISBN 9780393245424.
• Greenhaw, Wayne (2011). Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took on the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. Chicago Review Press. p. 162. ISBN 9781569768259.
• "Injunction of Three Judge Court Against Sheriff". Race Relations Law Reporter. 10 (1–2): 236, 240, 243. April 16, 1965.
• Lewis, David L. (1970). King: A Biography. University of Illinois Press. p. 264. ISBN 9780252006807.
• May, Gary (2013). Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy. Basic Books. pp. 9, 38–40, 42, 67, 189. ISBN 9780465018468. james hare alabama.
• Thornton, J. Mills (2002). Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma. University of Alabama Press. pp. 15, 18, 388–391, 401, 402, 404, 405, 413, 424–426, 428, 431, 440, 441, 445, 450, 456, 457, 463, 464, 468, 471–473, 475, 477, 481, 489, 493, 498. ISBN 9780817311704.
• Vaughn, Wally G.; Davis, Mattie Campbell, eds. (2006). The Selma Campaign, 1963–1965: The Decisive Battle of the Civil Rights Movement. The Majority Press. pp. 217, 219–220. ISBN 9780912469447.

• James Hare at Find a Grave
• James A. Hare papers, 1929–1969 at the University of Alabama
• Hartford, Bruce. "The Selma Injunction (July)". Civil Rights Movement Archive. Tougaloo College. Retrieved 26 April 2015.