William Henry Harrison Hart

William Henry Harrison Hart (October 30, 1857 – January 6, 1934) was an African American attorney and professor of criminal law at Howard University from 1887 to 1922. He won an important legal case, Hart v. State, 100 MD 595.

Biography Hart was born in Eufaula, Alabama, on October 31, 1857. His father was Henry Clay Hart, a white slave trader born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1829. He was a descendant of Thomas Hart, an English jurist who embarked at Baddow, Essex county, England, in the Desire, in 1635, landing at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1639. He attended the American Missionary Association School in Eufaula from 1867 to 1874. In 1874, when conservative whites attempted to oust the Reconstruction Era state government, Hart campaigned in favor of Reconstruction. His life was threatened, and he fled Eufaula. He walked all the way to Washington, D.C.

Upon arriving in Washington, D.C., Hart enrolled in the college preparatory program at Howard University in 1876 and graduated with a Preparatory Department Certificate in 1880. He enrolled in the undergraduate program, and received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1885. From Howard University he also received a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1889, and a Master of Laws (LLM) degree in 1891. While a law student, he worked for Senator William M. Evarts as a private secretary. In March 1895 he was admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court.

In 1890, Hart joined the faculty of Howard University's law school with a starting salary of $1,500.

A number of people were arrested in the following weeks, but the practical and legal workings of the Jim Crow Law got its first real test in the early autumn of 1904. William Henry Harrison Hart and his sister, Clementine Bartlett, refused to move to the "colored car." The conductor sent for the sheriff and "at the sight of the officer, the woman gracefully yielded and took her place in the car. The lawyer was given the choice of the proper car or jail, and refusing the former was escorted to a cell," the Cecil Whig reported.

Hart spent two days in the Elkton jail, charged with violating the separate car act. Found guilty by the Cecil County Circuit Court he was fined $50. He immediately filed an appeal with the Circuit Court. The lawyer added that if necessary, he would take the case all the way to the U.S., Supreme Court as the Jim Crow Law was not only unconstitutional but was also in conflict with the Interstate Commerce Law, the Baltimore Sun reported.

In this groundbreaking appeal to the higher court in 1904, When the State vs. Hart made its way to the bench of the court of Appeals, the judges sustained the Jim Crow Law but held that the provisions of that measure cannot apply to interstate passengers as Hart argued. Hart was on a through train from New York to Washington so the decision of the lower court was reversed, but the law was sustained in Maryland. So long as Hart was crossing state lines (rather than engaged in intrastate travel), the racial segregation laws could not apply.

Hart Farm School and Junior Republic for Dependent Colored Boys In 1897 Hart started the Hart Farm School and Junior Republic for Dependent Colored Boys on 700 acres of land along the Potomac River near Fort Washington, Maryland, that he purchased from Senator Evarts. The school was capable of housing up to two hundred students. Hart had three children with Mary, William H. H. Hart (deceased) Jr., Clementine Hart (deceased), and one stillborn. Hart's descendants are numerous and many still reside in the Washington, D.C., area.

Death

Hart died in New York City on January 6, 1934. His body was transported to Washington, D.C., where he was interred at Columbian Harmony Cemetery. His remains were transferred to National Harmony Memorial Park in Landover, Maryland, when Columbian Harmony Cemetery closed in 1959.