Creator: Hamilton, James Robert, 1860-1933.
Collection number: 3923
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Abstract: James Robert Hamilton was District Court judge of Travis and Williamson counties, Tex.; Democratic Party executive committee chair; and congressional candidate in 1926. Scattered papers, correspondence, and other items of James Robert Hamilton, principally relating to his political and legal career, especially his charges to grand juries to investigate the Ku Klux Klan, 1921-1922; bootleggers; and deserters of children. It includes two scrapbooks of clippings, 1881-1916 and 1921-1927, concerning his public life.
Repository: Southern Historical Collection
Collection Highlights: Materials chiefly relate to Hamilton’s political affairs and legal career, especially his charges to the grand juries of Travis and Williamson Counties concerning investigations of the Ku Klux Klan (1921-1922). Documents relating to this matter include a typescript of Hamilton’s charge to the grand jury (1921); a typed report from the grand jury to the judge concerning a specific case of Klan violence (1921); and letters received by Hamilton following his charge (1921-1922). The collection also includes an undated anti-Klan poem and a postcard of a gathering of approximately 1,000 Ku Klux Klansmen and onlookers with the caption “Initiation — Dec. 8th, 1921 — Houston Tex. Photo by A. Kluker.” Microfilm available.