Butler Black Hare

Butler Black Hare was an American politician who represented South Carolina in the United States House of Representatives during the first half of the twentieth century. A member of the Democratic Party, he served eight consecutive terms in Congress from 1925 to 1947, a period that spanned the late Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, the New Deal era, and the Second World War. Throughout this time, he participated in the legislative process and worked to represent the interests of his South Carolina constituents in the national government.

Details of Hare’s early life are not contained in the available record here, but his long tenure in public office indicates that he emerged from a background that enabled him to engage effectively in politics at both the local and national levels. Coming of age in the post-Reconstruction South, he would have been shaped by the economic and social transformations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including the region’s dependence on agriculture, the rise of industrialization, and the evolving role of the federal government in Southern affairs.

Similarly, the specific institutions at which Hare was educated are not identified in the present sources, but his eventual election to Congress suggests that he attained the level of education and professional experience typical of Southern Democratic officeholders of his generation. By the time he sought national office, he would have been familiar with the legal, economic, and political issues confronting South Carolina, including agricultural policy, infrastructure development, and the lingering effects of regional poverty.

Hare’s political career reached its apex with his election to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from South Carolina, beginning his service in Washington, D.C., on March 4, 1925. Over the next twenty-two years, through successive re-elections, he remained a fixture in the House during a time of profound national change. His career in Congress coincided with the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the onset of the Great Depression, developments that deeply affected his largely rural state and required sustained federal responses in banking, employment, and agricultural relief.

During his congressional service from 1925 until January 3, 1947, Hare took part in the democratic process at the federal level, contributing to debates and legislation that shaped the nation’s response to economic crisis and global conflict. As a member of the House of Representatives, he was involved in the consideration of New Deal measures in the 1930s and wartime legislation in the early 1940s, representing South Carolina’s interests as the federal government expanded its role in economic regulation, social welfare, and national defense. His eight terms in office attest to the continued confidence of his constituents in his ability to speak for them in Congress.

After leaving Congress in 1947, Hare’s public life entered its final phase. Although the available sources do not detail his specific activities following his retirement from the House, his long service placed him among the notable South Carolina Democrats who helped guide the state through the interwar years and World War II. Butler Black Hare’s career thus stands as a record of sustained legislative service during one of the most consequential periods in modern American history, marked by economic upheaval, political realignment, and global war, in which he consistently represented the people of South Carolina in the national legislature.