James William Hennigan Jr. (March 17, 1927 – January 3, 2020) was an American politician who served in the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into ...

from 1953 to 1955 and in the

Massachusetts Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...

from 1955 to 1965. Hennigan graduated from

Babson Institute Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States specializing in entrepreneurship education. Founded in 1919 by Roger Babson, the college was established as the Babson Institute in his Wellesley home and ini ...

Suffolk University Law School Suffolk University Law School (also known as Suffolk Law School) is the Private university, private, non-sectarian law school of Suffolk University located in Downtown Boston, downtown Boston, across the street from the Boston Common and the Fr ...

. He served as a member of the

from 1953 to 1955, the

from 1955 to 1965 and a member of the

Boston School Committee The Boston School Committee serves as the school board for Boston Public Schools. Precursors In 1647, the Massachusetts General Court passed a law requiring the establishment of schools, it dictated that responsibility for the schools would be gr ...

from 1970 to 1974. Hennigan ran for mayor of Boston in

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

, but lost that election. He was also the Democratic nominee for

Massachusetts Attorney General The Massachusetts attorney general is an elected constitutionally defined executive officer of the Massachusetts government. The officeholder is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The officeholder ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

, but lost to

Edward Brooke Edward William Brooke III (October 26, 1919 – January 3, 2015) was an American lawyer and Republican Party politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1967 to 1979. He was the first African American elected to t ...

. His father James W. Hennigan Sr. also served in the

Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court, formally the General Court of Massachusetts, is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts located in the state capital of Boston. Th ...

. Hennigan is the titular hennigan of the ''

Morgan v. Hennigan ''Morgan v. Hennigan'' was the case that defined the Boston busing desegregation, school busing controversy in Boston, Massachusetts during the 1970s. On March 14, 1972, the Boston chapter of the NAACP filed a class action lawsuit against the Bos ...

'' decision, since he was head of the

at the time. However, Hennigan had been the leading advocate of trying to implement integration on the School Committee. In 1972, Hennigan was elected to a six-year term as the Suffolk County Register of Probate. Hennigan's daughter

Maura Hennigan Maura A. Hennigan (born 1952) is an American politician who currently serves as the Clerk Magistrate of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Superior Court Criminal/Business Division. She is a former member of the Boston City Council and was a mayoral ...

was a member of the

Boston City Council The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year ...

from 1982 through 2005. He was a driving force behind his daughter's unsuccessful

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

campaign for mayor of Boston. Hennigan died on January 3, 2020, in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts, at age 92.

References

Sources

summary with oral history interview''Boston Globe'' July 12, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hennigan, James W. Jr. 1927 births 2020 deaths Babson College alumni Boston School Committee members Democratic Party Massachusetts state senators Democratic Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Politicians from Boston Suffolk University Law School alumni Lawyers from Boston 20th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court

See also

References

Sources