James Lee Rankin

(1907-1996) born at Hartington, Cedar County, lived in Lincoln. Lawyer, government official, was Solicitor General of the United States, and presented the government’s view of gradual desegregation in a Supreme Court case that ended in the 1954 decision against racially segregated schools; he also served as legal counsel to the Warren Commission’s investigation of U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Consult Current Biography (1959) 377-379 and New York Times obituary, June 30, 1996, p. 33 and American National Biography, Sup 1 (2002) 503-504 and Crete /NE/ News, June 1, 2005, p. A-6.

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