Brooke Hart

Brooke Hart (June 11, 1911 – November 9, 1933) was the oldest son of Alexander Hart, the owner of Leopold Hart and Son Department Store at the SE corner of Market and Santa Clara Street in downtownSan Jose, California. His kidnapping and murder were reported throughout the United States, and the lynching of his alleged murderers, Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes, sparked political debate. This incident is sometimes referred to as "the last lynching in California", though the last California lynching is said to have occurred on January 6, 1947 in Callahan, California but the name of the victim has never been released and the lynching cannot be confirmed in any printed news publications.

When Hart's body was discovered in San Francisco Bay on the morning of November 26, 1933, word of a lynch mob spread quickly throughout northern California. On the evening of Sunday, November 26, 1933, four days before Thanksgiving, a crowd gathered in St. James Park across from the Santa Clara County Courthouse. The lynching was broadcast as a 'live' event by a Los Angeles radio station. Scores of reporters, photographers, and news camera operators, along with an estimated 3,000 to 10,000 men, women, and children, were witness to the lynching. When newspapers published photos of the lynching, identifiable faces were deliberately smudged so that they remained anonymous; the following Monday, local newspapers published 1.2 million copies, twice the normal daily production.

Brooke Hart (journalist)

Brooke Hart was a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for NBC NewsChannel, NBC's affiliate news service for 11 years. Her early morning live reports appeared regularly on the local newscasts of many NBC affiliates across the country as well as occasionally on NBC's Early Today. Her reports covered news from the nation's capital.

Brooke's first work in journalism included internships at the MacNeil–Lehrer Newshour, CNN, and National Public Radio. She then worked as an anchor and reporter, first in her home state of California for KAEF-TV in Eureka, California and then for KTXS-12 in Abilene, Texas. In 1996, Brooke moved to Raleigh, North Carolina where she anchored Raleigh's NBC 17 News at 5 with Art Edwards. Brooke also covered success stories in Triangle area schools in her "Class Act" reports. She has been based in Washington since 1999.

Brooke graduated from Stanford University in 1991 and received a B.A. in Humanities with honors. After graduation she moved to Washington, D.C. where worked at the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, and subsequently as a paralegal in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Her work included serving as a paralegal in the successful federal criminal civil rights prosecution in Los Angeles of four LAPD officers accused of beating Rodney King. Brooke was known for her attention to detail during this prosecution, which contributed to the three guilty verdicts and resulted in no further rioting in Los Angeles. Report from TV Newser is effective April 14, 2010, Brooke Hart left NBC News for a job with the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington D.C. She is now founder / CEO of the tech startup CampEasy, Inc., and has worked as a technology investor and media consultant.