National leader Hart was a delegate to
Republican National Convention from Missouri in 1940. During World War I, he was a member of the executive committee of the United War Work campaign. He helped to found the
United Service Organizations and the Boys Club of St. Louis. Hart was also a member of the board of the St. Louis Catholic Orphan Board.
Knights of Columbus Hart was elected Supreme Advocate of the Knights of Columbus in 1922 and was Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus from 1954-63. He was awarded the
Star of Morocco in 1920 after leading a delegation of Knights who presented a statue of Lafayette to the French people. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1927, and a knight commander in 1939. He was awarded entry into the
Order of St. Raymond of Peñafort in Spain and made a
Secret Chamberlain of Cape and Sword in 1951. He attended the coronation of
Pope John XXIII. In 1951, Hart was elected president of the
National Fraternal Congress. By the end of the 1950s Supreme Knight Hart was actively encouraging councils to accept black candidates. It was during Hart's tenure in 1954 that the Knights petitioned to get "under God" inserted into the
Pledge of Allegiance. == Death ==