Joseph A. Gavagan 1892-1968 - U.S. Congress - Justice State Supreme Court

Joseph A. Gavagan

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7347408

JosephA. Gavagan 

However, his main thrust was trying to pass his Anti-Lynching law. Having grown up in New York's Hell's Kitchen, he saw not only the discrimination in the city against the Irish, but the horrible way that Blacks were treated. He spent his entire time in Congress attempting to convince his fellow members that there was something simply wrong that a mob could control the law. 

His bill was never passed because Claude Pepper, J. William Fulbright and the other Southern Congressman were able to block it. Pepper, in his later years, as the guardian of the elderly, admitted his one regret was that he voted against the Gavagan Anti-Lynching Law.

                                                                              Patrick Burns/The New York Times 

Vincent R. Impellitteri, right, at his swearing in as the mayor of New York City by Justice Joseph A. Gavagan of State Supreme Court in November 1950.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/mayors-all-but-none-with-their-names-enshrined/

(Impellitteri, briefly a former law clerk and secretary to Justice Gavagan)

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