Joseph A. Gavagan

Joseph Andrew Gavagan (August 20, 1892 – October 18, 1968) was a United States Representative from New York.

Joseph Andrew Gavagan
Joseph A. Gavagan, Congressman from New York, 1939.
Member of the New York State Assembly
from the New York County, 22nd district
In office
1923–1929
Preceded byMichael E. Reiburn
Succeeded byBenjamin B. Mittler
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 21st district
In office
November 5, 1929 – December 30, 1943
Preceded byRoyal H. Weller
Succeeded byJames H. Torrens
Personal details
Born(1892-08-20)August 20, 1892
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedOctober 18, 1968(1968-10-18) (aged 76)
Putnam Memorial Hospital, Bennington, Vermont, U.S.
Resting placeGate of Heaven Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic

Early life

Born in New York City on August 20, 1892, he attended the public and parochial schools and graduated from the law department of Fordham University in 1920.[1]

During World War I, he enlisted as a private and later was promoted to second lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps and served from August 20, 1917 to October 13, 1919.[2] He served at: Fort Totten, New York; Camp Alfred Vail, New Jersey; and Camp Gordon Johnston, Florida.[2] He was a first lieutenant in the Quartermaster Reserve Corps from 1920-25.

Gavagan was admitted to the bar in 1920, and practiced law in New York City.[1] A Democrat, he was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 22nd D.) in 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928 and 1929.[1]

Congressman

Gavagan was elected to the 71st United States Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Royal H. Weller; he was re-elected to the 72nd and to the six succeeding Congresses and held office from November 5, 1929, to December 30, 1943, when he resigned. While in the House of Representatives, he was chairman of the Committee on Elections No. 2 (Seventy-second through Seventy-sixth Congresses) and Committee on War Claims (Seventy-seventh and Seventy-eighth Congresses).

Gavagan tried for years to pass an anti-lynching law; having grown up in New York's Hell's Kitchen, he saw discrimination against the Irish, African Americans, and other ethnic and racial minorities. Gavagan's argument for equal and fair treatment was that lynching meant mob rule, and mob rule meant that the rule of law was not respected. The Gavagan bill was never passed because conservatives, mostly southern Democrats, were able to block it. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Claude Pepper served as a Congressman; he had been a United States Senator in the 1930s and 1940s. As an elder statesman in the House, Pepper admitted that the major regret of his career was that he had supported the Gavagan Anti-Lynching Law.

Later life

Gavagan was resigned from Congress after winning election as a justice of the New York Supreme Court; he was re-elected in 1957, and was scheduled to retire on December 31, 1968.[1]

Death and burial

He maintained a summer house in Manchester, Vermont, and died at Putnam Memorial Hospital in Bennington, Vermont on October 18, 1968.[1] He was interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.[1]

Family

In November 1933, Gavagan married Dorothy Whitehead, who had been his secretary in his Washington Congressional office.[1] They were the parents of a son, Joseph Jr., and a daughter, Joan, who was the wife of Thomas G. Gorman.[1][3]

References
  1. "Funeral: Justice Joseph Gavagan".
  2. "New York, Abstracts of World War I Military Service".
  3. "Miss Gavagan Bride".
  • United States Congress. "Joseph A. Gavagan (id: G000101)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  • Joseph A. Gavagan at Find a Grave

Sources

Newspapers

Internet
New York State Assembly
Preceded by
Michael E. Reiburn		 New York State Assembly
New York County, 22nd District
1923–1929		 Succeeded by
Benjamin B. Mittler
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
Royal H. Weller		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 21st congressional district
1929–1943		 Succeeded by
James H. Torrens
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