The State of New York has 34 laws against facial and religious discrimination, the greatest number of any state in the union, while three states, Nevada, South Dakota and Vermont, have the fewest number of such laws, one each, it was revealed in a check list of state anti-discrimination and anti-bias laws issued today by the American Jewish Congress.
The 11 states of the deep South, which might be expected to have little legal protection against discrimination, each has at least an anti-Klan and anti-lynching status on the books, the list reveals. A number of the laws listed in the check list date from as far back as 1777, while others were adopted this year.
The list tabulates a total of 386 anti-discrimination laws in the 48 states, the District of Columbia, Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The various statutes are classified both by state and by type of law, including legislation dealing with discrimination in public and private employment, places of public accommodation, education, housing, group defamation and miscellaneous categories.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
