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America’s First Law Against Racial Discrimination in Employment Signed by N. Y. Governor

March 14, 1945
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The nation’s first measure barring racial and religious discrimination in employment became a law yesterday when Gov. Thomas E. Deway signed the Ives-Quinn Bill which had previously been approved by the Assembly and Senate.

An audience of more than 200 persons witnessed the event as the demands for souvenirs forced the Governor to use twenty-two different pens in writing “Approved, Thomas E. Dewey. March 12, 1945.” Until he reached the date, he used one pen for each letter and then the last two pens took care of the date.

At the close of the bill-signing ceremony, the largest of its kind in the memory of the Capitol’s oldest attachees, the first souvenir pens went to the legislative sponsors of the measure–Irving M. Ives, of Chenango, Republican, majority leader of the Assembly, and Elmer F. Quinn, of New York, Democratic minority leader of the Senate. The law enters into effect on July 1.

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