Emanuel Celler

Emanuel Celler lived from 1888 to 1981 and was an American Democratic politician from New York who represented parts of Brooklyn and Queens in the United States House of Representatives for nearly 50 years, from 1923 to 1973, serving as dean of the House from 1965 to 1973. He chaired the House Committee on the Judiciary for eleven terms between 1949 and 1973 and was a leading advocate for liberalizing immigration and naturalization law, from his early opposition to the Immigration Act of 1924 to his sponsorship of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. As Judiciary Committee chairman he ushered through major civil rights legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, while in the early 1970s he opposed the Equal Rights Amendment. He was defeated in the 1972 Democratic primary, becoming the most senior member of the House ever to lose one.