Nixon Vetoes Bill Modifying Missouri Human Rights Act

Gov. Jay Nixon today announced his veto of Senate Bill 188 during a ceremony on the steps of the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis. Unless vetoed, the bill would undermine key provisions of the Missouri Human Rights Act, the Governor said.

“Senate Bill 188 would undermine key provisions of the Missouri Human Rights Act, rolling back decades of progress in protecting civil rights,” Gov. Nixon said. “The bill would make it harder to prove discrimination in the workplace, and would throw new hurdles in the path of those whose rights have been violated. That is unacceptable, and it stops here.”

The Governor said that Missourians “have an obligation to put a stop to discrimination and dismantle barriers of prejudice wherever they exist – in the workplace, in housing or in the public square.”

The bill has drawn criticism from a broad coalition of Missourians, including many disability and civil rights groups. Opponents of the legislation include the Anti-Defamation League; the American Cancer Society; the AARP; the NAACP; Paraquad; the AFL-CIO; the League of Women Voters; the LegislativeBlack Caucus; the Missouri Association for the Deaf; PROMO; the National Alliance on Mental Illness; Missouri Centers for Independent Living; Missouri NOW; the Urban League; theMissouri Association for Social Welfare; the Whole Person; and the St. Louis Clergy Coalition,among others.

“Making it easier for Missouri companies to discriminate against people with disabilities or cancer, against women, older workers and minorities, and against those of different faiths and ethnicities will not help us create jobs or be more competitive in a global economy,” Gov. Nixon said. “To thrive in a global economy and uphold these values that we share, Missouri must be a state that continues to move forward – not backward − when it comes to civil rights and equal opportunity.”

Gov. Nixon urged Missourians to take action to prevent his veto from being overridden by legislators in the final two weeks of the legislative session.

For more information about Senate Bill 188, go to MO.gov.

Jack Remembers: Integration

When I was on the Kansas City Boxing Team we had a match with Ottawa, Ks. Our normal procedure was to weigh in, have a light lunch, then hang around the arena until the fights, which would generally start at 7 pm. When we got to Ottawa, we went into a coffee shop at an old hotel and were told the black boxers couldn’t sit in the dining room, they would have to eat in the kitchen.

At this particular match, I was the only white guy and the people who ran the restaurant wanted me to sit out in the dining room. However, I insisted on eating with the other boxers and went into the kitchen with them where they were sitting on an old wooden bench at a table reserved for the Negroes of the community.

Our next fight, we were in Wichita. This was a well publicized match held in a big auditorium and there was a full house. We weighed in and I was matched against a tough looking black fighter. Prior to my fight, one of the black fighters on Kansas City’s team came up to me and said, “Your boy thinks he’s pretty, so if you’ll keep hitting him in the face, he’ll go down.” I took my teammate’s advice, and kept jabbing him in the nose and face. Sure enough, in the second round he went down. After the referee counted him out, I walked over to where he was laying on the canvass and he spit out his mouthpiece, snarled, and said, “You got me this time, but I’m going to get you after the fights.”

We had our clothes on and were getting ready to leave the dressing room. I looked out, and there he was with his buddies. I told our coach, Bubbles Klice, who also was the boxing coach at Gateway Community Center in Kansas City, what was happening. He was reluctant to call the police, but got everyone together in the dressing room and told the other fighters that we had a problem. “They are after Hackley”, he said, “But remember who ate in the kitchen with us in Ottawa, so we are going to surround him and head for the cars.” And that we did. Eating that bowl of soup back in that old kitchen in Ottawa was one of my best decisions.