'''Irving McNeil Ives''' (January 24, 1896 – February 24, 1962) was a [[Moderate Republican]] [[United States Senator]] for his native [[New York]],with service for two terms from 1947 to 1959.
From 1930 to 1946, Ives was a state representative. In this capacity, he was the minority leader in 1935 and the [[Speaker]] in 1936, and Majority Leader from 1937 to 1946, when he was elected in a strongly [[Republican Party|Republican]] year to the U.S. Senate. He focused on [[organized labor|labor]] and [[civil rights]] issues.<ref name=nytimes>{{cite web|date=February 25, 1962|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|title=Irving Ives Dead. Ex-U.S. Senator, 66|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1962/02/25/archives/irving-ives-dead-exus-senator-66-new-york-republican-was-a.html|accessdaate=August 5, 2021}}</ref> Ives supported the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which established the [[Civil Rights Commission]], which was empowerd to focus on racial discrimation nationwide. However, he was no longer in office for the votes on the 1960, 1964, and 1968 civil rights acts, which were signed into law by [[U.S. President]]s [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] and [[Lyndon B. Johnson]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/85-1957/s75|title=HR. 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957.|publisher=GovTrack.us|accessdate=August 4, 2021}}</ref>
==Background==
Irving Ives was born in Bainbridge in Chenango County in south central New York, halfway between Binghamton and Oneonta. He was the son of George Albert Ives (1857-1942), who worked in the coal and feed businesses, and the former Lucie Hough Keeler (1860-1941).<ref name=biography>{{cite book|title=''Encyclopedia of American Biography''|volume=34|year=1965|publisher=American Historical Company}}</ref> His ancestors came from [[England]] and settled in 1635 in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]]. They were involved in the establishment of the Quinnipiac Colony in 1638.<ref name=yearbook>{{cite book|title=''Current Biography Biography Yearbook|volume=10|year=1949|publisher=H.W. Wilson Company}}</ref> name=biography/>
After graduation from Oneonta High School in 1914,<ref name=nytimes/>he enrolled at the private liberal arts institution, Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, named for [[founding Founding fathers|founding Founding father]] and the first [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Alexander Hamilton]]. After two years he left Hamilton to enlist in the [[United States Army]] Infantry following the entry of the [[United States|American]] ]] into [[World War I]] in 1917 under the leadership of [[U.S. President]] [[Woodrow Wilson]].<ref name=congress>{{cite web|publisher=''Biographical Directory of the United States Congress''|title=IVES, Irving McNeil, (1896-1962)|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=I000050}}</ref> During the war, he served with the [[American Expeditionary Force]]s in [[France]] and [[Germany]]. He fought in the battles of the Meuse-Argonne and Saint-Mihiel.<ref name=yearbook/> He was honorably discharged as a first lieutenant, when the war ended in 1919.<ref name=congress/> He then resumed his studies at Hamilton, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1920 with membership in Phi Beta Kappa Society.<ref name=nytimes/>
==Career==