Joseph Andrew Gavagan (August 20, 1892 – October 18, 1968) was an American World War I veteran, lawyer, and politician who served seven terms as a United States representative from New York from 1929 to 1943.

Born in New York City on August 20, 1892, he attended the public and parochial schools and graduated from the law department of Fordham University in 1920.

[1] During World War I, he enlisted as a private and later was promoted to second lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps and served from August 20, 1917, to October 13, 1919.

[3] Gavagan tried for years to pass an anti-lynching law; having grown up in New York's Hell's Kitchen, he saw discrimination against the Irish, African Americans, and other ethnic and racial minorities.

Gavagan resigned from Congress after winning an election as a justice of the New York Supreme Court; he was re-elected in 1957, and was scheduled to retire on December 31, 1968.