CINCINNATI, June 3 (UPI) -- Ohio State Sen. Mark Mallory was offended when he read state laws referring to "colored persons," "Negroes" and "white persons."
The Cincinnati Democrat was to introduce legislation Tuesday to update the state's law books to remove the outdated racial terms.
"A lot of times when we change laws we might not always update the language used in the code," Mallory told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "These terms are considered to be offensive and it just doesn't make sense in this day and age to have language like that in Ohio's laws."
Mallory's bill would amend four sections of state law on non-discriminatory hiring that refer to "Negroes" -- Spanish for blacks -- to change the terminology to the more generally accepted African-Americans.
Legal language referring to "white persons" and colored persons" would be replaced by the phrase "discrimination on basis of race."
One statue that would be rewritten bans discrimination in insurance sales to "colored people."
In 1995 a similar measure changed gender-specific terms like "chairman" to "chairperson" in the Ohio Revised Code.
In March, the General Assembly approved a measure sponsored by Mallory ratifying the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees equal protection under law without regard to race.
Ohio was the only state that never ratified the post-Civil War amendment that gave American citizenship and full civil rights to ex-slaves.
