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Here are the words New York Secretary of State Edward Flynn used to open the Constitutional Convention that was convened in April 1938: “You are assembled during a most critical time in the world’s history, when new forms of government are being created throughout the world and democratic principles are being forgotten.”

Nativist nationalism, racism and fascism were on the march: Germany had invaded Austria the previous month, and anti-Jewish mob violence was already building toward the pogrom that would become known as Kristallnacht only seven months later. In what Mr. Flynn and others framed as New York’s response to world events, the convention proposed changes to the constitution’s Article 1 that would bar unequal treatment based on race, color, creed and religion. It was a change primarily championed by........

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