Samuel Shepherd Caldwell (November 4, 1892 – August 14, 1953), was a

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

oilman The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The largest volume products of ...

and politician who served as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

, from 1934 to 1946. Caldwell was an unusually staunch segregationist even for the era in the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plant ...

. In 1943, Caldwell chose to turn down $67,000 in federal funds for a new medical center because it would have required hiring 12 blacks out of every 100 workers. (Shreveport was 37% African American in the 1940 census.) "We are not going to be bribed by federal funds," Caldwell explained, "to accept the negro as our political or social equal"; federal officials would not "cram the negro down our throats."

References

1892 births 1953 deaths 20th-century mayors of places in Louisiana People from Mooringsport, Louisiana American Presbyterians Louisiana Democrats Businesspeople from Louisiana Mayors of Shreveport, Louisiana Parish jurors and commissioners in Louisiana Louisiana Tech University alumni Deaths from lung disease 20th-century American businesspeople {{Louisiana-stub