Editing Calvin Coolidge (section)

===Civil rights===
[[File:1924 Indian Citizenship Act.jpg|thumb|[[Osage Nation|Osage]] men with Coolidge after he signed the bill granting Native Americans U.S. citizenship]]

According to one biographer, Coolidge was "devoid of racial prejudice", but he rarely took the lead on civil rights. Coolidge disliked the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and no Klansman is known to have received an appointment from him. In the 1924 presidential election, his opponents, Robert La Follette and John Davis, and his running mate, Charles Dawes, often attacked the Klan, but Coolidge avoided the subject.{{sfn|Roberts|2014|p=209}} 

Due to Coolidge's failure to condemn the Klan, some African-American leaders such as former assistant attorney general [[William Henry Lewis]] endorsed Davis.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://coolidgefoundation.org/blog/1924-election-conflicting-minority-endorsements/ | title=1924 Election Conflicting Minority Endorsements }}</ref> Davis got little of the black vote outside Indiana, where Klan control of the Indiana Republican Party caused many blacks to vote Democratic.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/10462/14636 | title=The Political Realignment of Black Voters in Indianapolis, 1924 | journal=Indiana Magazine of History | date=June 1983 | last=Giffin | first=William W. }}</ref> It is estimated that over 90% of non-Indiana blacks voted for Coolidge.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://coolidgefoundation.org/blog/1924-election-conflicting-minority-endorsements/ | title=1924 Election Conflicting Minority Endorsements }}</ref> 

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover was accused of running forced labor camps for African Americans during the [[Great Mississippi Flood of 1927]], which led more African Americans to vote Democratic when Hoover was the Republican presidential nominee in 1928 and 1932.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mississippi-river-great-flood-1927/ | title=The Mississippi River Great Flood of 1927 • | date=September 18, 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.eurasiareview.com/28062023-us-forced-labor-camps-an-overlooked-chapter-in-american-history-oped/ | title=US Forced Labor Camps: An Overlooked Chapter in American History – OpEd | date=June 28, 2023 }}</ref> During Coolidge's administration, [[Lynching in the United States|lynchings of African-Americans]] decreased and millions of people left the Ku Klux Klan.{{sfn|Shlaes|2013|p=6}}

Coolidge spoke in favor of African Americans' civil rights, saying in his first [[State of the Union address]] that their rights were "just as sacred as those of any other citizen" under the U.S. Constitution and that it was a "public and a private duty to protect those rights".{{sfnm|Sobel|1998a|1p=250|McCoy|1967|2pp=328–329}}<ref name="1923SOTU">[[s:Calvin Coolidge's First State of the Union Address]]</ref> 

Coolidge repeatedly called for laws to make [[Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill|lynching a federal crime]]. It was already a state crime, though not always enforced. Congress refused to pass any such legislation. On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the [[Indian Citizenship Act]], which granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans living on reservations. Those off reservations had long been citizens.{{sfn|Deloria|1992|p=91}} 

On June 6, 1924, Coolidge delivered a commencement address at historically black, non-segregated [[Howard University]], in which he thanked and commended African Americans for their rapid advances in education and contributions to U.S. society over the years, as well as their eagerness to render their services as soldiers in the World War, all while faced with discrimination and prejudice at home.{{sfn|Coolidge|1926|pp=31–36}}

In an October 1924 speech, Coolidge stressed tolerance of differences as an American value and thanked immigrants for their contributions to U.S. society, saying that they had "contributed much to making our country what it is". He said that although the diversity of peoples was a source of conflict and tension in Europe, it was a peculiarly "harmonious" benefit for the U.S. Coolidge added that the U.S. should assist and help immigrants and urged immigrants to reject "race hatreds" and "prejudices".{{sfn|Coolidge|1926|pp=159–165}}