President Coolidge Speaks at Howard University: A Civil Rights Milestone

From the beginning of his presidency, Calvin Coolidge made civil rights one of his administration’s top priorities, as is seen not only in his words, but also in his actions. Shortly after taking office in 1923, Coolidge appealed to Congress and obtained significant funding for the medical school at Howard University.

The next year, 1924, Coolidge made history by giving the commencement address there. Howard University is what is now called a ‘HBCU’ — a historically Black college or university. Coolidge was the first U.S. president to ever speak at the graduation ceremonies of a HBCU.

Coolidge’s speech at Howard was a major advance for civil rights, as historian Kurt Schmoke writes:

Coolidge gave the commencement address at Howard and signaled a significant change in progressive race relations. In reading his words it must be recalled that he spoke at a time when separate but equal was the law of the land, when lynchings trumped due process in criminal cases involving black men, and when the most recent Democratic president, Woodrow Wilson, had praised a film which glorified the Ku Klux Klan.

Words alone, however, were not enough for Calvin Coolidge. Concrete actions were needed to promote opportunities for African-Americans. His objective was to move millions of Blacks from the lower classes to the middle classes, as a report from the Coolidge Foundation explains:

President Coolidge called for funds to be appropriated to establish a medical school at Howard University in his first State of the Union message to Congress in December 1923. “About half a million dollars is recommended for medical courses at Howard University to help contribute to the education of 500 colored doctors needed each year,” the President said. By this act, Coolidge hoped to improve the state of medical care for the black population. He also sought to grow the black middle class by adding more black professionals to society.

1924 was an election year, and Coolidge’s appearance at Howard University sent a signal: Coolidge was firmly opposed to the KKK. He and his predecessor, President Warren Harding, had also promoted anti-lynching laws in Congress.

But Coolidge’s opponent in the election, the Democratic Party, had failed to make a clear anti-Klan statement in the platform adopted at their convention. The platform failed to make any statements about race or civil rights, and failed to endorse anti-lynching laws.

The Democratic Party was divided. Many anti-Klan Democrats didn’t vote for their party’s nominee in the general election in November 1924. The Democrat nominee, John Davis, did make an anti-Klain statement, but the party failed to back him up.

Entry into the middle class was important for African-Americans in the 1920s. During Coolidge’s presidency, the number of Blacks in federal employment reached a high of 51,882 in 1928, up from 22,540 in 1910. This represented measurable progress as African-Amercans left the lower classes and moved upward.

Coolidge sent a continuous series of signals, by words and by actions, of his dedication to civil rights.

Education as a Gateway into the Middle Class: President Coolidge Opens the Door for African-Americans

The civil rights movement has long understood the importance of education. Indeed, although the era from the early 1950s to the late 1960s is often called the ‘civil rights era,’ Blacks knew that education was a major opportunity decades earlier.

President Calvin Coolidge saw a link between the ascent into the middle class and contributions to society: as African-Americans rose into white-collar college-educated professions, they also played more important roles in the country.

Encouraging Black students to become physicians would benefit not only the African-American community, but the entire nation. So Coolidge worked to inspire Black students to go to medical school, as historian Kurt Schmoke writes:

In his First Annual Address to Congress in 1923 he wrote: “About half a million dollars is recommended for medical courses at Howard University to help contribute to the education of 500 colored doctors needed each year.” This appropriation was to grow over the years, leading to the production of healthcare and other professionals who would stimulate the growth of an African-American middle class and develop leaders in all walks of life, nationally and internationally.

Coolidge also understood that professional advancement is closely associated with political liberty. When Charles Gardner, otherwise unknown to history, wrote to Coolidge to protest the fact that the Republican Party was nominating Black candidates for Congress, Coolidge defended the party’s promotion of African-American engagement in the political process, as a publication from the Coolidge Foundation makes clear:

Not only that, but Coolidge spoke out in defense of the political enfranchisement of blacks. In 1924 Army Sergeant Charles Gardner wrote to Coolidge in protest when Republicans nominated a black dentist as their candidate in New York’s 21st Congressional District, based in Harlem. Coolidge’s response encapsulated his disdain for racism: “th­e suggestion of denying any measure of their full political rights to such a great group of our population as the colored people is one which, however it might be received in some other quarters, could not possibly be permitted by one who feels a responsibility for living up to the traditions and maintaining the principles of the Republican Party.”

In September 1923, Coolidge hosted leaders of the Negro National Educational Congress at the White House. Calvin Coolidge’s civil rights strategy emphasized the connection between advancement into the educated professions and participation in the electoral process.

Howard University: How President Coolidge Empowered Historically Black Colleges and Universities

The presidency of Calvin Coolidge marked a high point for civil rights. Coolidge took several significant actions designed to help African-Americans move from the lower classes into the middle class. Several of those actions centered around higher education.

In 1924, Coolidge became the first U.S. president to give a commencement address at a Black college — an HBCU (Historically Black College or University).

His decision to speak at Howard University was not random. It was paired with two other aspects of his administration. First, his speech was linked to his successful efforts to increase the number of African-American students who would study medicine. The Coolidge administration effected an increase in the number of Black physicians in the United States: this meant an increase in the number of Blacks who moved from the lower class to the middle class by studying for a white-collar, college-educated profession, as historian Kurt Schmoke writes:

The 30th president, Republican Calvin Coolidge, was a major supporter of Howard University and an overlooked figure in advancing the cause of racial equality in the United States. In one of his earliest acts as president, Coolidge proposed and persuaded Congress to pass an appropriation bill that reinforced the unique relationship between Howard and the federal government.

Secondly, Coolidge’s landmark speech at Howard’s graduation ceremonies was linked to his 1924 election campaign. While Coolidge took a clear stand in rejecting the KKK and promoting anti-lynching laws, his opponent, the Democratic Party’s nominee for the presidential contest, was left to defend his party’s platform, which equivocated on racial questions, and failed to clearly reject the Klan.

Coolidge’s presence on Howard University’s campus, located in Washington, D.C., also symbolized a continuity between Coolidge and his predecessor, President Warren Harding. Like Coolidge, Harding had also been a civil rights advocate and a champion of anti-lynching laws, as a report from the Coolidge Foundation notes:

President Calvin Coolidge is known for many things, including his championing of limited government, his deft handling of the 1919 Boston Police Strike, and his responsible stewardship of the federal budget. But how often do we recall his pioneering gestures to improve race relations in the fraught decade of the 1920s?

The 1920s were fertile years for civil rights in the United States. Preceded by the racist and segregationist Wilson administration (1913 to 1920), and followed by FDR’s neglect of African-American concerns (1933 to 1945), the years of Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge were years in which Blacks gained both political liberty and a concrete move into the middle class.

Coolidge vs. the Klan: How an American President Opposed the KKK

During the U.S. presidential election of 1924, the Ku Klux Klan was one of several issues to gain public attention. The Klan had significant influence in the southern states, and even had a presence in some states north of the Mason-Dixon line.

The Klan dreamed of obtaining the endorsement of a presidential candidate. It was clear that Calvin Coolidge, the incumbent, would never do this. Coolidge had become president in 1923, when his predecessor Warren Harding died. Coolidge had been vice president, and so immediately became president.

Both Coolidge and Harding had been steadily anti-Klan.

The KKK, having no hope of receiving support from the Republicans, turned to the “the Democratic convention of 1924, where many delegates were fervently pro-Klan,” as historian Charles Johnson writes.

The Democratic Party was split, half wanting to embrace the Klan, and half wanting not to publicly endorse the Klan. The debate went on for days; neither side could get a solid majority to overcome the other.

The eventual Democratic nominee was John Davis, who finally denounced the Klan, but because the Democratic Party failed to denounce the Klan, many voters “bolted from the Democratic nominee,” in the words of Charles Johnson.

John Davis denounced the Klan, but because the Democratic party didn’t, it was clear that it was a personal statement by Davis, and not the party’s view. The 1924 Democratic platform committee had discussed some statement about the KKK, but in the end, the platform said nothing about the Klan, about race, or about lynching.

Coolidge and Harding, by contrast, had both endorsed anti-lynching laws to protect Black lives.

In the midst of the Klan’s efforts to make trouble, Coolidge calmly snubbed the KKK by becoming the first U.S. President to deliver a commencement address at a historically Black college. In June 1924, Coolidge spoke in Washington, D.C., at the campus of Howard University. The Klan was enraged, and Coolidge was quietly pleased that he’d managed to do something to promote both the civil rights and the economic opportunities of African-Americans.

As Klan leaders became nearly apoplectic at Coolidge’s support of the Black community, the Coolidge campaign mocked the KKK by choosing a campaign slogan: “Keep Cool with Coolidge.” Comedians quickly changed it to “Keep Kool with Koolidge.”

In any case, African-Americans voted in large numbers for Coolidge in 1924. They weren’t the only ones voting for Coolidge. Citizens who’d formerly voted for the Democratic Party were dismayed when the Democrats failed to take a clear stance against the KKK, and so many of them also voted for Coolidge.

In the end, Calvin Coolidge won the election by an unprecedented landslide. He was enormously popular during the 1920s.