{{short description|American politician}} {{Other uses|Samuel Caldwell (disambiguation)}} {{Infobox officeholder | image=Sam_Caldwell.jpg | name=Samuel Shepherd Caldwell | office=Mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana | party=Democratic Party | term_start=1934 | term_end=1946 | preceded=George W. Hardy, Jr. | succeeded= Clyde Fant | birth_date={{birth date|1892|11|4}} | birth_place=Mooringsport, Louisiana, US | death_date={{death date and age|1953|8|14|1892|11|4}} | death_place=Shreveport, Louisiana | occupation=Oilman | spouse= Anna Pauline Owen Caldwell (married 1914-1953, his death) | children=Betty Ann Caldwell Morgan Burke | alma_mater=Louisiana Tech University | footnotes= }} '''Samuel Shepherd Caldwell''' (November 4, 1892 &ndash; August 14, 1953), was a Louisiana oilman and politician who served as mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, from 1934 to 1946.<ref name=caldwelladm>{{cite web|url= http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2015/07/26/history-former-mayors-impact-recalled/30707485/|title=Our History: Former mayor's impact recalled|work=The Shreveport Times|date=July 26, 2015|author=John Andrew Prime|accessdate=July 27, 2015}}</ref>

Caldwell was an unusually staunch segregationist even for the era in the Deep South. 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.<ref name="fairclough">{{cite book |last1=Fairclough |first1=Adam |title=Race & Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972 |date=2008 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-3114-0 |page=87 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QnQbw5EyPREC&q=67%2C000 |access-date=11 May 2022 |language=en}}</ref> (Shreveport was 37% African American in the 1940 census.)<ref>{{cite web |title=Louisiana, 1940 U.S. Census |url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1940/population-volume-2/33973538v2p3ch4.pdf |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |access-date=11 May 2022}}</ref> "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."<ref name="fairclough" />

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{succession box |before=George W. Hardy, Jr. |title=Mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana |years=1934&ndash;1946 |after=Clyde Fant}} {{succession box |before=Lee Emmett Thomas (1927)<br> No LMA from 1928 to 1936 |title=President of the Louisiana Municipal Association |years=1937&ndash;1939 |after=J. Maxim Roy}} {{s-end}}

{{Shreveport, Louisiana Mayors}}

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

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