February is when we Americans pause to note Black History Month, Valentine’s Day, and Presidents’ Day. Allow me a little literary license to connect all three: Black Americans ought to love Calvin Coolidge. For multiple reasons, Americans of every ethnicity should get better acquainted with our 30th president. Coolidge was the last chief executive to balance the budget in every year of his presidency. His administration also cut tax rates dramatically and reduced the national debt substantially. After five and a half years in the White House, he left the federal government smaller than he had found it. He earned the nickname “Silent Cal” because he was a quiet, good listener in social settings. Surprisingly, he also held more press conferences than any other president, with an average of nearly two conferences per week.In 1924, a man named Charles Gardner wrote to Coolidge to protest the Republican Party’s nomination of a black dentist for a New York congressional seat. Coolidge’s unequivocal reply could have been written by Frederick Douglass or Martin Luther King Jr.
