Sam Caldwell

{{Infobox officeholder

| image=Sam_Caldwell.jpg

| name=Samuel Shepherd Caldwell

| nationality=American

| 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

| residence=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 – August 14, 1953), was a Louisiana oilman and politician who served as mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana, from 1934 to 1946.{{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}}

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.{{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}} (Shreveport was 37% African American in the 1940 census.){{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}} "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."