Johnson, the national secretary, had been urging a break for months, after Coolidge’s ongoing snub of his request that the president condemn the Klan. Jim Crow was a bipartisan crime. Both political parties were guilty of a “gentleman’s agreement,” Johnson said, that denied the vote to 4.5 million Black citizens in the South. He noted that the 18th Amendment, outlawing alcohol, was fully enforced with regular raids, while the 15th Amendment, upholding the right to vote regardless of race, was given no protection. “The federal government will use a navy to prevent a man from taking a drink, but
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