The parade dates back to 1926 and was created as a spoof of a nearby Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in Boston that had as a member the consistently mute President Calvin Coolidge. Whether this mockery intended to include Coolidge’s views on ethnicity is unclear. He was amazingly progressive in some regards and supported laws against lynching, fought the influence of the Ku Klux Klan in national politics, appointed African Americans to prominent federal offices, and signed the important Indian Citizenship Act. Though the Swamp Yankee irreverence has been known to be reactionary in some instances, last year included a float featuring Bernie Sanders, showing that progressives can have an impact and perhaps change hearts and minds when they like.
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