NAACP

Excerpt from a Salt Lake Tribune article from June 8 2020, ‘Despite joining President Nelson in call to end racism, NAACP would like to see the LDS Church do more.’: 1 In yet another symbolic gesture of racial unity, LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson joined with top NAACP leaders Monday in calling for an … Read more

Intermarriage

Address by J. Reuben Clark, reprinted in the August, 1946 LDS Improvement Era, ‘Plain Talk to Girls’: 1 Address given to the Executives of the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association, in June Conference, Saturday afternoon, June 8, 1946, in Barratt Hall When I was in Mexico in the Embassy, there were with me Sister Clark … Read more

Modesty

Address by J. Reuben Clark, reprinted in the August, 1946 LDS Improvement Era, ‘Plain Talk to Girls’: 1 Address given to the Executives of the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association, in June Conference, Saturday afternoon, June 8, 1946, in Barratt Hall When I was in Mexico in the Embassy, there were with me Sister Clark … Read more

Segregation

Excerpts from a 1954 Address by Apostle Mark E. Petersen, ‘Race Problems As They Affect The Church’: 1 “It is a good thing to understand exactly what the Negro has in mind on this subject, I’ll be talking about other races besides Negroes, of course, but it is the Negro question which pinpoints it, so … Read more

One Drop

Excerpts from a 1954 Address by Apostle Mark E. Petersen, ‘Race Problems As They Affect The Church’: 1 “It is a good thing to understand exactly what the Negro has in mind on this subject, I’ll be talking about other races besides Negroes, of course, but it is the Negro question which pinpoints it, so … Read more

Lord’s Segregation

Excerpts from a 1954 Address by Apostle Mark E. Petersen, ‘Race Problems As They Affect The Church’: 1 “It is a good thing to understand exactly what the Negro has in mind on this subject, I’ll be talking about other races besides Negroes, of course, but it is the Negro question which pinpoints it, so … Read more

Become White

Excerpts from a 1954 Address by Apostle Mark E. Petersen, ‘Race Problems As They Affect The Church’: 1 “It is a good thing to understand exactly what the Negro has in mind on this subject, I’ll be talking about other races besides Negroes, of course, but it is the Negro question which pinpoints it, so … Read more

Go as a Servant

Excerpts from a 1954 Address by Apostle Mark E. Petersen, ‘Race Problems As They Affect The Church’: 1 “It is a good thing to understand exactly what the Negro has in mind on this subject, I’ll be talking about other races besides Negroes, of course, but it is the Negro question which pinpoints it, so … Read more

For the Love of God

Excerpt from an October 1967 General Conference address by Ezra Taft Benson, ‘Trust Not in the Arm of Flesh’: 1 “The world largely ignores the first and great commandment—to love God—but talks a lot about loving their brother. They worship at the altar of man. Would Nephi have slain Laban if he had put the … Read more

Social Benefits

Letter from LDS Apostle Delbert Stapley to then Michigan Governor George Romney regarding Romney’s position about civil rights and attitudes toward black people, January 23, 1964: 1 It was a real pleasure to greet and have a moment to visit with you and Lenore here this past week. It is wonderful to see how enthusiastically … Read more

Tragic End

Letter from LDS Apostle Delbert Stapley to then Michigan Governor George Romney regarding Romney’s position about civil rights and attitudes toward black people, January 23, 1964: 1 It was a real pleasure to greet and have a moment to visit with you and Lenore here this past week. It is wonderful to see how enthusiastically … Read more

So-Called Civil Rights

From Elder Ezra Taft Benson Of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, 1967:[footnote]Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, October 1967, pp. 34-39[/footnote] False solicitude for the unfortunate “Such timely counsel could help save our country from Communism, as the same masters of deceit are showing the same false solicitude for the unfortunate in the name of … Read more

Repugnant

LDS First Presidency (George Albert Smith), letter to Virgil H. Sponberg (critic of the anti-black ban), May 5, 1947:[footnote]Mormonism’s Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview  – Lester Bush[/footnote] “From the days of the Prophet Joseph even until now, it has been the doctrine of the Church, never questioned by any of the Church leaders, that the … Read more

Pure Blood

Image: Rosa Parks, Civil Rights Activist Excerpt from Historian D. Michael Quinn’s article on ‘Utah Mormon discrimination against the Blacks’: ‘In 1953, a First Presidency secretary also informed a white Mormon about the less-obvious extent of Utah’s racial segregation: “The L.D.S. Hospital here in Salt Lake City has a blood bank which does not contain … Read more

Utah Segregation

Excerpt from Historian D. Michael Quinn’s article on ‘Utah Mormon discrimination against the Blacks’:[footnote]Prelude to the National “Defense of Marriage” Campaign: Civil Discrimination Against Feared or Despised Minorities – D. Michael Quinn [/footnote] “Even after federal emancipation of America’s slaves in the 1860s, LDS church president Brigham Young referred to African-American slavery as a religious necessity. Earlier, as … Read more

Civil Rights

Image: Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights Activist From an address by Ezra Taft Benson in the April 1965 General Conference:[footnote]Not commanded in all things – Ezra Taft Benson, April 1965 [/footnote] What are we doing to fight it? Before I left for Europe I warned how the communists were using the civil rights movement to promote … Read more

Confirmed Racist

Image: Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights Activist Excerpts from an address by Apostle Mark E. Peterson given at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level Brigham Young University Provo, Utah – August 27, 1954[footnote]Race Problems—As They Affect The Church – Mark E. Petersen, 1954 [/footnote] “God has commanded Israel not to intermarry. To go against … Read more