Q. I’ve heard that the Mormon Church is a white-folks church, and that for a long time they didn’t let black folks become Mormons. Is this true?
No. There have been black Members of the Church since the days of Joseph Smith (1830's-40's). Today, (circa 2000 A.D.) There are hundreds of thousands of Members of the Church (called “Mormons” or more correctly “Latter-day Saints”) of black African descent; mostly in North America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Africa. About half (50%) of Latter-day Saints in the world today are people of color.
The LDS Church has always had black Members; now more than ever. In the 19th century they existed in the hundreds. In the 20th century, but before 1978, they existed in the thousands. And now, at the beginning of the 21st century, they exist in the hundreds of thousands. In the next 20 years, they will exist in the millions.
Mormons are believers in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, which says of Jesus Christ:
“He inviteth all to come unto him, and partake of his goodness, and he denieth none that come unto him, black or white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.” (2 Nephi 26:33)
The Book of Mormon also strongly condemns those who become prideful or arrogant because of the whiteness of their skins and condemn others for their darker skins:
“Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness; but ye shall remember that their filthiness came because of their fathers.
8 O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins, that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God.” (Jacob 3:9-8)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is founded on the visions and revelations of Joseph Smith Jr.; who claimed to have had a vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ in 1820. He had been fervently praying to God, asking Him which of the churches he should join, and in his First Vision he was told to join none of them, but that God had a mission for him to perform; the divine restoration of the original Church of Jesus Christ in the last days.
In 1824 Joseph Smith was visited by the Angel Moroni, and told of sacred records on gold plates, buried anciently in a hill near his home. Joseph Smith was instructed to retrieve the ancient record and, with the gift and power of God, to translate them into English. This became known to the world as The Book of Mormon.
In 1829 certain angels of God came to Joseph Smith and his scribe, Oliver Cowdery, and restored the keys of the Priesthood to them. One angel that came was John the Baptist the very person who, in mortality, had baptized Jesus. He bestowed upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood; the same Priesthood held by the sons of Aaron, the Levites, from the time of Moses to the time of Jesus.
Soon afterwards, the angels Peter, James, and John, the same men who were Apostles of Jesus Christ during His mortal ministry, came to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and ordained them to the Melchizedek Priesthood; the very Priesthood that Jesus Himself had ordained them to 1800 years before.
Soon after these events, Joseph Smith and five other men founded what was to become known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: the only Christian church which claimed the direct divine establishment from Jesus and His angels in the last days. It became known as ‘The Mormon Church’ because of its belief in The Book of Mormon as Scripture along with the Bible. Its members were called Saints, or Latter-day Saints; because Jesus said in the “last days” (latter-days) He would send His angels to gather the Elect (Chosen Ones) of God from the four corners of the earth. The Bible calls God’s Elect “Saints”, and thus the Elect of God in the Latter-days would be called “Latter-day Saints”. People began to call them Mormonites or Mormons; because of their belief in The Book of Mormon.
The Prophet Joseph Smith lived in the day when many Americans in the Southern States owned black African slaves, and in a day when even Abolitionists, those men (mostly white) who wanted to end slavery, believed that ‘Negroes’ were ‘naturally inferior to white men’. That was the popular and accepted ‘wisdom of men’ in that day.
Joseph Smith Jr., the Prophet, advocated that the black slaves be freed, educated, and given equal rights. Not even most of the Abolitionists of his day, those that wanted to set blacks free and colonize them in Africa, wanted to grant them equal rights.
The Mormons (Latter-day Saints) were terribly persecuted for their beliefs. They first gathered in Kirtland, Ohio, and in Independence, Missouri. In 1835 a British Gentile (non-Mormon) by the name of E.S. Abdy visited the Saints in Ohio and later wrote:
“The Mormons recognize the natural equality of mankind without excepting the native Indians or the African race.” (Journal of a Residence and Tour in the United States, 3:58)
The State of Missouri, at that time, was a slave state. Many of the Gentile (non-Mormon) white settlers owned black slaves. Revelations to the Prophet Joseph Smith had identified Jackson County, Missouri (occupied now by Kansas City and Independence, MO), as the future location of the City of Zion, also called New Jerusalem; a holy city which would be built by the Latter-day Saints during the Millennium. Many of the Saints were commanded to gather there.
Many of the white Missourians did not like the Mormons; because they considered them religious fanatics, and abolitionists. In July 1833, the Church published an editorial in its newspaper in Missouri which called “Free People of Color”; which offered advise to those black Members thinking of settling in Missouri. In this edition it also said:
“The Elders stationed in Zion to the Churches Abroad, Greetings:
Our brethren will find an extract of the law of this state, relative to free people of color, on another page of this paper. Great care should be taken on this point. The Saints must shun every appearance of evil. As to slaves we have nothing to say. In connection with the wonderful events of this age, much is doing towards abolishing slavery, and colonizing the blacks, in Africa.” (The Morning and Evening Start, July 1833, p.111)
The white slave-holding Missourians became enraged at this comment; citing it as “proof” that the Mormons were Abolitionists, and were inviting “Free People of Color” (free blacks) into the State of Missouri for the purpose of having them incite their slaves to revolt. The Missourians then started to arm themselves in order to force the Mormons from Jackson County; if not the State of Missouri itself. They even wrote a declaration which said:
“We, the undersigned, citizens of Jackson County, believing that an important crisis is at hand, as regards our civil society....
***
In a late number of the Star, published in Independence by the leaders of the sect, there is an article inviting free negroes and mulattoes from other states to become ‘Mormons’ and remove and settle among us. This exhibits them in still more odious colors. It manifests a desire on the part of their society, to inflict on our society an injury that they know would be to us entirely insupportable, and one of the surest means of driving us from the country; for it would require none of the supernatural gifts that they pretend to, to see that the introduction of such a caste amongst us would corrupt our blacks and instigate them to bloodshed....” (Documentary History of the Church 1:374)
Although the Church had no intention of inciting bloodshed and sedition, the white Missourians thought otherwise, and saw this as an excuse to drive the Mormons from them and take their lands and property. But the Latter-day Saints were not pacifists, and decided to defend themselves and their farms. A war erupted between the white Missourians and the Mormons. Finally, the Governor of the State of Missouri, a slaveholder named Lilburn W. Boggs, issued his infamous “Extermination Order”; ordering the Missouri State Militia to drive them from Missouri or to exterminate them all. The governor declared:
“The Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state, if necessary, for the public good.” (The Story of the Latter-day Saints, p.136)
Hundreds of Mormons were killed or injured, and thousands of them were driven from their homes. At Haun’s Mill, a Mormon village in Northern Missouri, a mob of white Missourians had butchered 17 men and boys; cutting the throats of some, and killing some children in the arms of their mothers; then raping the mothers. At Haun’s Mill a 10-year-old boy named Sardius Smith was found by the Missourians hiding in a blacksmith’s shop. He was taken out and shot to death on the spot. His murderer later said:
“Nats will make lice and if he had lived he would have [grown up to] become a Mormon.” (The Story of the Latter-day Saints, p.137)
In later years a Gentile (non-Mormon) periodical called Woolmer’s Exeter Gazette related the Missouri Persecutions, and this account was later (1852) republished in a Mormon periodical:
“AMERICAN LIBERTY?–America maltreats her slaves with a cruelty that is a stain upon the national character, and has of late years afforded an example of corrupt and incompetent government which is only partially known. The Mormons, or Latter-day Saints, had established themselves on the banks of the Missouri Rivers, called by them the Far West. They were sober, industrious, and prosperous, and were slave-abolitionists. Their numbers increased daily, and they were assuming the appearance of the most thriving colony. Their order and well-doing excited the jealousy of their slave owning neighbors, at the head of whom was a certain Campbell, high priest of the sect of Kissing Baptists. The man induced Lilburn Boggs, Governor of the State of Missouri, to order the extermination of the Mormons by the sword. The command was literally fulfilled. Men, woman, and children fell victims to the sanguinary violence of those ruffians. Men were shot down like wild beasts, or had their brains dashed out. Women were insulted and ravished, until they died at the hands of their destroyers. A petition of grievance was forwarded to the President Van Buren; he admitted the cruel wrong, but as the Mormons were slave abolitionists he declined to interfere lest he might injure his own political party in the State.” (Millennial Star 14:126-7)
Joseph Smith and some of the other leaders were arrested and ordered shot. But one of the commanders of the Militia, a General Doniphan, refused to obey such a command, calling it “Cold-blooded murder”. Joseph Smith was eventually rescued by a party of Mormons; including one black Mormon: Elijah Abel.
The Mormons that were driven out of Missouri gathered across the Mississippi River to a swamp in Illinois. Many died of disease, but eventually they drained the swamp and built the City of Nauvoo, Illinois; which, at one time, had 20,000 residents.
When they first arrived in Nauvoo, which was not a city but a swamp with a few houses, many of the people got malaria. Wilford Woodruff, an Apostle, wrote:
“After being confined to his house for several days, and while meditating upon his situation, he [Joseph Smith] had a great desire to attend to the duties of his office. On the morning of July 22, 1839, he arose from his bed and began administering to the sick in his own house and dooryard and commanded them, ‘in the name of Jesus Christ, to arise and be made whole;’ and the sick were healed upon every side of him. Many lay sick along the bank of the river. Joseph walked along up to the lower stone house, occupied by Sidney Rigdon, and he healed all the sick that lay in his path. Among the number was Henry G. Sherwood, who was nigh unto death. Joseph stood in the door of his tent and commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to arise and come out of his tent, and he obeyed him and was healed.
***
Brother Fordham had been dying for an hour, and we expected any minute would be his last. I felt the Spirit of God that was overpowering His Prophet. When we entered the house, Brother Joseph walked up to Brother Fordham and took him by his right hand, his left hand holding his hat. He saw that Brother Fordham’s eyes were glazed, and that he was speechless and unconscious. After taking his hand, he looked down into the dying man’s face and said, ‘Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ?’ ‘I do, brother Joseph,’ was the response. Then the Prophet of God spoke with a loud voice, as in the majesty of Jehovah: ‘Elijah, I command you, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, to rise and be made whole.’
The words of the Prophet were not like the words of man, but like the voice of God. It seemed to me that the house shook on its foundation. Elijah Fordham leaped form his bed like a man raised from the dead. A healthy color came into his face and life was manifested in every act. His feet had been done up in Indian meal poultices; these he kicked off, scattering the contents, and then called for his clothes and put them on. He asked for a bowl of bread and milk and ate it. He then put on his hat and followed us into the street, to visit others who were sick.” (The Unathorized Biography of Joseph Smith, pp.279-80)
Many of the Saints were healed, and they built Nauvoo; which is said to mean “Beautiful” in Hebrew. It became so.
*Joseph Smith: Free Blacks and Give Them Equality
It was, in the 1840s, the largest city in Illinois (Chicago only having about 5,000 residents at that time). The Prophet Joseph Smith was elected as Mayor of Nauvoo, and Lt. General of the Nauvoo Legion; the largest contingent of the Illinois State Militia, and composed almost exclusively of Mormons. The Saints were determined not to be mobbed, murdered, and driven from their homes again.
On December 20th, 1842, Joseph Smith, the founding Prophet and 1st President of the Church, was once asked what his advice would be to a man who came into the Church with 100 black slaves. Joseph Smith replied:
“I have always advised such to bring their slaves into a free country and set them free–educate them–and give them equal rights.” (Compilation on the Negro in Mormonism, p.40)
Not only free them, but educate them and give them equal rights! Joseph Smith was far ahead of his time! Most of the Abolitionists (those who wanted the blacks freed) of his day were moderate racists as well. For example, during his Presidential campaign in 1858, Abraham Lincoln was asked if he wanted to grant equal rights to black folks. Lincoln replied:
“I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bring about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other [white] man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” (Our Racist Presidents, p.119)
Owen Lovejoy, brother to the martyred Abolitionist Elijah P. Lovejoy, expressed the typical white Abolitionist view when he wrote in 1860:
“We may concede it as a matter of fact that [the Negro] is inferior; but does it follow, therefore, that it is right to enslave a man simply because he is inferior?” (The Black Image in the White Mind, p.51)
In 1863 Abolitionist leader Rev. Edward Purcell wrote:
“We desire to see no partnership between the two races. We have no desire to see them intermingled, neither working together....The natural superiority of the white race ought to be preserved.” (Cincinnati Catholic Telegraph, 15 July 1863)
The Prophet Joseph Smith, unlike most white men of his day, did not accept the notion that black people were “naturally inferior” to white people. He once said about black people:
“They came into the world slaves, mentally and physically.
Change their situation with the whites, and they would be like them. They have
souls and are subject to salvation. Go to Cincinnati or any city, and find an
educated Negro, who rides in his carriage, and you will see a man who has risen
by his own mind to his exalted state of respectability.” (D.H.C. 5:217)
The Prophet Joseph Smith was a great advocate for the black people. He called for the end to slavery:
“Break off the shackles from the poor black man, and hire
him to labor like other human beings; for ‘an hour of virtuous liberty on earth
is worth a whole eternity of bondage.’” (D.H.C. 5:209)
On December 13, 1843, Joseph Smith wrote an article for the Nauvoo Neighbor, a Mormon newspaper in Nauvoo. At that time Great Britain and a few other European nations was engaged in trying to stop the slave trade off the oceans of Africa. He wrote:
“The whole European world has been engaged in a warfare
against those who traffic in human blood. Negotiations have been made, treaties
entered into, and fleets have been sent out, through of the combined efforts of
the nations, to put a stop to this inhuman traffic.” (D.H.C. 6:113)
Also in December 1843, when he began thinking of becoming a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. He made this decision because he became unhappy with the political parties and candidates for that year. He was also hoping to champion some causes he held dear; hoping that the winning candidate would take-up some of his principles and establish them once he was elected. That year he wrote to the voting delegates of the State of Vermont, saying:
“Wherefore let the rich and the learned, the wise and the noble, the poor and the needy, the bond and the free, both black and white, take heed to their ways, and cleave to the knowledge of God; and execute justice and judgment upon the earth in righteousness; and prepare to meet the Judge of the quick and the dead, for the hour of His coming is nigh. As a friend of equal rights to all men, and a messenger of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ, I have the honor of being your devoted servant, Joseph Smith, Jr.” (Compilation on the Negro in Mormonism, p.47)
The Prophet Joseph Smith ran for President of the United States in 1844, while he was mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, and his platform included the end to slavery, and the selling of public lands to purchase black people from slavery and set them free and grant them with their own farms and property as well as granting them equal rights (which he did not interpret as including intermarriage with whites). Joseph Smith was martyred (assassinated) during this time by a mob of white men with painted-black faces in Carthage, Illinois, but a young Congressman from Illinois later took up many points of Smith’s platform. The Congressman was named Abraham Lincoln.
During his Presidential campaign Joseph Smith said:
“Wherefore, where I the President of the United States, by the voice of the virtuous people...when that people petition to abolish slavery in the slaves states, I would use all honorable means to have their prayers granted...that the whole nation might be free indeed! (Times & Seasons, 15 May 1844)
He wrote in his platform the following:
“The Declaration of Independence ‘holds these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal: that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ but at the same time some two or three millions of people are held as slaves for life, because the spirit in them is covered with a darker skin than ours....The Constitution of the United States of American meant just what it said without reference to color or condition, ad infinitum.” (Messages of The First Presidency 1:191-2)
Mormon writer Norman Rothman writes:
“None expected Joseph to be elected, least of all himself. Nevertheless, it offered a real opportunity to lay before the nation the Mormon cause. The press would eagerly publish the views of a candidate to the office of the President of the United States while rejecting those same views as the expressions of a Prophet.” (The Unauthorized Biography of Joseph Smith, p.317)
Before the American Civil-War slavery was often referred to as ‘The Peculiar Institution’.Historian Newell G. Bringhurst relates the Mormon position on the ‘Peculiar Institution’ in the 1840s:
“All during his short-lived presidential campaign, Smith continued to hammer away at the Peculiar Institution, denouncing it as a ‘national evil’ that should not be allowed to generate ‘fleshy capital’. Smith denounced Henry Clay, his Whig [Party] presidential opponent, for his role in the Missouri Compromise of 1820, a measure that Smith condemned as ‘derived for the benefit of slavery.’ He lamented that America was not an ‘asylum for the oppressed’ as long as the ‘degraded black slave’ was compelled to hold up his manacled hands and cry ‘Oh liberty, where are thy charms that sages have told me were so sweet.’
Joseph Smith’s willingness to campaign for president on a platform calling for the abolition of slavery dramatizes the strong anti-slavery feelings prevalent during the 1840s. These feelings emerged following the Mormon expulsion from Missouri and settlement in Nauvoo, Illinois.
***
Smith’s antislavery views were echoed by other church spokesmen. Among the most prominent Mormon foes of the Peculiar Institution was John C. Bennett.
***
Bennett was asked his views on slavery in a famous exchange with Charles Volney Dyer, a non-Mormon, Chicago-based anti-slavery advocate. Bennett replied, ‘I [have] ever detested servile bondage. I wish to see the shackles fall from the feet of the oppressed, and the chains of slavery broken.’ Other prominent Mormons echoed Bennett’s sentiments. Sydney Rigdon, a Counselor to Joseph Smith [in The First Presidency], declared ‘every man should be free’ with ‘the slave liberated from his bondage’. Several Mormon apostles, including Erastus Snow, denounced the ‘alarming condition’ of involuntary servitude. Apostle Parley P. Pratt in a church tract condemned those who traded ‘in horses, chariots, and SLAVES and SOULS of MEN.’ Apostle Orson Hyde wanted slavery ‘done away’.
***
John Taylor [later 3rd President of the Church], a Mormon Apostle and member of the Council of Twelve,....vigorously publicized Mormonism’s antislavery position. Taylor denounced Missouri as a slave state whose ‘coffers’ groaned ‘with the spoils of the oppressed’. Taylor, like Joseph Smith, assailed Henry Clay as a ‘slaveholder’ who if elected President [of the U.S.] would make America the ‘slavest and vainest nation on earth’.
***
Latter-day Saint dislike for the Peculiar Institution was also evident in other quarters. Almon M. Babbitt, a Mormon representative in the Illinois State Legislature, explained ‘the Mormons like many others believed that slavery is an evil.’ The English-based Latter-day Saints Millennial Star, which began publication in 1840 for the ever-increasing number of British Saints, registered its ‘abhorrence’ of the ‘slaveholder who deprives his fellow-beings of liberty.’ (Saints, Slaves, and Blacks, pp.55-57)
As far back as 1832, Joseph Smith received a Revelation from the LORD regarding the black slave question in America:
“Verily, thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls;
2. And the time will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at this place.
3. For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, event eh nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and then war shall be poured out upon all nations.
4. And it shall come to pass, after many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war.” (Doctrine & Covenants 87:1-4)
Twenty-eight years later, after Joseph Smith had beendead for 16 years, South Carolina declared independence; later to be followed by other Southern States. Months later, the first shot of the American Civil War was fired; toward Fort Sumter, in South Carolina. In the last years of the war the South called upon Great Britain and France (among others) for assistance. The European Powers (England, France, Russia, etc.) saw the U.S. as a new rival and threat to their plans for world domination, and wanted a divided and thus a weaker America. But the Union Navy had blockaded all Southern ports; not allowing the Confederacy to receive aid from the British Empire nor the other European powers it called upon for assistance. Unless the South received outside aid, it would literally run-out of the means to continue the war.
*Brigham Young Foils Confederate Plans
There was a Confederate plan to take over California (half of whose white settlers were Southerners or Southern-sympathizers), and to have Imperial Russian and some other European ships supply the South via the California port city of Oakland (which was settled by Southerners ). Such supplies and aid would then travel from Oakland through California and the Utah Territory (now Nevada and Utah) then through New Mexico Territory (now Arizona and New Mexico) and into Texas; a Confederate State. From Texas it would be distributed throughout the South; to continue the war and perhaps cause the South to be victorious over the North. This plan was a long-shot, but the South was pretty good at turning long-shots into victories. This would have permanently divided the United States, and would have meant the continuation or slavery for millions of African-Americans.
The Confederacy knew that the Utah Territory was controlled by the Mormons and their leader: Brigham Young. The Union (government of the United States) had sent troops into Utah in the 1850s in order to crush a ‘rebellion’ that in fact had never occurred (it was a false Anti-Mormon report). The U.S. Government at that time wanted to strip the Mormons of their lands and power; for the overt reasons that the Mormons (at that time) practiced polygamy and combined Church and State as one entity, but for the covert reasons that the mountains of Utah were rich with precious metals, and that greedy men in Washington wanted this wealth for themselves and their mine-baron patrons.
The Union had arrested Brigham Young on various trumped-up charges (all of which were later dropped), and threatened him and other Church leaders. The Union threatened to confiscate Church property and lands (which they later did anyway ).The South knew that without the aid of Brigham Young and the Mormons, their plan to bring aid via California would fail. They desperately needed aid. They were running out of everything; because Union ships had blocked all the Southern harbors. They made overtures to Brigham Young, making attractive promises if the Mormons would only help. Brigham Young declared: “We will stand by the Union”. The Confederacy later surrendered; not because they lost too many battles (they more often than not won), but because they literally ran out of the materials they needed to continue the war or to become victorious over the North. With the surrender of the Confederacy, millions of African-Americans were then set free.
Later, Great Britain called upon other nations for
protection, and the World Wars began. Tens of thousands of freed black slaves
served the Union during the war (“slaves shall rise up against their masters,
and be marshaled and disciplined for war”).
*Joseph Smith Arrests White Man For Whipping a Black
Man–Enrages White Missourians
As mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois (a city that refugee Mormons from Missouri founded after fleeing pro-slavery Missourian mobs), Joseph Smith once arrested a white man (a Missourian slave-holder) for whipping a black man in Nauvoo. This occurred on March 30th, 1844. This incident enraged the white slave-holders of Missouri; who, of course, thought that they had the right to discipline their black slaves and servants as they saw fit. They had already thrown the Mormons out of Missouri years before; for the crime of inviting “Free People of Color” (free blacks) into the State (the white Missourians feared the free blacks would inspire their slaves to revolt). They already had a strong dislike for Mormons and an almost insane hatred for Joseph Smith in particular.
Smith’s arrest of a white man for whipping a black man, among others, enraged the Missourians and other anti-Mormons; who then threatened to invade Nauvoo and take Joseph Smith back to Missouri to be tried (read: hanged).
Sometime after the Missouri persecutions, while the Mormons were safe in Nauvoo, Illinois, someone had made an assassination attempt against Governor Boggs; the man who issued the Extermination Order. He was shot in the head, but “miraculously” recovered. Joseph Smith was blamed for ordering the attempt; although no suspect was ever found or arrested. Mormon folklore says that the Prophet once said that nothing would grow on Boggs grave; not even a blade of grass. Boggs later settled in Napa, California, and died in 1861. Missionaries to this day who serve in Napa report visiting his grave and finding it totally barren of all plant life while the graves around it flourish with flowers and grass; to the utter bewilderment of cemetery gardeners and caretakers.
*The Destruction of The Nauvoo Expositor
There were some white men in Nauvoo, a few of them officers in the Church, who had been excommunicated by the Prophet; some for counterfeiting, and a few for adultery. Some others were Priesthood-officers who objected to some new Revelations and practices which Joseph Smith had introduced to the Church during this period. Vowing revenge, or claiming to wish to clean the Church, these men formed a cabal; swearing oaths that they would oppose the Prophet, ruin his reputation, and then take over the Church. So they started a newspaper, and declared Joseph Smith was a ‘fallen prophet’, and only they could lead the Church.
The newspaper was called The Nauvoo Expositor, and claimed that Joseph Smith was a sinful tyrant and needed to be overthrown. Rightly or wrongly, the Prophet would not settle for this. He met with the Nauvoo City Council, mostly Mormon, and they declared the publication a “public nuisance”, ordered the Nauvoo Expositor closed, and their printing-press destroyed. This was not an uncommon thing to do in the United States at that time. Libelous and pornographic publications were not considered “free speech” in those days, and under most state laws could be shut down by confiscation and destruction of the press by order of city ordinance.
The destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor gave the anti-Mormons in Missouri and Illinois the excuse they needed to invade Nauvoo. They planned to invade the city, capture and execute Joseph Smith and other Mormon leaders, and drive the Mormon men, women, and children either into the wilds of Iowa, or into the Mississippi river. Anti-Mormons in Illinois called for the extermination. Anti-Mormon editor Thomas Sharp wrote just after the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor--
“War and extermination is inevitable! Citizens Arise, One and All!!! Can you stand by, and suffer such Infernal Devils! to rob men of their property and rights, without avenging them? We have no time for comment, every man will make his own, Let it be made with [Gun] Powder and Ball [Bullets]!!!” (Warsaw Signal, 12 June 1844, p.2)
The Prophet then called-up the Nauvoo Legion to gather and arm themselves; swearing that his people would not be mobbed and driven from their homes again. He appeared in his general’s uniform, before the Legion and the people of Nauvoo, and declared with his sword raised in the air:
“I call God and angels to witness that I have unsheathed my sword with a firm and unalterable determination, that this people shall have their legal rights, and to be protected from mob violence, or my blood shall be spilt on the ground and run like water, and my body be consigned to the silent tomb. While I live, I will never tamely submit to the domination of cursed mobocracy.” (History of the Church 6:499)
The governor of the State of Illinois, Thomas B. Marsh, had Joseph Smith arrested on the charge of treason against the state of Illinois; because he had called-up the Nauvoo Legion without the express written consent of the governor of the state. Governor Marsh probably also thought that Joseph Smith’s arrest would quell the anti-Mormon mobs, and prevent the Missouri Militia from invading Nauvoo.
Joseph Smith did not have to surrender himself to the State of Illinois. There was a plan to have him go out West into Iowa Territory and beyond, and have the Saints join him later. Joseph was told that if he did not surrender to the Sheriff of Carthage, Illinois, “Nauvoo would be destroyed, and all the men, woman, and children that were in it.” (History 6:552). He assembled the Saints and Nauvoo and made one last speech to them:
“If I do not go there [to Carthage] the result will be the destruction of this city and its inhabitants: and I cannot think of my dear brothers and sisters and their children, suffering the same kind of hate, bitterness, devastation and sacrifice, the same scenes of Missouri repeated again in Navuoo; no, it is far better for your brother Joseph to die for his brothers and sisters, for I am willing to die for them. My work is finished.” (History 6:554)
*The Assassinations of Joseph and Hyrum Smith at Carthage Jail
Joseph knew he would be killed. On Monday, June 24th, 1844, he set out from Nauvoo for Carthage. While he passed by the Temple in Nauvoo he said:
“This is the loveliest place, and the best people under heaven, but little do they know the trials that await them.” (History 6:554)
He also said;
“I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer’s morning; I have a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me--‘He was murdered in cold blood!’” (History of the Church 6:555)
But only within a few days of being arrested, Joseph Smith
was murdered while he awaited trial in Carthage, Illinois; by a mob of
anti-Mormons who painted their faces black. They also killed his brother Hyrum,
and attempted to murder two other Mormon Apostles (seriously wounding one and
leaving him for dead). Notwithstanding the governors attempts to placate the
anti-Mormon mobs by giving them the Prophet’s life, the city of Nauvoo was
eventually invaded and attacked; forcing the Mormons to leave Illinois and flee
to the Rocky Mountains and founding Salt Lake City, and the Territory and later
State of Utah.
*The Martyrdom of Joseph & Hyrum Smith
Because Joseph Smith called-up the Nauvoo Legion to defend the Mormons against anti-Mormon mobs and the Missouri Militia, both of which called not only for the killing of Mormon leaders, but also the extermination of the Mormons themselves, the Governor of Illinois, Thomas Ford, had Joseph Smith arrested on changes of treason against the State of Illinois. Governor Ford was hoping that if he arrested the Prophet, it may quell the mobs and prevent an all-out war between Mormons and anti-Mormons. In fact, it did; but only for a while.
Accompanying Joseph Smith to Carthage Jail, in the village of Carthage, Illinois, which was the County Seat of the County Nauvoo was in, was his older brother Hyrum as well as apostles John Taylor and Willard Richards. Joseph had said he wanted Hyrum to succeed him as President of the Church should he be killed, but Hyrum--known by all to be a very loving man--refused to leave Joseph’s side. The two other apostles also refused to leave. A Mormon named Browning--a gunsmith--had brought Joseph a pistol he had invented, and, after placing the revolver in a drawer, Joseph swore he would protect his brother and the apostles with his own life.
On the outside of the jail was a small group of Illinois Militia known as the Carthage Grays; because of their gray uniforms. They were put there by Governor Ford with order to protect the lives of Joseph and the others.
On the morning of the 24th of June, 1844, an anti-Mormon mob, with faces painted black, approached Carthage Jail; for the purpose of assassinating Joseph Smith and anyone who got into their way. The Carthage Grays did nothing to stop them. They stormed inside the jail and up to the second floor; where Joseph’s cell was located. Several men with muskets shot through the door, and struck Hyrum Smith in the face. Hyrum exclaimed, “I am a dead man!” and fell to the floor dead. Joseph then went to the drawer, grabbed the revolver, opened the door to the apartment, and fired at the musket-bearing mob coming up the stairs. Most of the rounds misfired, but he struck two men; both who reportedly died of their wounds some months later.
After retreating down the stairs, the masked men regained courage and went back up; firing as they went. Joseph had no more bullets. He closed the door and went toward the window. Men with muskets burst open the door and again began firing. Willard Richards began to try to hit the muskets away with his cane, but several shots entered John Taylor; who fell terribly wounded. Joseph Smith said, “That’s it Brother Richards, parry them if you can!” At that point Joseph was next to the window at the back of the apartment. Willards was overpowered, and a group of masked men with muskets entered the apartment and raised their muskets toward Joseph, who exclaimed with uplifted arms, “Oh Lord my God,.” Before he could say more the men fired, which blast Joseph out of the window. He fell two stories onto the ground below. Once he fell from the window, the painted men in the cell ran downstairs.
Some believe that as he fell he was struck by bullets from several of the mob below. In any case, he landed on the ground and was immediately placed against a curb of a well. An order came out, and a number of the mob fired at him at almost point-blank range. The Prophet Joseph Smith was dead. Back in the apartment-cell, Willard Richards covered the badly wounded John Taylor with a mattress; hoping the masked men would not return and finish them both off.
Only a few minutes afterwards the painted mob dispersed in a hurry; leaving Joseph’s body untouched, and not bothering to finish off Willard Richards and the badly wounded John Taylor who were left in the cell with the body of Hyrum Smith. Many have wondered why the mob ran-off so quickly.
A Gentile (non-Mormon) named William W. Daniels claimed to have witnesses the martyrdom. He wrote that after Joseph Smith fell from the second story window a miraculous event occurred after a member of the mob attempted to cut-off Joseph Smith’s head with a bowie knife. Daniels wrote:
“The ruffian, of whom I have spoken, who set him against a well-curb, now gathered a bowie knife for the purpose of severing his head from his body. He raised the knife and was in the attitude of striking, when a light, so sudden and powerful, burst from the heavens upon the bloody scene (passing its vivid chain between Joseph and his murderers,) that they were struck with terrified awe and filled with consternation. This light, in its appearance and potency, baffles all powers of discription. The arm of the ruffian, that held the knife, fell powerless; the muskets of the four, who fired, fell to the ground, and they all stood like marble statues, not having the power to move a single limb of their bodies.” (Murder of an American Prophet, pp.175-6)
Mary Lightner, a Mormon who lived near Carthage at that time, wrote:
“A number of men came and called us to the door and said ‘The Smiths are dead, and they do say a great light appeared when they were killed.’ I said, ‘That should prove to you that Joseph was a true Prophet and a man of God.’ One answered, ‘It proves that the Lord was well pleased with what was done.’” (Biographical Sketch of Mary Lightner, p.11)
The official Church Sunday School Catechism for 1882 reads:
“Q.--What was done by the mob after he had fallen from the window?
A.--Joseph was lifted up and placed against the curb of a well.
Q.--What did Williams, the commander of the mob order?
A.--He ordered four men to shoot him.
Q.--Did they do so?
A.--Yes; they stood about eight feet from the well and all fired at once.
Q.--What was done next?
A.--A man with a bowie knife raised his hand to cut off Joseph’s head.
Q.--What prevented him committing this brutal act?
A.--A vivid flash of lightning caused his arm to fall powerless.”
(Deseret Sunday School Catchism No.1, p.51)
*Joseph Smith’s Attitude Toward Black Folks
Joseph Smith advocated the freedom, education, and equal rights of black folks; far more than even Abraham Lincoln; a man who is considered a great hero to African-Americans. Joseph Smith did not believe the popular ‘wisdom of men’ of his day; that black folks were ‘inherently inferior’ to white folks; as did Abraham Lincoln and the vast great majority white people of his day. White folks believed it because this is what they were taught, and it was something that appealed to their prides; their egos. Joseph Smith believed that all they needed was to be educated, and they would be “like” the white folks in intelligence.
Mary Frost Adams (born 1836) relates a typical incident of
Joseph Smith’s dealings with black folks:
“While he was acting as mayor of the city, a colored man named Anthony was arrested for selling liquor on Sunday, contrary to law. He pleased that the reason he had done so was that he might raise the money to purchase the freedom of a dear child held as a slave in a Southern State. He had been able to purchase the liberty of himself and his wife and now wished to bring his little child to their new home. Joseph said, ‘I am sorry, Anthony, but the law must be observed, and we will have to impose a fine.’ The next day Brother Joseph presented Anthony with a fine horse, directing him to sell it, and use the money obtained from the purchase of the child.” (Young Women’s Journal, Dec. 1906, p.538)
Had Joseph Smith been elected President of the United States, he would have directed Congress to purchase all the black slaves of the South from moneys gained from the sale of the vast federal public lands in the West. This would have prevented the Civil War; which took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, and ruined the economy of the South. However, Joseph Smith was never allowed to popularize his ideas; one month after arresting a white man for whipping a black man, he was jailed and soon assassinated.
The black slaves would not go free for decades to come, and only after much bloodshed (as Joseph’s prophecy predicted) African-Americans have yet to receive land and farms promised as compensation for being enslaved and stolen from Africa. The federal lands, that the people of the United States technically owned, and a portion of which that were promised to the blacks upon freedom, were given to the rich white railroad and cattle barons; recompense for briberies to white Union politicians.
*The Mormon Exodus To Utah
The Mormons were forced out of Nauvoo at cannon-point, and fled to the deserts of Utah; where they made the desert “blossom as a rose”, and fulfilling yet another prophecy of Joseph Smith; that the Saints would gather to the Rocky Mountains and prosper there.
The man who led the Saints to Utah was Brigham Young; who would later say to the Confederacy, “We shall stand by the Union”.
The Mormons reached the wilds of Utah from Nauvoo by traveling, by foot, over 1500 miles. They had only their animals and handcarts that they dragged behind them. Many died along the way of exhaustion and exposure to the elements; most of them young children or the old or weak. The first party of Mormons to reach the Salt Lake Valley included Green Flake and at least half a dozen other Black Mormons. Green was the black servant of a Southern Mormon. Green had converted to the Church as well. His master offered him his freedom, but Green decided to stay with the only family he knew, and the Church he loved.
After the Saints
reached Utah (then part of Mexico and called Alta California) they planted
their seeds in the harsh dry soil. When the first crops began to turn green the
entire area became invested with locusts (a species called “Mormon Crickets”).
The Saints were faced with starvation and death. They had no food. There wasn’t
enough game in the mountains to feed them. The local Ute Indians barely had
enough food for themselves. The Great
Salt Lake had no fish, and only inedible brine shrimp. The nearest whites were
a over 800 miles (1200 kilometers); with only harsh deserts and impassible
mountains in between. The crops they had planted was their only source for
food. The locusts covered their fields. For days they used brooms, shovels, and
fires to drive the locusts away. Yet more and more came. It seemed certain that
the Saints had braved 1500 miles of suffering only to die as a people in a
desert in the Rocky Mountains.
As a final hope, they all gathered and prayed together to the LORD for deliverance from the locusts. Mormon Apostle and writer Melton R. Hunter writes:
“Then the miracle happened. There was heard the shrill, half scream, eager yelping, and plaintive cry of myriads of sea gulls as they flew over the heads of the astonished people who wailed, ‘If the crickets don’t take all, the gulls will devour the remainder of the crops.’
But with a flash of new hope, one of the pioneers cried, ‘The gulls are not eating grain—they’re eating crickets! And then the multitude of people stood looking, awe-stricken, as other gulls came—thousands of them—so many that their coming was like a great cloud.” (Utah in Her Western Setting, pp.181-2)
The seagulls came in
such large groups that they seemed at first like white clouds descending from
the sky. The seagulls ate the millions of locusts, and left the crops
untouched. The Mormons were saved. A monument to the seagull can be found today
on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and the seagull is the ‘state bird’ of
Utah; which is almost 1000 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
The Mormons prospered in the wilds of Utah; as well as the surrounding states of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, and Nevada. A colony of Black Mormons was established in Salt Lake Valley, and given the name of Union. This colony flourished until the 1890s, when the U.S. Government was offering free land in Idaho to whoever would irrigate and farm it. Many Black Mormons took the offer, and moved into various farming areas of Idaho.
*Brigham Young’s Warnings To Whites
On December 13th, 1852, Brigham Young, the 2nd President of the Church, declared:
“On a righteous principle may we expect quiet in our nation’s councils–when Southern Statesmen shall learn that Africa’s sons and daughters are not goods and chattel, and will attach unto them that humanity and moral accountability to which they are entitled.” (Millennial Star 15:422)
Also in 1852, Brigham Young declared:
“The conduct of the whites towards the slaves will, in many cases, send both slave and master to Hell.” (Journal of Discourses 2:185)
On October 6th, 1863, Brigham Young declared:
“Many of the blacks are treated worse than we treat our dumb brutes [animals]; and men will be called to judgment for the way they have treated the Negro.” (J.D. 10:250)
*LDS Church Editorials on Negroes
In the year 1900, when white Americans and scientists believed that black people were “inferior” the Church produced this editorial in its official newspaper called Status of the Negro:
“Some years ago it used to be asserted that the Negroes were an ‘inferior’ race, incapable of higher civilization. But this supposition has been challenged by many facts. Children of colored parents, when given equal opportunities with those of white people, have often attained as much prominence as their competitors; they have acquired as much knowledge, shown as much aptitude and ability. The unity of origin of the human race is indicated in the progress of a people that has within a brief time risen from savagery and servitude.” (Deseret News, May 17, 1900)
Around the turn of the century an African-American educator by the name of Booker T. Washington rose to prominence in the U.S. He started a trade school for African-Americans (then called “Negroes”) in Tuskegee, Alabama, which was known as the Tuskegee Institute. Washington believed that African-Americans shouldn’t rely on the white man to bring them up from poverty. He believed that blacks should educate themselves, learn trades, buy land, and reach economic prosperity as a way of achieving the American dream. He reasoned that integration was a ‘way’ to get political power and education for a few, but that the ‘end’ was always the American dream, and that African-Americans could ‘by-pass’ integration by going straight for the American dream by the means of economic independence and self-sufficiency. He believed that the cure to segregation was not integration, but separation; with African-Americans taking command of their own education, their own communities, and their own economic independence of white America. In 1901 a Church editorial said of him:
“No man in all the country is doing so much for the advancement of the colored race as Booker T. Washington. He is not only an honor to it but he is also an honor to his country.” (Deseret News, Feb. 20, 1901)
*Booker T. Washington’s Views of the Mormons
Booker T. Washington read this editorial, and decided to visit the Mormons in Utah. At that time, the some Members of the Church were commanded to practice plural marriage (polygamy), and because of this the ‘Mormons’ were portrayed in the American press as ‘evil’, ‘vile’, ‘sickly’, with unhealthy bodies and habits and viciously immoral. Washington decided he would go and see for himself if these reports were true or not.
In 1913 Washington finally made his trip, and reported of it in a letter to the New York Age; a leading black newspaper of the day:
To the Editor of the New York Age:
Salt Lake City, Utah, ca. Mar. 28, 1913.
For a long while I have been anxious to get right into the midst of the Mormons to see what kind of people they are, what they look like, what they are doing, and in what respect they are succeeding. I have been spending two of the busiest days that I have ever spent in my life in the very midst of these people. They have been mighty interesting days, and I have seen some mighty interesting people.. The leaders of the Mormon Church from President Smith [Joseph F. Smith, nephew of Joseph Smith and 6th President of the Church] down have done out of their way to show me kindness and to make my trip here successful.
***
In speaking of the Mormons, my readers must remember that it was only sixty-six years ago that, led by Brigham Young, 150 people came into this country when it was a wilderness. They traveled on ox carts over a thousands miles from the Missouri River. The Mormon Church itself was organized in New York State only eighty-four years ago, the number has grown year by year until in Utah there are now over three hundred thousand Mormons, and they have certainly made the desert blossom as a rose. I have never been among a more intelligent, healthy, clean, progressive, moral set of people than these people are. All through Utah they have turned the desert into gardens and orchards.
***
There are two parallels between the Negro and the Mormons. First, as may readers already know, the Mormons were most inhumanly persecuted almost from the first organization of their church. This was especially true in Missouri and Illinois. Hundreds of their followers were put to death. The courts gave them little protection. The mob that either killed or wounded the Mormons was seldom, if ever, punished. They were an easy mark for any inhuman brute who wanted to either kill or wound them. Joseph Smith himself, the founder of the Church, was murdered in Illinois. But out of this inhuman and unjust treatment grew the strength of these people.
***
The second parallel between the Mormons and the Negro is this. These people, I am sure, have been misrepresented before the world. I have learned by experience and observation that it is never safe to pass final judgment upon a people until one has had an opportunity to get into the real life of these people. The Negro is suffering today just as the Mormons are suffering and have suffered, because people from the outside have advertised the worst in connection with Mormon life and they have seldom called attention to the best in connection with the life of the Mormons.
And then I have learned, too, that no person outside a race or outside a group of people can ever really know that race or that group of people until he gets into their homes and has a chance to observe their men and women and children, has a chance to partake of their hospitality and get into their inner life.
There are many people today who consider themselves wise on the condition of the Negro, who are really afraid to go into a Negro home, who never go into a Negro church or Sunday School, who have never met the colored people in any social circle; hence such people know little about the moral standards and activities of the colored people.
The same, I am convinced, is true regarding the Mormons. The people who speak in the most disrespectful terms of these people are the ones who know the least about them.
I am convinced that the Mormons are not an immoral people. No immortal people could have such strong, fine bodies as these people, nor such vigorous and alert minds as they. It has been my privilege to address schools and universities in nearly every part of America, and I say without hesitation that I have never addressed a college anywhere where the students were more alert, more responsive, more intelligent than is true of the students in these Mormon colleges. I was hardly prepared for the overgenerous and rapturous reception that was given me at the State University, the students of which for the most part are Mormons, and I had the same experience in addressing the private schools and other institutions conducted by Mormons.
***
There are about a thousand colored people in Salt Lake City, and they are above the average in intelligence and in other respects.
***
I think it will interest the readers to know that there are colored Mormons in Utah. I met several of these. Many of them came here in the old days, in fact Brigham Young brought colored people with him to this country, and they or their descendants have remained.
***
I met one colored man who came out here in the early days who is now 82 years of age. He is a staunch Mormon, and neither the Baptist church nor the Methodist church can get hold of him. He came here from Mississippi. He is a fine looking old fellow, a kind of colored Brigham Young. He has a farm worth $25,000 [about 1 million in today’s money], and lives in the midst of a Mormon colored colony of which he is the leader. I am told that the Mormon church treats colored people well. I will, in my next letter, discuss the Mormons further, and call attention to their creed, and so forth.” (New York Age, April 17, 1913, pp.1-2)
Washington was referring to Samuel D. Chambers; a black Mormon, and one of the wealthiest men in Salt Lake Valley. Chambers was born in 1831, in Mississippi. He became a Mormon in 1844, and settled in Utah in 1870. He died in 1929; at the age of 98.
He also noted two similarities between “Negroes” and “Mormons”. Both were lied about in the Press, and both had been on the receiving end of injustice, mob violence, and discrimination; inspired by the lies and gross exaggerations of anti-Negro and anti-Mormon literature.
Booker T. Washington was later condemned by some African-Americans, like W.E.B. DuBois, because he worked for economic independence instead of integration. However, Black Power and Black Nationalist leaders such as Marcus Mosiah Garvey and Malcolm X. Shabazz would praise Booker T. Washington for his efforts to inspire black folks to create their own destiny without the guidance and oversight or approval of white America.
*Church Editorials on Negroes (Continued)
Also in 1901 the Church commented on the suggestion of a Methodist minister, that a City of Refuge be created for blacks to emigrate to; to escape the discrimination they were facing in the South and in other parts of the country. This City would be occupied and governed by blacks themselves. The Church editorial said:
“No doubt, such emigration would be a good thing. The colored people here would be hopeful, where the gates of a city of refuge opened to them against the oppression they suffer in some parts of the country.” (Deseret Evening News, April 19, 1901)
In 1903 Church editorials were written on how black folks in the South and North were hated by some whites and mistreated by them. The Church editorial commented:
“We have no hatred toward the Colored people, and would do nothing to make their lot any harder to bear. They are the children of God, and we strive to love all His children.” (Compilation on the Negro in Mormonism, p.202)
In 1903 a Church editorial asked:
“The problem before this country is: Shall the Negroes be allowed to enjoy and exercise the rights guaranteed them by the 14th and 15th Amendments [to the Constitution of the United States–the civil-rights of blacks to be free and to vote]? Today they are not in the enjoyment of them except in the northern states, where they are so few in number as not to arouse any latent race prejudice. But in the south they are disfranchised [unable to vote or hold public office– powerless]. There the white man says that the white man shall control the government in all its branches.” (Deseret Evening News, May 8, 1903)
This editorial asked when blacks would be given their civil-rights in the South; guaranteed by the 14th and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. In the South and in other parts of the United States white men said that Negroes had been given their rights, but in fact in most cases they had been given civil rights in name only; not in reality.
Also in 1903, a Baptist minister by the name of Rev. Dr. S.D. McConnell advocated that blacks who were idle be ‘forced to work’ for their own good. The Church editorial commented on this and said:
“Rev. Dr. S. D. McConnell, writing from Easton, Maryland, to a Brooklyn newspaper, suggests that Negroes be compelled to work, if they have nothing to do for themselves. He argues that they are but children in many things, and need looking after.***He thinks it would be just as right to compel a Negro in the field, or the shop, as it is to compel a child to go to school....Are we drifting back to slavery times again? It is certain that the Negroes are denied the right of citizenship in many places. They are ostracized, socially. They are denied the right of trial by the courts. And now we hear voices for the reestablishment of involuntary servitude. Are we going back to ante-bellum conditions? No such law should be enacted, unless it could be made to cover all cases of idleness, both white and black.” (Deseret Evening News, Aug. 7, 1903)
By 1908 black voters had been disenfranchised in the South part of the United States. Although no longer slaves, they were in fact second-class citizens; denied to vote in most cases, and prevented from holding public offices. They were discriminated against in many other ways as well. The Deseret News contained many editorials condemning this apartheid practices by Southern States; calling them ‘iniquitous’ (evil).. One Gentile (non-Mormon) from Texas had read these editorials, and bitterly complained. The Deseret News replied:
“An unknown friend in Texas criticized the ‘news’ for designating certain efforts at disfranchising the Negroes in the South as ‘iniquitous’. We regard any measures the purpose of which is to circumvent the Constitution as iniquitous, and can make no exception in the case referred to. We ask only for a fair and square deal for all, and that the rights and prerogatives guaranteed by the Constitution be respected.” (Deseret News, 14 March 1908)
The Church published an editorial later that year which said:
“It was a mistake to hunt human beings in one part of the world and make them slaves in another. But a wrong cannot be righted by committing another. And disfranchisement of a class, on the ground that it is not entitled to human rights because of the color of the skin, cannot be justified by any arguments from the Scriptures.” (Deseret Evening News, March 14, 1908)
*LDS Leaders on Negroes and Racism
Here are some more statements from LDS Presidents and Apostles over the years:
Willard Richards (Apostle) 1838:
“A black skin may cover as white a heart as any other skin, and the black hand may be as neat and clean as the white one.” (The Negro Pioneer, p.4)
Parley P. Pratt (Apostle), 1855:
“I love a man without regard to his country, or where he was brought up, without reference to color or nation. I love a man that loves truth.” (J.D. 3:182)
David O. McKay (Apostle, and 9th President of the Church) 1935:
“What a different world this would be if men would accumulate wealth, for example, not as an end but as a means of blessing human beings and improving human relations. A Christian conception of the right and value of a human soul, even though his skin be dark, would have prevented the slaughter that at this moment is being perpetuated in Ethiopia. [in 1935 the Fascist Italian forces of Mussolini were slaughtering thousands of Ethiopians] (Conference Reports, Oct. 1935, p.101)
David O. McKay, 1944:
“America has the great opportunity to lead the world from political intrigue and cheap demagoguery, from national selfishness, from unrighteous usurpation of power, and from unholy aggrandizement. She must prove tot he people of Europe and of all the world that she has no selfish ends to serve, no desire for conquest, no arrogance or national or race superiority. When these ideals are established, America can blaze the trail and lead the world to peace.” (Teachings of David O. McKay, pp.281-82)
John A. Widtsoe (Apostle), 1946:
“The ‘master race’ claims are sheer poppycock, used by characterless men to further their own interests. There has never been a monopoly of mastery in human achievement by any one nation. To claim so is simply to allow the lawless nationalism to run wild.
***
The ‘master race’ doctrine of the late was an ugly delusion, conceived by the powers of evil, whose prince is Satan, the devil.” (Evidences and Reconciliations, pp.373-4)
David O. McKay, 1951:
“George Washington Carver [famous African-American scientist] was one of the noblest souls that ever came to earth. He held in close kinship with his Heavenly Father, and rendered a service to his fellow man such as few have ever excelled. For every righteous endeavor, for every noble impulse, for every good deed performed in his useful life George Washington Carver will be rewarded, and so will every other man be he red, white, black, or yellow, for God is no respecter of persons.” (Home Memories of David O. McKay, p.231)
Joseph Fielding Smith (Apostle, and 10th President of the Church), 1963:
“The Mormon Church does not believe, nor does it teach, that the Negro is an inferior being. Mentally, and physically, the Negro is capable of great achievement, as great and in some cases greater than the potentiality of the white race.” (Look magazine, Oct. 22, 1963, p.79)
Bruce R. McConkie (Apostle) 1966:
“Certainly the Negroes as children of God are entitled to equality before the law and to be treated with all the dignity and respect of any member of the human race. Many of them certainly live according to higher standards of decency and right in this life than do some of their brothers of other races; a situation that will cause judgment to be laid ‘to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.’ (Isa. 28:17) in the day of judgment.” (Mormon Doctrine, 1966 ed., p.528)
Joint Statement of The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1986):
“We repudiate efforts to deny any person his or her inalienable dignity and rights on the abhorrent and tragic theory of the superiority of one race over another.” (LDS Church Global Media Guide)