--Ezra Taft Benson’s Open Association With, and Sympathy For, Avowed Segregationists and Racists

Ezra Taft Benson’s life followed a regular pattern of rubbing elbows with racists.

He comfortably associated, for instance, with a notorious segregationist and anti-Communist named Billy James Hargis. In 1967, on the campus of an anti-Communist training school run by Hargis, my grandfather delivered a talk entitled, “Trade and Treason,” which Hargis later reprinted in his campus magazine, Christian Crusade.

According to a letter from First Presidency counselor Hugh B. Brown to a Church member, the First Presidency received “numerous” complaints about my grandfather’s link with Hargis. Brown offered his reassurances that my grandfathers “activities in this connection will be curtail[ed].”

(Quinn, “Extensions of Power,” pp. 97, 462)

Hargis was eventually humiliated in 1974 when two of his Summit Bible College students (a male and a female) came forward to claim he had sexually deflowered them. Hargis admitted to sexual predation and resigned his pastorship, blaming it on “genes and chromosomes.”

(Kevin Lambert, “Scandals in Eden: Selected Tales of Religious Misbehavior, Part 1: Billy James Hargis,” http://www.postfun.com/pfp/features/97/oct/hargis.html])

Ezra Taft Benson’s remarks delivered at Hargis’ bigotry-breeding Bible bastion were reprinted--with my grandfather’s permission--in the racially poisonous book (noted at the beginning of this examnation) entitled, “The Black Hammer: A Study of Black Power, Red Influence and White Alternatives.”

Additionally, his address was entered into the Congressional Record by the notorious segregationist senator from South Carolina, Strom Thurmond (more on the connection between Ezra and Strom later).

The cover of the “Black Hammer” book (as obvious in the link provided earlier to its actual cover) showed the thick-lipped, lowed-browed, decapitated, bleeding head of a Black man superimposed upon the symbol of the Communist hammer and sickle.

(Ezra Taft Benson, “Trade and Treason,” reprinted in condensed form as foreword in “The Black Hammer: A Study of Black Power, Red Influence and White Alternatives,” by Wes Andres and Clyde Dalton [Oakland, California: Desco Press, 1967], pp. 13-23; and Quinn, “Extensions of Power,” pp. 98-99)
_____


--The Presidential Draft Ticket of Ezra Taft Benson and Strom Thurmond

In 1966, an organization spearheaded primarily by John Birchers and known as the “1976 Committee,” nominated my grandfather as its choice for President of the United States, with avowed racist and South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond as his running mate.

At the time of the announcement, I remember the excitement among the Benson clan at the prospect that the grand patriarch of our family might become the president of the country. I recall buttons and bumper stickers being passed around and my grandfather smiling proudly amid all the buzz.

Thurmond was the prominent White supremacist who had himself run for president in 1948 on the platform of the States’ Rights Party, commonly known as the “Dixiecrats.” The primary goal of Thurmond’s earlier presidential bid was to preserve racial segregation. As he declared at the time, “All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negroes into our homes, our schools, our churches.”

(Jeff Jacoby, “The Death of American Racism,” http://www.bigeye.com/jj071303.htm)


Thurmond later became a strident opponent of civil rights, famously filibustering a 1957 civil rights bill for a record 24 hours and 18 minutes.

(Robert Tanner, “Dixiecrats fueled by racial politics, Civil rights spurred Thurmond’s 1948 bid for presidency,” in “Arizona Republic,” 14 December 2002, sec. A., p. 9)


In an effort to understand the nature of the group that had hand-picked its Benson-Thurmond ticket, I retrieved from my father’s personal office files a news article announcing the formation of this “1976 Committee.” Across the top of the article was handwritten the note, “for your memory book.”

According to the article, the “1976 Committee” had derived its name from the belief of its members that it was “necessary to head off some sort of conspiratorial one-world, socialist take-over of the United States by 1976.”

This fear was rooted in its claim that “the U.S. Communist party’s recently professed plan [is] to promote the establishment of state socialism in this country in its next ten-year plan—by 1976.”

(Neil Munro, “Benson-Thurmond Team Pushed by Holland Group, ‘1976 Committee’ Limited,’” undated)


The Committee's motto was “Stand Up for Freedom . . . No Matter What the Cost.” Its stated goal was to launch “a ten-year course to restore the American Republic.”

In its campaign literature (copies of which littered my home during that time) my grandfather and Thurmond were billed as “the best team of ‘68” and “the team you can trust to guide America.”

Invoking the powers of heaven, the “1976 Committee” described Ezra Taft Benson not only as “unquestionably . . . a scholar and patriot [but] . . . primarily a man of God.” He was heralded as “one of the Twelve Apostles of the worldwide Mormon Church,” “a kind and compassionate man,” one who “does not impose his standards on others” and “an outspoken and thoughtful critic of liberalism, socialism, and Communism.”

The “1976 Committee” touted Thurmond was as a popular and renowned public servant, a decorated WWII combat veteran who was dedicated to “military preparedness” and a person determined to formulate “an effective policy to eradicate Communism from the Western Hemisphere.”

Among the priorities of the “1976 Committee” were:

--opposition to “international Communist activities,”

--support for pulling the U.S. out of the United Nations,

--warnings about Communist control of the civil rights movement,

--accusations that the U.S. Supreme Court of “waging war” against America,

--advocacy for U.S. retention of the Panama Canal,

--complaints of liberal bias in the media,

--inveighings against Communist “infiltration” of the nation’s churches,

--calls for a return to economic the gold standard; and

--resistance to nuclear disarmament treaties with the Russians.

Not coincidentally, much of the “1978 "Committee’s” recommended literature was published by the John Birch Society.

(“The Team You Can Trust to Guide America,” campaign brochure published by "The 1976 Committee," 222 River Avenue, Holland Michigan 49423, undated; and “The 1976 Committee,” campaign brochure, undated)


Not everyone in the leadership of the Mormon Church was thrilled as either the Benson family or Birchers at the prospects of Ezra Taft Benson running for President of the United States--especially amid claims that my grandfather had won the support of then-LDS president, David O. McKay.

According to First Presidency counselor Hugh B. Brown, Ezra Taft Benson had “a letter from President McKay endorsing his candidacy” and feared “it would rip the Church apart” if my grandfather released it publicly as part of a presidential bid.

(Hugh B. Brown, interview with BYU professors Ray Hillam and Richard Wirthlin, 9 August 1966, transcribed “from Rough Draft Notes, fd 6, Hillam papers, and box 34, Buerger papers, and quoted in Quinn, “Extensions of Power,” pp. 96-97, 461)


My grandfather’s official biographer, Sheri Dew, offered a benign and misleading account of the controversy, claiming that McKay merely advised Ezra Taft Benson to neither encourage or discourage efforts by the “1976 Committee” to draft him.

I remember, however, the bumperstickers that Benson-Thurmond supporters had prodeuced and circulated. Members of the Benson family obtained some of them and passed them out among themselves.

Grassroots momentum for the Benson-Thurmond ticket began building in early 1967, but eventually died out when it became apparent that Richard Nixon was the Republican front-runner.

(Dew, “Ezra Taft Benson: A Biography,” pp. 383, 392, 394; see also, Francis M. Gibbons, “Ezra Taft Benson: Statesman, Patriot, Prophet of God” [Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1996], pp. 244, 247-48)
_____


--The Ezra Taft Benson/George Wallace Bid for the White House

In 1968, my grandfather gave me a copy of the platform of George Wallace’s American Independent Party. I remember that it was adorned with a broad-winged eagle across the top and printed in red, white and blue.

He told me that the principles of Wallace’s party were “closer to those of the Founding Fathers than either the Republicans’ or the Democrats.’

At the time, we lived in Dallas, Texas, where my father was a local organizer for the “Wallace for President” committee. There, he had planted a “Wallace for President” campaign sign in our front lawn. Our African-American maid, Lilly, had to walk past it every week when she came to clean our house.

Told by my insistent parents and grandfather that Wallace was the solution to our nation’s problems, I volunteered as a young high schooler to participate in a mock debate held in my government class during the run-up to the national election.

Two of my classmates represented the major candidates, Republican Richard Nixon and Democrat Hubert Humphrey, respectively. I was chosen to stand in for George Wallace, with the assignment of defending “states’ rights” and public school segregation.

During the event, my government teacher (who was a Humphrey supporter) stood at the back of the classroom holding up a poster board sign she had made which read in large letters, “If you liked Hitler, you’ll love Wallace.”

When I told my parents about this afterwards, they demanded a meeting with my teacher to complain. She assured them she had only waved the sign around in order to generate interest among the class in the debate.

As it turned out, George Wallace himself had made serious attempts to generate Ezra Taft Benson’s interest in joining his third-party presidential ticket as Wallace’s running mate.

This was the same George Wallace who, when running for Alabama’s gubernatorial seat in 1962, defiantly declared, "I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say, segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

The same Wallace who, in defiance of a federal court order, infamously stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama, flanked by armed state troopers, in an unsuccessful attempt to block two African-American students from registering for class.

The same Wallace who, faced with another federal court order to integrate his state’s schools, commanded police to prevent their opening but was thwarted when President Kennedy again nationalized the Guard to enforce the decree.

The same Wallace who was governor when state troopers unleashed dogs, tear gas and whips on African-Americans marching from Selma to Montgomery.

(Richard Pearson, “Former Ala. Gov. George C. Wallace Dies,” in “Washington Post,” 14 September 1998, sec. A, p. 1)


The same Wallace whose presidential platform my grandfather described as being closest to the hearts and minds of our Elohim-inspired Founding Fathers.

Actually, George Wallace and the 1968 platform of his party was more accurately described as follows:

“The American Independent Party was a ‘white supremacist . . . ultra-conservative’ . . . organization founded in reaction to the 1960's civil rights movement and the Supreme Court's overturning of ‘separate, but equal’ (Plessy v. Ferguson) statute that forced integration.

(see Daniel A. Mazmanian, “Third Parties in Presidential Elections” [New York: Franklin Watts, 1974], p. 130)


Candidate Wallace was described as “a pronounced
racist who . . . ran his campaign on a platform of state's rights and increased defense spending and gained a large following of voters in Southern states.

“The political purpose of Wallace's campaign was to force one or both of the major party candidates, Nixon and Humphrey, to a more conservative position on the issue of state's rights. Wallace wanted the federal government to give the states the power to decide whether of not to desegregate.”

(“The Effect of Third Party Candidates in Presidential Elections,” http://www.123student.com/politics/3417.shtml)


Wallace strongly requested that my grandfather join him in that fight—and, in response, my grandfather gave serious consideration to the offer.

After support of efforts by the “1976 Committee” to draft him and Strom Thurmond on a presidential ticket had fizzled, my grandfather began jockeying into position to be offered the spot as Wallace’s vice-presidential mate.

In February 1968, he and my Uncle Reed (Ezra Taft’s oldest son), met behind closed doors at Wallace’s governor’s mansion in Montgomery to examine the possibilities.

After the meeting, Wallace sent a letter to President McKay requesting his “permission and blessings,” coupled with “a leave of absence” for Ezra Taft Benson, so that my grandfather could join Wallace in their bid for the Oval Office.

McKay refused.

Later that year, Wallace approached my grandfather again hoping to convince him to join him on the ticket. Wallace was steered a second time to McKay in his efforts to get my grandfather’s boss to change his mind.

McKay held firm.

(George C. Wallace, letter to David O. McKay, 12 February 1968, and McKay to Wallace, 14 February 1968, cited in Quinn, “Extensions of Power,” pp. 99, 102, 463; and Dew, “Ezra Taft Benson,” pp. 398-99)
_____


--My Personal Conversations with Ezra Taft Benson on Matters of Race

In all my conversations over the years with my grandfather, I do not recall him holding up to me any Black person as a role model or example of high moral character.

Indeed, our discussions very rarely dealt with Blacks, except in the negative or passing sense.

As noted earlier, my grandfather never spoke to me about the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., except in disparaging terms, calling him a “liar.”

That only remotely positive reference I recall him making to me about African-Americans had to do with his experience while serving as Secretary of Agriculture in the 1950s.

He had been assigned a Black chauffer, whom my grandfather simply described to me as a nice “colored man.”

Following President Spencer W. Kimball’s announcement in June 1978 that worthy Black males could receive the priesthood, I asked my grandfather in his Church-owned apartment what it was like to have been in the temple with the rest of the Quorum of the Twelve when Kimball made known to them his “revelation.”

Had he been so inclined, my grandfather certainly could have told me what had happened, since he had often spoken directly and forthrightly to me in the past.

But in this case, he refused to offer a substantive response, saying only that it was “too sacred” to talk about and that it constituted one of the “most spiritual” experiences of his life.

Curiously, however, another member of the Quorum of the Twelve who was in the same room and the same temple meeting with my grandfather when Kimball announced the change in Mormonism’s anti-Black priesthood policy did not have any difficulty talking about the experience.

Indeed, Apostle Bruce R. McConkie spoke freely about what actually happened--in detail and in public. While he said he felt the impact of the occasion on a profoundly personal level, he admitted there was nothing “miraculous” about Kimball’s announcement to the assembled Quorum members:

“The Lord could have sent messengers from the other side to deliver it, but he did not. He gave the revelation by the power of the Holy Ghost.

“Latter-day Saints have a complex: many of them desire to magnify and build upon what has occurred, and they delight to think of miraculous things. And maybe some of them would like to believe that the Lord himself was there, or that the Prophet Joseph Smith came to deliver the revelation, which was one of the possibilities.

“Well, these things did not happen. The stories that go around to the contrary are not factual or realistic or true, and you as teachers in the Church Educational System will be in a position to explain and to tell your students that this thing came by the power of the Holy Ghost, and that all the Brethren involved, the thirteen who were present, are independent personal witnesses of the truth and divinity of what occurred. . . .”

McConkie then did some more confessing. This glorious in-temple event was increasingly becoming comparable to experiencing that inexplicably happy feeling during a typical fast and testimony meeting when believing Mormons “know” that the Church is true. McConkie explained:

“To carnal people who do not understand the operating of the Holy Spirit of God upon the souls of man, this may sound like gibberish or jargon or uncertainty or ambiguity; but to those who are enlightened by the power of the Spirit and who have themselves felt its power, it will have a ring of veracity and truth, and they will know of its verity. I cannot describe in words what happened; I can only say that it happened and that it can be known and understood only by the feeling that can come into the heart of man. You cannot describe a testimony to someone. No one can really know what a testimony is--the feeling and the joy and the rejoicing and the happiness that comes into the heart of man when he gets one--except another person who has received a testimony. Some things can be known only by revelation, ‘The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.’ (1 Corinthians 2:11)”

(Bruce R. McConkie, "All Are Alike unto God," general assembly address to Book of Mormon Symposium for Seminary and Institute teachers, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 18 August 1978, manuscript copy in my possession)


There were no angels. No rushing of winds. No appearance of God, Jesus Christ or Joseph Smith to make the grand announcement that the time had finally arrived for Black men to receive the priesthood of the great White God.

It all boiled down to those assembled in the temple to hear Kimball’s announcement just getting a good feeling in the heart--so overwhelmingly good, in fact, that apparently my grandfather could not bring himself to talk to me about it.

Yet, my grandfather had exhibited a willingness on other occasions to speak publicly about highly personal temple experiences.

For instance, he spoke openly of the “sacred” baptisms for the dead supposedly performed for the Founding Fathers in the St. George temple, under the direction of President Wilford Woodruff.

Just six months after he had refused to share with me what it was like to be told behind temple walls that Black men could now wield power and authority in God’s name, my grandfather was freely talking about famous disembodied spirits appearing in the House of the Lord:

“When I became President of the Twelve and Spencer W. Kimball became President of the Church, we met, just the two of us, every week in our Thursday meetings in the temple, just to be sure that things were properly coordinated between the Twelve and the First Presidency.

“After one of those first meetings, we talked about the man sacred documents in some of the older temples. St. George was mentioned in particular . . . and it was agreed that I would go into the archives—the walk-in vault—of that great temple and review the sacred documents that were there. . . .

“And there in the St. George Temple I saw what I had always hoped and prayed that someday I would see. Ever since I returned as a humble missionary and first learned that the Founding Fathers had appeared in that temple, I wanted to see the record. And I saw the record. They did appear to Wilford Woodruff twice and asked why the work hadn’t been done for them. They had founded this country and the Constitution of this land, and they had been true to those principles. Later the work was done for them.”

(Ezra Taft Benson, address delivered in Sandy, Utah, 30 December 1978, reprinted in Benson, “The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson” [Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1988], p. 603)


But that was not the whole of it. In earlier remarks at the re-dedication of the St. George Temple entitled “Our Founding Fathers Stood in This Holy Place,” my grandfather again spoke openly of these “sacred” experiences in the temple vault.

(Ezra Taft Benson, “Our Founding Fathers Stood in This Holy Place,” St. George Temple Re-dedication, 12 September 1975, LDS Church Archives; see also, Benson, “The Faith of Our Founding Fathers,” in “Faith” [Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1983], pp. 21-22).


Not only did my grandfather talk uninhibitedly about spirits of the Founding Fathers materializing in sacred LDS temples, he also spoke openly of watching his mother iron Mormonism’s secret temple clothes.

His account of this event was published during his lifetime--accompanied, no less, by an illustration depicting his mother pressing this intimate apparel as a young Ezra stood by watching and asking questions:

“With the Benson parents, religion was of highest importance. One day when just a young boy, Ezra was coming in from the field, and as he came close to the old farm house, he could hear his mother sing, ‘Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?’ She was bending over the ironing board, papers spread over the floor around it. It was very warm and beads of perspiration stood on her forehead as she ironed long strips of white cloth.

“’What are you doing, Mother?’ asked Ezra.

“She answered, ‘These are temple robes, son. Your father and I are going to the temple in Logan. Then she put her old flatiron on the back of the stove and said, ‘Sit here by me, Ezra. I want to tell you about the temple.’ She explained to him the importance of the temple and the blessings of the sacred ordinances there. She said, ‘I hope and pray with al my heart that some day you and all your brothers and sisters will enjoy these priceless blessings. I pray for this not only for my children but for my grandchildren and even my great-grandchildren.’

“Ezra Taft Benson later remembered his mother’s words as he performed the temple marriages of each of his own children, who were, of course, his mother’s grandchildren, and later, the great-grandchildren.”

(Della Mae Rasmussen, “The Illustrated Story of President Ezra Taft Benson: Great Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” [Provo, Utah: Eagle Systems International; Steven R. Shallenberger, publisher, 1987], pp. 14-15)


Despite my grandfather’s willingness to publicly reveal the details of certain personal temple experiences, he abruptly refused to give equal time to describing what it was like to receive word in the temple from God’s prophet on equal rights for Black men.

I think I know why.

Ezra Taft Benson--a man who made a career bashing uppity “Negroes”--did not like talking about that kind of thing.

I also recall my grandfather's personal reaction, as expressed directly to me by him, when Earl Butz (who was then-Secretary of Agriculture) resigned his post in 1976 after uttering racist slurs against African-Americans.

My grandfather knew Butz personally, given that Butz had been appointed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to serve as Under Secretary of Agriculture to ETB when ETB was Eisenhower's Secretary of Agriculture.

As reported in the 18 October 1976 edition of “Time” magazine, Butz was flying to California after the Republican National Convention when he made some shockingly vulgar comments onboard the plane:

“Butz started by telling a dirty joke involving intercourse between a dog and a skunk. When the conversation turned to politics, . . . a right-wing Republican . . . . asked Butz why the party of Lincoln was not able to attract more blacks. The Secretary responded with a line so obscene and insulting to Blacks that it forced him out of the Cabinet . . . and jolted the whole [U.S. President Gerald] Ford campaign. Butz said: 'I'll tell you what the coloreds want. It's three things: first, a tight p---y; second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to s--t."

In reaction to Butz's resignation, my grandfather told me that Butz had always had a foul mouth and that he (ETB) had warned Butz that if he did not learn to control his tongue, it would eventually catch up to him and hurt him politically.

Interestingly enough, my grandfather said nothing about the actual content of Butz's off-color comments. Rather, he focused solely on the political price Butz paid for getting caught uttering them.
_____


--Revelatory Notes from Ezra Taft Benson’s Personal Files on His Private Attitudes about Race

Ezra Taft Benson had a practice of passing on news articles and other items whose contents he found worthy of note to my father, accompanied by my grandfather’s personal, handwritten notations.

From my interactions with him over several years, I observed that my grandfather was not a deep reader; he was, instead, a regular skimmer. He would underline portions of what he was perusing which he thought were valuable and then relay them on, before quickly moving on himself.

My father, in turn, would often pass these items on to me and my siblings for our edification.

While passing along information in this fashion, my grandfather rarely made special note of that with which he disagreed.

In fact, he was not particularly inclined to spend much time with sources with which he was at political/religious odds.

This trait of my grandfather’s was clearly evidenced in the nature of his personal files and library. They were voluminous but overwhelmingly slanted toward what he considered the “right” ideas.

In essence, my grandfather’s database was not so much a source of knowledge gleaned from a wide variety of viewpoints but, rather, a reinforcement of his already-established views.

One item that fit into this category was a photocopy of a letter to the editor, published in BYU’s Daily Universe, written by a non-Mormon who was upset with boycott efforts by schools in the Western Athletic Conference against BYU because of the Mormon Church’s anti-Black priesthood ban.

Passed from father to son, to grandson, it read in part:

“I am one non-Mormon who thinks the notion of the University of New Mexico’s student Senate is one of the most unreasonable examples of the bigoted minds of so-called ‘liberals’ I’ve ever seen.

“In the first place, BYU is a privately-endowed school. It is not supported by the taxpayers like the other universities are members of the WAC.

“Mainly, the reason for Negro athletes being at the other schools stems not from any great degree of humanitarianism on the part of those institutions. To the contrary, the reason for many, or even most, of Negro athletes being at these schools is because of their acknowledged athletic ability. The alumni preferred these schools during the past 10-15 years to give athletic scholarships to Negro athletes to assure success for their teams.

“The Negro athletes have won games for these schools, they have seen and heard the coed cheerleaders go into hysterical frenzy over their exploits—only to find, after the game was over, they were supposed to keep their place. They were led to believe that by attending otherwise predominantly ‘white’ (a silly word, if you examine it closely) schools), the Negroes would be pals with all the other students and it didn’t work out that way. Now, the more militant want their own dorms, eating facilities, etc.

“On the other hand, Brigham Young University has competed with the other members of WAC handicapped by not having black athletes on their teams, but the students, and alums, have registered no complaints. Mind you, BYU is not tax supported, therefore, I ask what the hell business it is of your sanctimonious hypocrites who the BYU administration wants to have on its campus?

“The Negroes have reached the state in their development in this country at which anyone who doesn’t agree with tem is considered a ‘racist,’ or bigot. The white students at schools such as New Mexico who voted for the expulsion of BYU from WAC don’t give a real hoot about their black brothers. They just consider it the in-thing to be ‘liberal’ about such matters.”

The final paragraph of the letter was accompanied by my grandfather’s handwritten notation in the margin: “Very good.”

Directly across from that notation, the letter read:

“If the LDS only want to have whites for the priesthood, what business of the Negroes? Do they have members of the Black Muslims, the Black Panthers, who are ‘white’? As a Protestant, such as I am, can I take communion at a Catholic Church? As a non-Mason can I attend the secret sessions of the organization?

“All the more power to Brigham Young.”

(Bill Mazill, “More Power to BYU,” letter to the editor, reprinted from the "Daily Optic," Las Vegas, New Mexico, in the "Daily Universe," 12 November 1969, photocopy in my possession)


Also from my grandfather’s private files, I came across a copy of a speech by then-ASBYU president, Brian Walton, delivered on 28 October 1970, at the Ernest L. Wilkinson Center on the BYU campus.

Like the preceding letter, Walton’s remarks came at a time of increasing criticism directed at the Mormon Church (and by extension, BYU) for its discriminatory doctrine against Blacks.

Below are portions of Walton’s speech that my grandfather underlined--indicating, as was his habit, his approval of certain ideas:

“What we are involved in is a nationwide feeling of frustration against continuing discrimination. The black man has been tied down too long. He is tired of being lied to. He is aware of the betrayal of his dignity from the Declaration of Independence until now . . . .

“Do we have to remind ourselves yet again of the almost unspeakable history of black men in America? Hopefully, as Mormons we are aware of the impact of the destruction of family ties which took place in the lives of thousands of American slaves. Surely, as Latter-day Saints, we realize and appreciated the meaning of an environment like Harlem, Watts, or Bedord-Stuyvesant. The Church is obviously aware of the importance of home environment to success in living. And why is the black man in this plight?

“With Martin Luther King we can ask:

‘Why does misery constantly haunt the Negro?’ . . .

“Listen to Claude Brown, author of “Manchild in the Promised Land, and an escapee from the prison that is Harlem, describe the continuing misery of the American Black Man as he moves from the degradation of the South to the new experiences of urban America. . . .

“Here now Jack Newfield describes a part of the promised land—the Bedford-Stuyvesant ghetto in Brooklyn, New
York . . . .

“For every year, 1948-1969, unemployment among Negroes and other races has been double that for white people . . . .

“In various ways Black people are saying that ‘the American dream has been thrown at me long enough. Now I’m gonna take my place. We will put up with the disrespect, the emasculation, the taunts, the insults, and the overall repression no longer.’ . . .

“And some blacks and many whites who want to feel that they are doing something in a moral way, look at BYU and think they sell all that white America represents. WE then become what some students in the Black Student Union in Tucson referred to us as a scapegoat . . . .

“We are caught up in a social movement which is huge and ongoing . . . .

“Proposals have been made that we begin at BYU a recruitment and development program similar to that which has brought 475 Native Americans (or American Indians) to our campus this year. It is thought by some that the largest private institution in the nation should have more than a dozen black people in its 25,000-member student body. . . .

“I have decreasing tolerance for those views which seek to excuse gospel obligations with the rhetoric of ‘every man for himself’ . . .

“Joseph Smith, the Prophet and first President of the Church, in 1844, seventeen years before the Civil War, publicly advocated freeing of the slaves and having the federal government sell public lands, if necessary, in order to obtain money to purchase their freedom . . . .

“Now to the University and what it can do. The suggestion of bring more black people to the campus raises several issues . . . .

“Would black people want to come here? Has anyone asked them if they want to come here? If is about time white men asked black men what they wanted to do rather than making decisions in a vacuum. . . .

“Who would pay for it? . . .

“Should a pilot program be set up . . .? . . .

“Does the University have the facilities . . . to cope with an influx of black people? . . .

“Are we prepared for a Black Student Union . . .? . . .

“What about other alternatives? . . .

“In an attempt to have answers provided, I have formed an investigating committee which will attempt to provide solid information regarding this topic and allow us to thereby know where we stand . . . .

“The committee is open-ended and will attempt to investigate the total situation . . . .

“I hope this evening has helped you understand ‘where our heads are.’ . . .

“[Quoting from a First Presidency statement on ‘their obligations as members of the communities in which they live and as citizens of the nation’]:

“’Where solutions to these practical problems require cooperative action with those not of our faith, members should not be reticent in doing their part in joining and leading in those efforts where the can make an individual contribution to those causes which are consistent with the standards of the Church.’”

(Brian Walton, ASBYU President, “BYU and Race: Where We Are Now,” ASBYU Convocation, Ernest L. Wilkinson Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 28 October 1970)
_____


Part 1: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,247447

Part 3: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,247452,247452#msg-247452



Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2011 11:06PM by steve benson.