Coming up I-15 North, the 600 South exit drops traffic into the downtown SLC area. The off-ramp is an unimpressive, unimaginative, gray, looping concrete drop-off point that funnels freeway traffic toward the heart of the city through its rather dingy west side of fast-food drive-throughs, railroad tracks and industrial parks.

This supposed "bouldevard's" signage on the I-15 freeway actually reads "600 South," not "Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard." In fact, it is only noticeably designated as "Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard" for a small stretch of concrete on the arched portion of the exit ramp feeding off I-15 into SLC's south side. Once this token "MLK Jr. Boulevard" actually hits street level on SLC's west side, it becomes (and remains) 600 South.

Here's a internet description of SLC's unimpressive little strip of MLK:

"Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. runs east and west on 600 South in Salt Lake City from 600 W. (N40 45.379 W111 54.485) to University St. (about 1350 E.) (N40 45.378 W111 51.156)

"In 1993, 600 South in Salt Lake City [was] renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard."

A map of its location:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Salt+Lake+city++Martin+Luther+King+boulevard&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x8752f515a88040ad:0x15290b1646094ef8,Martin+Luther+King+Jr+Blvd,+Salt+Lake+City,+UT&gl=us&ei=TGHTUYuqBsW-4APByoHwBA&ved=0CCoQ8gEwAA

see also: http://www.humanistsofutah.org/2002/MartinLutherKingDayInUtah_01-02.html
_____


One description of SLC's MLK Jr. Boulevard tries gallantly to paint it in magnificent and soaring language:

"Occasionally, King streets turn up in unexpected places. There are two MLKs in Utah, in gritty Ogden and a main thoroughfare leading into Salt Lake City, where to the arriving traveler, the Martin Luther King sign first leaps to view breathtakingly framed against the snowcapped Wasatch Mountains."

http://www.amazon.com/Along-Martin-Luther-King-Americas/dp/product-description/140006080X

Believe me, as one who has driven it many times, it ain't anywhere near that stunning.
_____


A Scripps-Howard news article, "Finding the Black Experience in White Salt Lake City," described this token trip into SLC far more accurately:

"The words underneath the 600 South Street sign read: 'Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.'

"In most cities, MLK Jr. Blvd. is a street that runs through predominantly black areas. Try finding the 'hood in a city where blacks make up .8 percent of the population.

"'There is no 'hood in Salt Lake,' said France A. Davis, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, . . . but there is a lot of history . . . . The black experience is here. You just have to look underneath to find it."

http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Olympic-Games/Finding-The-Black-Experience-In-White-Salt-Lake-City.aspx?p=1
_____


SLC's paltry MLK Jr. Boulevard is no place to start looking for the Black experience in SLC, that's for sure.

Yes, it briefly feeds you off the freeway toward the heart of Salt Lake City.

But only briefly--and there's no heart in the effort.

It's far more "bullevard" than "boulevard."



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 08:25PM by steve benson.

Didn't even guess a MLK Jr. anything would find itself in SLC.
Thanks for the info Steve!

Cities like Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Tucson, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver, Laramie, Cheyenne, Boise, and Billings are not going to have large African-American neighbourhoods when black people are less than one percent of the population.

Well, at least they did name a street after MLK -- probably under duress --

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 08:20PM by steve benson.

I'm starting to suspect there is more racism in Utah then there is in the South.

There is far less.

Utahns, despite their reputation for racism, are startlingly naive about race.

Southerners, because of their exposure to Blacks, have far more friction with them.

--A History of Hate: The Utah Mormon Church's Squalid, Bigoted and Anti-Civil Rights Attitudes, Teachings and Practices Targeting African-Americans Under Its Supposed "Control"--

Excommunicated Mormon historian D. Michael Quinn (who was ostensibly stripped of his LDS membership for publicly exposing, reporting and publishing a history of the Mormon Church's pattern of ongoing lies, practices and cover-ups relating to post-Manifesto polygamy) offers a devastating timeline review of the bigoted, discriminatory and anti-civil rights actions and attitudes of the Utah Mormon Church designed to control and restrict the exercise of equal human rights by African-Americans within Utah's (and more specifically, Salt Lake City's) boundaries.

In his excerpted analysis below, Quinn also makes note of the Mormon Church's equally reprehensible and similarly-bigoted history of teachings and practices towards gays and lesbians.

(Note: Short repetitions periodically appear in the reproduced text that follows, given that some points are also reiterated in photograph sublines that accompany Quinn's article):


"Utah Mormon Discrimination Against Blacks

"Even after federal emancipation of America's slaves in the 1860s, LDS church president Brigham Young referred to African-American slavery as a religious necessity. Earlier, as both church president and governor, he had instructed the Utah legislature in 1852 to legalize the slavery of African-Americans. This directly contradicted Joseph Smith's proposal in 1844 'to abolish slavery by the year 1850' by financially compensating Southern slave-owners through the sale of federal lands in the West. Utah Mormonism's reversal of Joseph Smith's social policy toward Negroes was mirrored by the refusal of LDS presidents after 1844 to follow the founding prophet's example of giving the priesthood to blacks who were not slaves.

"For more than a century, Utah restricted African-Americans from patronizing white restaurants and hotels, prohibited them from public swimming pools, and required them to sit in the balconies of theaters. During World War II, African-Americans wearing their nation's uniform had to sit in the balcony of Utah theaters, while German prisoners-of-war sat on the main floor with white servicemen and civilians. Utah law also prohibited marriage between a white person and a black (including persons only one-eighth Negro).

"Utah's racial discrimination did not occur by happenstance nor did it continue into modern times by accident. It was promoted by the highest leaders of the state's dominant church. As late as 1941, Counselor J. Reuben Clark used the word [rhymes with 'trigger'] in his First Presidency office diary. In 1944, the First Presidency authorized local LDS leaders to join 'as individuals a civic organization whose purpose is to restrict and control negro settlement' in Salt Lake City. A year later, LDS president George Albert Smith wrote: 'Talked to Pres Clark & Nicholas [G. Smith, an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles] about the use of [LDS] meeting houses for meetings to prevent Negroes from becoming neighbors.' The church president's diary did not indicate whether he endorsed or opposed this activity, but his brother Nicholas G. Smith described it as 'race hatred.'

"In 1947, when discussing the site of the future Los Angeles temple, First Presidency Counselor J. Reuben Clark asked the LDS church's attorney in that area 'to purchase as much of that property as we can in order to control the colored situation.'

"In 1947, the First Presidency wrote that 'the intermarriage of the Negro and White races, [is] a concept which has heretofore been most repugnant to most normal-minded people from the ancient patriarchs till now.'

"In 1953, a First Presidency secretary informed a white Mormon that 'The L.D.S. Hospital here in Salt Lake City has a blood bank which does not contain any colored blood.' According to presidency counselor J. Reuben Clark, this policy of segregating African-American blood from the blood donated by so-called 'white people' was intended 'to protect the purity of the blood streams of the people of this Church.'

"During this era of Utah's racial segregation, the First Presidency also repeatedly affirmed that no African-American could stay at the LDS church-owned Hotel Utah (which had maintained this exclusion since its opening in 1911). The LDS president was president of the hotel, and his counselors were its senior vice-presidents. The First Presidency explained this racial exclusion as simply 'the practice of the hotel.'

"When internationally renown singer Marian Anderson returned in March 1948 to participate in a concert at the LDS church's Salt Lake Tabernacle, the First Presidency relented. America's beloved contralto 'was allowed to stay at the Hotel Utah on condition that she use the freight elevator.' This world-famous black woman was not allowed to use the main entrance and lobby.

"Making specific reference to the desegregation controversy in Little Rock, Arkansas, Counselor Clark in 1957 instructed Belle Smith Spafford 'that she should do what she could to keep the National Council [of Women] from going on record in favor of what in the last analysis would be regarded as negro equality.'

"In 1965 and 1967, Apostle Ezra Taft Benson stated in televised meetings on Temple Square in Salt Lake City that 'the so-called civil rights movement as it exists today is a Communist program for revolution in America.'

"In 1963, Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith told 'Look' magazine's editor: '"Darkies" are wonderful people, and they have their place in our Church.'

"In 1967, Apostle Benson also approved the use of one of his talks as the forward to the overtly racist book 'Black Hammer,' which featured the decapitated (and profusely bleeding) head of an African-American male on its cover.

"President Smith's counselors soon extended their support of racial segregation to states beyond Utah. In 1947, when discussing the site of the future Los Angeles temple, Counselor Clark asked the LDS church's attorney in that area 'to purchase as much of that property as we can in order to control the colored situation.' A month later, during the meeting of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Salt Lake Temple, 'President Clark called attention to the sentiment among many people in this country to the point that we should break down all racial lines, [and] as a result of which sentiment negro people have acquired an assertiveness that they never before possessed and in some cases have become impudent.'

"In 1949, while criticizing the legislative efforts in Arizona to 'guarantee rights of Negroes,' LDS presidency counselor David O. McKay said, 'The South knows how to handle them and they do not have any trouble, and the colored people are better off down there--[but] in California they are becoming very progressive and insolent in many cases.' Likewise, in 1950 Counselor Clark wrote: 'Race tolerance: the trend is just terrible.'

"There was no mystery about why Utah law continued to prohibit interracial marriage. In 1947, the First Presidency wrote that 'the intermarriage of the Negro and White races, [is] a concept which has heretofore been most repugnant to most normal-minded people from the ancient patriarchs till now.' In other words, the First Presidency condemned interracial marriage as abnormal. In 1950, Counselor Clark added that 'anything that breaks down the color line leads to marriage.' Five years later, on behalf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Joseph Fielding Smith wrote to the First Presidency about African-American members of the LDS church in Utah and referred to the 'danger of intermarriage.'

"In 1953, a First Presidency secretary also informed a white Mormon about the less-obvious extent of Utah's racial segregation: 'The L.D.S. Hospital here in Salt Lake City has a blood bank which does not contain any colored blood.' According to presidency counselor J. Reuben Clark, this policy of segregating African-American blood from the blood donated by so-called 'white people' was intended 'to protect the purity of the blood streams of the people of this Church.'

"During this era of Utah's racial segregation, the First Presidency also repeatedly affirmed that no African-American could stay at the LDS church-owned Hotel Utah (which had maintained this exclusion since its opening in 1911). The LDS president was president of the hotel, and his counselors were its senior vice-presidents. The First Presidency explained this racial exclusion as simply 'the practice of the hotel.'

"Internationally renown singer Marian Anderson endured this racial discrimination in Utah. When she gave her first recital at the University of Utah's Kingsbury Hall, this African-American was denied entry to any of Salt Lake City's hotels and had to stay with one of the concert's promoters. When she returned in March 1948 to participate in a concert at the LDS church's Salt Lake Tabernacle, the First Presidency relented. America's beloved contralto 'was allowed to stay at the Hotel Utah on condition that she use the freight elevator.' This world-famous black woman was not allowed to use the main entrance and lobby.109 Likewise, invited to speak at the University of Utah, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Ralph Bunche was allowed to stay at the LDS church's hotel in 1951 only after this black man agreed to use the freight elevator, 'have his meals in his room and not come to the dining room.'

"Due to their international fame, Anderson and Bunche were exceptions to the Mormon rules of race. As Hotel Utah's senior vice-president, J. Reuben Clark explained: 'Since they are not entitled to the Priesthood, the Church discourages social intercourse with the negro race... ." Therefore, African-Americans were denied equal access to the LDS church's hotel in order "to preserve the purity of the race that is entitled to hold the Priesthood.'

"With such beliefs, the LDS First Presidency did what it could to block national efforts for the civil rights of African-Americans. As previously noted, Counselor McKay in 1949 instructed an Arizona stake president against that state's proposed legislation to 'guarantee rights of Negroes.' Making specific reference to the desegregation controversy in Little Rock, Arkansas, Counselor Clark in 1957 instructed Belle Smith Spafford 'that she should do what she could to keep the National Council [of Women] from going on record in favor of what in the last analysis would be regarded as negro equality.' At that time, Spafford was a vice-president of the National Council of Women.

"As American views began changing toward race relations from the 1940s onward, the Mormons of Utah continued to follow the example of LDS leaders against civil rights for African-Americans. There was widespread use in all-white neighborhoods of Utah's Uniform Real Estate Contract, Form 30, which prohibited the purchaser of real estate and his/her heirs from reselling the property 'to any person not of the Caucasian race.' The Salt Lake City School District prohibited blacks from being teachers and from fulfilling student-teaching requirements of their university training. In addition, 40 percent of Utah's employers refused to hire Negroes. Employers who did hire blacks also discriminated against them in job assignment, promotion, and salary. Blacks were prohibited from eating at the lunch counter of Salt Lake's City-County Building. All of Utah's bowling alleys excluded African-Americans, and LDS hospitals segregated black patients, sometimes requiring them to pay for private rooms. This was also the policy at Utah's Catholic hospitals.

"In these respects, Utah and the Mormons were representative of the rest of America's white society until the 1960s. In 1961, a survey of Salt Lake City by the NAACP showed that 12 percent of cafes, restaurants, and taverns declined to serve blacks, while 80 percent of the city's beauty shops and barber shops refused to do so. Likewise, 72 percent of Salt Lake City's hotels and 49 percent of its motels refused accommodations to African-Americans that year.

"After Counselor Clark's death in 1961, Apostle Ezra Taft Benson became the Mormon hierarchy's strident voice against the national crusade for African-American civil rights. Benson's Negrophobic rhetoric intensified after the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 drastically changed Utah's patterns of racial discrimination. In 1965 and 1967, he stated in televised meetings on Temple Square in Salt Lake City that 'the so-called civil rights movement as it exists today is a Communist program for revolution in America.' In 1967, Apostle Benson also approved the use of one of his talks as the forward to the overtly racist book 'Black Hammer,' which featured the decapitated (and profusely bleeding) head of an African-American male on its cover. Subtitled White Alternatives, this book warned about the 'well-defined plans for the establishment of a Negro Soviet dictatorship in the South.' In 1968, Apostle Benson also instructed BYU students about 'black Marxists' and 'the Communists and their Black Power fanatics.'

"At this time, LDS president David O. McKay had a Democrat (Hugh B. Brown) as a counselor, who was mystified that McKay allowed Benson to endorse the speeches and activities of nationally known segregationists. This politically liberal counselor was unaware of the LDS church president's private views about 'insolent' African-Americans who wanted equal rights.

"In 1963, Utah ended its restrictions on interracial marriage, and Counselor Brown officially endorsed civil rights for persons of all races that year. However, until that year, every living prophet of the LDS church since Brigham Young either actively opposed the civil rights of African-Americans or passively endorsed the existing civil discriminations against them in Utah.

"In that same year, Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith told Look magazine's editor: '"Darkies" are wonderful people, and they have their place in our Church.' At best, this revealed the racial paternalism that governed LDS headquarters. However, this platitude was also a smoke-screen for the worst of what Utah Mormon leaders had done against African-American rights for the previous 116 years.


"From Anti-Black to Anti-Gay

"Just as President Gordon B. Hinckley has said that same-sex marriage has no legitimate claim as a 'civil right' in Utah or anywhere else, previous First Presidencies also stated that African-Americans had no legitimate right to unrestricted access to marriage, nor to unrestricted blood transfusions, nor to rent a room in the LDS church's hotel, nor to reside in Utah's white neighborhoods, nor to live near the Los Angeles Temple, nor to be in a hospital bed next to a white patient. Just as the First Presidency previously condemned interracial marriages as abnormal, it has recently condemned same-sex marriages as abnormal. The LDS church's opposition to gay rights is consistent with its historical opposition to African-American rights.

"Even when a general authority publicly apologized in September 2000 for 'the actions and statements of individuals who have been insensitive to the pain suffered by the victims of racism,' he claimed that the LDS leadership had an admirable history of race relations. Elder Alexander B. Morrison said: 'How grateful I am that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has from its beginnings stood strongly against racism in any of its malignant manifestations.' This was a by now familiar smoke-screen for the previous behavior of Mormon prophets, seers, and revelators. LDS headquarters has never apologized for the legalization of Negro slavery by Brigham Young in pioneer Utah, nor for the official LDS encouragement to lynch Negro males, nor for the racial segregation policies of the First Presidency until 1963, nor for Ezra Taft Benson's 1967 endorsement of a book which implied that decapitating black males was a 'White Alternative.' . . .

"For persons who believe that these various actions of the LDS First Presidency were God's will for suppressing minorities, I suggest they rethink a passage in The Book of Mormon: 'For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and 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).

"Counselor Clark told the general conference of April 1940 that the First Presidency 'is not infallible in our judgment, and we err.' I believe this applies to the statements and actions of several 'living prophets' and First Presidencies in restricting the civil rights of African-Americans and other minorities.

"LDS president Gordon B. Hinckley has dismissed Mormonism's earlier race-based policies as 'those little tricks of history' which are irrelevant now. However, his twenty-five years of promoting political campaigns against the possibility of gay rights is one more example of the LDS hierarchy's discrimination against minorities who are not its 'kind of people.'

"Furthermore, Counselor Clark told the general conference of April 1940 that the First Presidency 'is not infallible in our judgment, and we err.] He also instructed LDS educators in 1954 that 'even the President of the Church has not always spoken under the direction of the Holy Ghost.' I believe this applies to the statements and actions of several 'living prophets' and First Presidencies in restricting the civil rights of African-Americans and other minorities. According to LDS doctrine, the statements and actions of the church's president can be wrong, even sinful,145 and historically the LDS First Presidency has often been profoundly wrong with regard to the civil rights of American minorities.

"In fact, when an end came to the various tyrannies of the majority against racial groups in America, LDS policies changed as well. What various 'living prophets' had defined as God's doctrine turned out to be a Mormon social policy which reflected the majority's world view. I submit that the same applies to the LDS church's campaign against any law which benefits or protects gays and lesbians.

"LDS president Gordon B. Hinckley has dismissed Mormonism's earlier race-based policies as 'those little tricks of history' which are irrelevant now. However, his twenty-five years of promoting political campaigns against the possibility of gay rights is one more example of the LDS hierarchy's discrimination against minorities who are not its 'kind of people.'


"The Sincerity of Prejudice and Civil Discrimination

"LDS leaders have repeatedly opposed civil rights for blacks and gays while denying that such action is 'anti-Negro' or 'racist,' 'anti-gay' or 'homophobic.' The previous quotes show that First Presidency counselor J. Reuben Clark, for one, defended wholesale restrictions against the civil rights of African-Americans. Nevertheless, at the same time, he regarded himself as compassionate toward blacks.

"In this paper I have tried to acknowledge the sincere beliefs and fears of those who oppose same-sex marriage. However, an 'Appeal to Sincerity' is legitimate only when attempting to understand the personal motivation for various behaviors. Sincerity cannot logically be invoked to assess the legitimacy or ethical value of those behaviors.

"The past and present are filled with actions which most of us condemn, despite the fact that their perpetrators claimed they acted out of their sincere beliefs in a religion, or race, or social class, or country. If we regard slavery as wrong, the sincerity of slave-owners is irrelevant to the issue, even when the slave-owners were our revered national leaders, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. If denial of rights and protections for African-Americans was wrong, the sincerity of the oppressors is irrelevant to the issue, even if we otherwise admire the oppressors as religious leaders. Likewise, the sincerity of the heterosexual majority's anxieties and fears is not an ethical justification for denying rights and protections to the homosexual minority. . . .

"In view of the fears, prejudices, and hatreds which existed both then and now, American society's sense of fairness is far greater today than it was fifty years ago. As the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1996 when Romer v. Evans invalidated the LDS church's behind-the-scenes victory against civil rights for gays and lesbians in Colorado, 'a state cannot so deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws. . . .

"When the Joseph Smith Memorial Building opened in 1993 as added office-space for the LDS bureaucracy at headquarters, this multi-story building had two fine-dining restaurants for the general public. The human resources director instructed the manager of these church-owned restaurants not to hire as waiters any males who 'seem gay.'

"For example, after President Hinckley's statement, Mormon leadership successfully opposed adding sexual orientation to Salt Lake City's anti-discrimination ordinance. This is understandable in light of reports that LDS headquarters actively discriminates against gays and lesbians in employment. With no claim of due process, this discrimination extends to completely secular jobs and requires no proof of 'inappropriate' sexual behavior. For example, when the Joseph Smith Memorial Building opened in 1993 as added office-space for the LDS bureaucracy at headquarters, this multi-story building had two fine-dining restaurants for the general public. The human resources director instructed the manager of these church-owned restaurants not to hire as waiters any males who 'seem gay.' Similar to visual profiling for racial discrimination, LDS headquarters apparently denies employment on the basis of stereotypical views about masculine appearance and homosexual characteristics, or stereotypical views about feminine appearance and lesbian characteristics. As indicated in the above example, this has nothing to do with 'morality' or the actual sexual behavior of persons who are subjected to this discrimination. In fact, completely heterosexual persons may also be misidentified as lesbian or gay on the basis of speech or appearance, and then suffer employment discrimination in Utah, This contributes to the climate of fear, which is why anti-discrimination laws are necessary.

"The climate of homophobic antagonism in Mormon-dominated Utah creates constant anxiety for many gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender persons. It is historically similar to being a Christian in pagan Rome, a Protestant Huguenot in Catholic-dominated France, a Quaker in Puritan Massachusetts, a black in Klan-dominated Mississippi, a Jew in Nazi Germany, a Catholic in Protestant-dominated Belfast, a Muslim in Hindu-dominated Kashmir, or a Hindu in Muslim-dominated Islamabad. Its familiarity makes this pattern even more tragic in cultures which claim divine approval for exerting social oppression against their minorities.

"Just as Catholics, Protestants, and Mormons once claimed righteousness and God's blessing in denying basic rights to African-Americans and Asian-Americans, they are now claiming righteousness and God's blessing for denying basic rights to gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender persons. It takes a peculiar kind of blindness to currently affirm that the majority's historical discrimination against despised racial minorities was ethically and civilly wrong, yet argue that it is now ethically and civilly right to discriminate against the despised minority of homosexuals and transgender persons."

(D. Michael Quinn, "Prelude to the National 'Defense of Marriage' Campaign: Civil Discrimination Against Feared or Despised Minorities," research paper given "Special Award for Outstanding Scholarly Research and Writing," Affirmation Conference, Long Beach, September 2001; originally published in "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought," 33:3, pp. 1-52; for entire article, see:http://www.affirmation.org/against_marriage_equality/prelude.shtml)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 09:02PM by steve benson.

You're the one in need of a history lesson.

Racial strife in Utah is nothing to the South-- whether measured by riots, laws, lynchings, demonstrations, etc.

There are so few Blacks in Utah that racial strife just didn't exist any where near the level in the South. Your wish to paint Utah as that bad can't be made true with a lousy copy & paste job.

. . . the Mormon Church under the board handle of BYU's Cougar mascot.

You ain't foolin' anyone. Not only that, you have not responded in any meaningful way to the historical citations, quotes and events mentioned.

Back to your priesthood meeting, brother, where you probably write the manuals. :)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 09:12PM by steve benson.

Can't make a case that racism is worse in Utah than in the South so you accuse me of being Mormon and using the BYU mascot for a screen name? Don't be such a baby!

Let's take a look at a hard measure of where racism was worse: Lynchings of Blacks 1882-1968

Arkansas 226
Georgia 492
Louisiana 335
Mississippi 539
Utah 2

Racism in the South is much worse than in Utah.

. . . and no refutation of the facts presented, as to the historically racist behavior of the Salt Lake Mormon Church's high command against Blacks. (Recall that this thread was concerning the MLK Jr. Boulevard in SLC).

Do a search under your board handle and your suddenly-appearing LDS-apologist behavior becomes evident.

BUSTED!, Mormon boy.

Please try again later.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 09:29PM by steve benson.

Poor baby Steve can't refute the hard facts and must resort to ad hominem lies. Consider your posts moot and defeated.

How many lynchings in Utah Steve?

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ad-hominem

You're full of logical fallacies aren't you. Fret not, I'm a professional philosopher who can educate you.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/tu-quoque
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/anecdotal

The issue to which I responded was whether racism was worse in Utah or the South.

Clearly, it's the South as my facts have shown. You cited no hard stats, just historical anecdotes without bothering to compare to similar quotes from the South.

How many Blacks werelynched in Utah, Arizona, Wyoming?

"Overt discrimination against Blacks has ranged from lynchings to rejections in housing, public accommodations, and employment. In 1869 a Black was shot and hanged at Uintah in Weber County. The reason given was 'he is a damned N*****.' In 1925 Robert Marshall was taken from his jail cell in Price by a mob and hanged 'in slow stages.' The rope was pulled until he lost consciousness; he was then revived by burning his bare soles with matches. The pulling and burning continued until Marshall died to the cheers of men, women, and children who smiled for a photographer while the dead Black swung from the hanging tree in the background. Law officers arrived unaccountably late."

"BLACKS IN UTAH HISTORY: AN UNKNOWN LEGACY," under "Peoples of Utah," by Ronald G. Coleman, at: http://historytogo.utah.gov/people/ethnic_cultures/the_peoples_of_utah/blacksinutahhistory.html)


Ask and you have received.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 10:03PM by steve benson.

You make me laugh.

FCD: Racism is worse in Utah than in the South!

Me: No.

Steve: Yes it is! Take a history lesson that I've copied & pasted. And you're a Mormon too!

Me: The South is far worse for instance 539 lynchings of Blacks in Mississippi has no parallell in Utah.

Steve: Well one guy was lynched in Utah. See Utah is worse than the South!

2 lynchings in Utah to 539 in Mississippi---- irrefutable evidence racism is worse in the South.

I already told you Utah had two lynchings and your retort is to tell me about one of them. What a buffoon you are!

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/anecdotal

. . . you're engaging in diversion. I was initially talking about evidence of racial discrimination in Salt Lake City. You attempted to divert to lynchings in Wyoming, Mississippi and Arizona.

Nice try, but you don't have to go outside Utah to see your Mormon God's racism at work. Stick close to home, as much as it hurts you to stay on topic.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 10:20PM by steve benson.

Back to ad hominem and genetic fallacies Steven? Tsk. Tsk. You should take my class (not BYU) and you might improve your sloppy thinking skills.

The issue was whether Utah or the South was more racist. You lost that argument and now seek to move the goal posts to whether there was any racism in Utah. Laughable.

Consider your posts moot and defeated. But do look me up, I'll gladly tutor you in logic.

--which you dismissed out of hand and tried to evade by talking about other states.

Is this how defend your bigoted Mormon God?

Hard to keep track of your logical fallacies. Again, look me up-- I'll be glad to teach you logic.

I refuted FCD's statement. You took FCD's foolish position, lost, and now try to redefine the argument.

My prices are reasonable. I'd be happy to teach you--if your fragile ego can handle it.

Now, is your defense that your racist Mormon God is not as racist as, say, non-God human bigots in Wyoming, Mississippi and Arizona? Is that why you are refusing to address the clear examples of racial animus by the Mormon God and his chosen "prophets," as manifested in the workings, policies and doctrines of the Mormon Church, evidenced whnile historically doing its white-supremacist business in the Salt Lake Valley?

It appears that you are justifying your Mormon God's racism based on the theory that your God's racial prejudice is not as bad as the racial prejudice of people in other states of the Union.

That is a pretty limp defense, Cosmo. Excusing your God's racial hatred by comparing it against the racial hatred of mere mortals. (But the Mormon God has never been known for its high moral standards).

Back to the Hogle Zoo for you.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 11:13PM by steve benson.

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty."

Look, the reality is that Utah was and is racist, and the leadership of TSCC went a long way to making it that way.

The reality is also that Utah was and is racist while lacking a significant population to be racist against, thanks to long-term isolation and the aforementioned racism.

It is also true that, likely due to the low number of minorities, there are significantly fewer hate crimes in Utah's history compared to areas with larger minority populations.

While I'm not interested enough to suggest a study of lynchings per capita based on minority population, it is conceivable that if the racists of Utah would have had equal opportunity, they may well have found violent outlet for their racism on a regular basis from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s. As it is, they seemed to have a lot of pent-up racism without much of an outlet.

Of course, given the number of minority wards in Utah that speak English in sacrament meeting (Tongan wards come to mind), I'd say racism is alive and well in Utah.

I never defended the problems in Utah. I refuted a silly statement and you foolishly stepped in trying to defend it.

Now you're back accusing me of being Mormon. I'm not. Look me up you buffoon.

The South is much worse than Utah in terms of race relations.

History is not on your side, Cougar Boy. Back to Mormon Sunday School to gird up your loins for further losses.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 11:47PM by steve benson.

But one element I see that is responsible for Martin Luther King Blvd. being so "small" is that African-Americans here have almost zero political power or representation... If memory serves, there was an attempt in the Legislature to refuse to recognize the King holiday at one time.

You can credit the LDS Church for these situations (we Gentiles are in a similar position, but aren't harassed to the extent blacks are). This place is still a theocracy in many ways, and I credit this board for helping me to learn to ask the question. "What in the h&!! business do religious leaders have dictating policy on matters of liquor laws or urban government policies involving zoning and construction issues.

Racism in Utah has been awful, Cosmo; I wouldn't put it on par with the Deep South, but it was certainly worse than any other state that wasn't part of the Confederacy with the exception of the "boarder" states who also permitted slavery.

The lynchings occurred as described, and I'm old enough to remember the first professional baseball game I saw in 1964 with Willie Mays and the San Francisco Giants playing an exhibition game here.

The black atheletes on the Giants weren't permitted to stay at the Hotel Utah, and the whole team elected to move to the Newhouse Hotel as a result. This was years after major league baseball was integrated.

And Brigham Young's rhetoric on blacks is as noxious as anything that came out of the KKK crowd. You can still find it in "The Journal of Discourses."

I find it interesting to look at the last 5 states to recognize MLK Day. The bottom 5 are:

Arizona (thank you crazy Mormon Gov Mecham)
New Hampshire (WTF?)
Virginia
Utah (second to LAST)
South Carolina


Check out the comments under each flag- especially Utah.

http://www.complex.com/city-guide/2012/01/for-shame-the-last-5-states-to-recognize-martin-luther-king-jr-day#1

I've lived in Utah and Idaho and am now in BHM, Alabama, where the population is half black. The roads named after MLK here are main important roads. In Utah it seems like an afterthought so they can act like they weren't ignoring MLK and his dream for years.

So do you contend, as did FCD and Steven, that Utah is more racist than the South?

LDS Racism in Black & White:

(1) Joseph Smith's Official Support of Southern Slavery

(2) Mormon-Owned Black Slaves in Heaven

(3) Black Slaves in Heaven with Skins Changed to White

In another thread, RfM contributor "lulu" asked:

"Does anyone have some quick quotes and citations?

"A lot of internet posts from TBM's [are] about what an abolitionist J[oseph] S[mith] was.

"I don't think that's quite the way it was,

"He might have been anti-slavery when he ran for pres[ident], but didn't he own slave(s)--Jane Manning?

"Before he ran for pres[ident], wasn't he pro-slavery?

"Are TBMs on the net misrepresenting?

"Can anyone help with the big picture, I think we need to get the details out there."

("Joseph Smith and Slavery," posted by "lulu," on "Recovery from Mormonism" discussion board, 3 March 2012, at: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,433528,433528#msg-433528)


The evidence of official Mormon Church endorsement of anti-Black slavery and racism is clear and convincing on at least three basic levels.

Below is the historical proof.
_____


--Exhibit A

Mormon Church President Joseph Smith's Offical LDS Endorsement of Southern Slavery

The Mormon Church's official, documented history of White supremacist racism includes its official, notorious endorsement of Southern-style slavery.

The Mormon Church's inventor, Joseph Smith, went on record defending slavery against the opposition of abolitionists, declaring it to be a true principle which found support in the Bible and in the teachings of Jesus.

*Smith, in fact, said that slavery was a divinely-decreed “curse” imposed on Blacks by the command of God and warned against attempts to interfere with its practice.

In the LDS Church publication, the “Messenger and Advocate" (vol. 2, pp. 289-301, April 1836), Smith asserted that slavery as practiced by the Southern states was ordained by God and in keeping with the “gospel of Christ”:

“After having expressed myself so freely upon this subject, I do not doubt but those who have been forward in raising their voice against the South will cry out against me as being uncharitable, unfeeling and unkind--wholly unacquainted with the gospel of Christ.

"'It is my privilege, then, to name certain passages from the Bible and examine the teachings of the ancients upon this matter, as the fact is incontrovertible that the first mention we have of slavery is found in the holy Bible, pronounced by a man who was perfect in his generation and walked with God. And so far from that prediction's being averse from the mind of God, it remains as a lasting monument of the decree of Jehovah, to the shame and confusion of all who have cried out against the South in consequence of their holding the sons of Ham in servitude!

“'And he said cursed be Canaan: a servant of servants shall he be unto this brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant--God shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.' (Gen. 8: 25-27)

“Trace the history of the world from this notable event down to this day and you will find the fulfillment of this singular prophecy. What could have been the design of the Almighty in this wonderful occurrence is not for me to say, but I can say that the curse is not yet taken off the sons of Canaan, neither will be until it is affected by a great power as caused it to come; and the people who interfere the least will come under the least condemnations before him and those who are determined to purse a course which shows an opposition and a feverish restlessness against the designs of the Lord will learn, when perhaps it is too late for their own good, that God can do his work without the aid of those who are not dictated by his counsel."

Smith then proceeded to counter claims that the Bible was not talking about Ham-lineaged, cursed Black slaves brought under control by the command of God to be used as forced labor:

"Some may urge that the names, 'man-servant' and 'maid-servant' only mean hired persons who were at liberty to leave their masters or employers at ant time. But we can easily settle this point by turning the history of Abraham's descendants, when governed by a law given from the mouth of the Lord himself.

"I know that when an Israelite had been brought into servitude in consequence of debt, or otherwise, at the seventh year he went from the task of this former master or employuer; but to no other people or nation was this granted in the law of Israel. And if, after a man had served six years, he did not wish to be free, then the master was to bring him unto the judges, bore his ear with an awl and that man was 'to serve him forever.'

"The conclusion I draw from this is that this people were led and governed by revelation and if such a law was wrong God only is to be blamed and abolitonists are not responsible."

After quoting from Ephesians 6:5-9 and 1 Timothy 6:1-5 (which admonishes that "servants be obedient to them that are your masters" and that they "are under the yoke [of] masters worthy of all honor"), LDS Church president Joseph Smith concluded that "[t]he scripture stands for itself and I believe that these men were better qualified to teach the will of God than all the abolitionists in the world."

(cited in Lester E. Bush, Jr., complilation of notes on history of Blacks in the Mormon Church, pp. 18-19, copy in my possession)


In the same treatise, Smith warned that if Blacks were freed from slavery and the South was militarily defeated, Blacks might overrun the country and degrade societal morals:

“ . . . I am aware that many who profess to preach the gospel complain against their brethren of the same faith who reside in the South and are ready to withdraw the hand of fellowship because they will not renounce the principle of slavery and raise their voice against every thing of the kind.

“This must be a tender point and one which should call forth the candid reflection of all men and especially before they advance in an opposition calculated to lay waste the fall States of the South and set loose upon the world a community of people who might peradventure overrun our country and violate the most sacred principles of human society, chastity and virtue.”

Smith advocated that no one had the right to tell others not to engage in the business of human trafficking:

“I do not believe that the people of the North have any more right to say that the South shall not hold slaves, than the South have to say the North shall.”

Smith stated that slave owners should retain final say over the condition and future of their human property and that slaves, should unconditionally & meekly obey their masters:

“. . . [W]e have no right to interfere with slaves contrary to the mind & will of their masters. In fact, it would be much better & more prudent not to preach at all to slaves, until after their masters are converted: and then teach the master to use them with kindness, remembering that they are accountable to God and that servants are bound to serve their master with singleness of heart, without murmuring.”

Smith taught that slavery was condoned by scripture and that Mormons had no right to foment resistance to Southern slavery:

“I do most sincerely hope that no one who is authorized from this Church to preach the gospel will so far depart from the scripture as to be found stirring up strife and sedition against our brethren of the South.”

Smith said that freeing the slaves would only cause trouble for people not accustomed to seeing Blacks (the latter whom Smith labeled as inherently lazy, professionally unemployable and childish):

“. . . [W]hat benefit will it ever be to the slave for persons to run over the free states & excite indignation against their masters in the minds of thousands and tens of thousands who understand nothing relative to their circumstances or conditions? I mean particularly those who have never traveled in the South and scarcely seen a negro in all their life.

“How any community can ever be excited with the chatter of such persons-boys and others who are too indolent to obtain their living by honest industry & are incapable of pursuing any occupation of a professional nature, is unaccountable to me.”

(Joseph Smith, letter to Oliver Cowdery, published in “Latter-Day Saints Messenger & Advocate,” vol. 2. no. 7, Kirtland, Ohio, April 1836, pp. 289, 291)


Moreover, during the presidency of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Church desperately came out in favor of preventing the immigration of freed Black slaves into Missouri and against allowing Blacks to join the Mormon Church:

"In an attempt to defuse the explosive situation before another anti-Mormon meeting scheduled [by slave-holding Missourians] for July 20, 1833, could take place . . ., an 'Extra' edition of the [Mormon cnurch's] "the Evewning and Morning Star . . . frantically tried to explain:

"'Having learned with extreme regret, that an article entitled, 'Free People of Color,' in the last number of the 'Star,' has been misunderstood, we feel in duty bound to state, in this 'Extra,,' that our intention was not only to stop free people of color from emigrating to this state, but to prevent them from being admitted as members of the Church."

(authored by W.W. Phelps in behalf of the Mormon Church, published in "History of the Church," vol. 1, pp. 578-79; Phelps was an assistant president of the Mormon Church in Missouri, a scribe for Joseph Smith, and an LDS Church printer/editor; Phelps' "Star" editorial cited in Richard Abanes, "One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church," Chapter 6, "No Rest for the Righteous" [New York/London: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002], p. 114)


While some Utah historians continue their faithful efforts at minimizing the historical reality that the Mormon Church officially endorsed slavery and its legalized practice, it is an undeniable that the Mormon Church did exactly that.

Indeed, Mormons were led in their slave-owning beliefs and practices by the bad example of none other than Mormon Church president Brigham Young (who did so with LDS Church apostle support), In the historical context of LDS Church under the leadership of Young, Mormon settlers brought Black slaves to the Salt Lake Valley:

"24 July [1847]: [Brigham] Young enter[ed] Salt Lake Vally with the rest of the pioneer company, and officially decree[d] this as the new Mormon headquarters. Among these pioneers [were] three plural wives and three Black slaves. Young's attitudes toward African-Americans differ from the founding prophet's [*Note: This is not exactly accurate, as demonstrated by Smith's own words, quoted earlier], and UTAH WOULD BECOME THE ONLY WESTERN TERRITORY WHERE AFRICAN-AMERICAN SLAVERY AND SLAVE-SALES WERE PROTECTED BY TERRITORIAL STATUTE" [emphasis added].

(D. Michael Quinn, "The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power," Appendix 7, "Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47" [Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, in association with Smith Research Associates, 1994], p. 659)


It is noteworthy that the names of Mormon-owned Black slaves actually appear on a prominent downtown Salt Lake City monument honoring Mormon settlers of the area:

"Although the practice was never widespread, some Utah pioneers held African-American slaves until 1862 when Congress abolished slavery in the territories.

"Three slaves--Green Flake, Hark Lay and Oscar Crosby--came west with the first pioneer company in 1847 and their names appear on a plaque on the Brigham Young Monument in downtown Salt Lake City. The Census of 1850 reported 26 Negro slaves in Utah and the 1860 Census 29; some have questioned those figures.

"Slavery was legal in Utah as a result of the Compromise of 1850, which brought California into the Union as a free state while allowing Utah and New Mexico territor'es the option of deciding the issue by 'popular sovereignty.' Some Mormon pioneers from the South had brought African-American slaves with them when they migrated west. Some freed their slaves in Utah; others who went on to California had to emancipate them there.

"The Mormon Church had no official doctrine for or against slave-holding and leaders were ambivalent [*Note: This is not true. As documented above, Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith officially endorsed slavery as the law of God. Furthermore, Mormon Church president Brigham Young officially endorsed slavery in a 5 February 1852 address to the Utah territorial legislature].

"In 1836 Joseph Smith wrote that masters should treat slaves humanely and that slaves owed their owners obedience. During his presidential campaign in 1844, however, he came out for abolition.

"Brigham Young tacitly supported slave-holding, declaring that although Utah was not suited for slavery, the practice was ordained by God. In 1851 Apostle Orson Hyde said the Church would not interfere in relations between master and slave.

"The Legislature formally sanctioned slave-holding in 1852 [This came under Young's terriotiral governorship] but cautioned against inhumane treatment, and stipulated that slaves could be declared free if their masters abused them. Records document the sale of a number of slaves in Utah."

(Jeffrey D. Nichols, in "History Blazer," April 1995, cited on "Utah History to Go: Slavery in Utah," under "Pioneers and Cowboys," at: http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/pioneers_and_cowboys/slaveryinutah.html)


Mormon Church president Brighm Young (immediate successor to Smith) openly endorsed slavery, as well as officially invoked the anti-Black doctrines, teachings and practices of the Mormon Church as laid down by Smith.

This fact is clearly evident in Young's 5 February 1852 speech to the Utah terrirtorial legislature. In that address, not only did Young support Smith's Bibically-sanctioned position in favor of Black slavery, he declared that Blacks should have no position in government telling White people what to do. (In the same speech, Young also officially endorsed blood atonement and anti-Semitism):

" . . . My remarks in the first place will be upon the cause of the introduction of slavery.

"Long ago Mama Eve, our good old mother Eve, partook of the forbiden fruit and this made a slave of her. Adam hated very much to have her taken out of the Garden of Eden and now our Old Daddy says I believe I will eat of the fruit and become a slave, too. This was the first introduction of slavery upon this earth; and there has been not a son or daughter of Adam from that day to this but what where slaves in the true sense of the word.

"That slavery will continue, until there is a people raised up upon the face of the earth who will contend for righteous principles, who will not only believe in but operate with every power and faculty given to them to help to establish the Kingdom of God, to overcome the Devil and drive him from the earth, then will this curse be removed. This was the starting point of slavery.

"Again after Adam and Eve had partook of the curse, we find they had two sons. Cain and Abel, but which was the oldest I cannot positively say; but this I know--Cain was given more to evil practices than Abel but whether he was the oldest or not matters not to me. Adam was commanded to sacrifice and offer up his offerings to God, that placed him into the garden of Eden. Through the faith and obedience of Abel to his Heavenly Father, Cain became jealous of him and he laid a plan to obtain all his flocks; for through his perfect obedience to Father he obtained more blessings than Cain; consequently he took it into his heart to put able able of this mortal existance. after the deed was done, the Lord inquired to Abel and made Cain own what he had done with him.

"Now, says the Grand Father, I will not destroy the seed of Michael and his wife; and Cain I will not kill you, nor suffer any one to kill you but I will put a mark upon you.

"What is the mark? You will see it on the countenance of every African you ever did see upon the face of the earth or ever will see. Now I tell you what I know; when the mark was put upon Cain, Abel's children w[ere] in all probablility young; the Lord told Cain that he should not receive the blessings of the priesthood, nor his seed, until the last of the posterity of Abel had received the priesthood, until the redemption of the earth.

"If there never was a prophet or apostle of Jesus Christ spoke it before, I tell you, this people that are commonly called Negroes are the children of old Cain. I know they are; I know that they cannot bear rule in the priesthood, for the curse on them was to remain upon them until the residue of the posterity of Michael and his wife receive the blessings the seed of Cain would have received had they not been cursed; and hold the keys of the priesthood, until the times of the restitution shall come and the curse be wiped off from the earth, and from Michael's seed. Then Cain's seed will be had in remembrance and the time come when that curse should be wiped off.

"Now then, in the Kingdom of God on the earth, a man who has has the African blood in him cannot hold one jot nor tittle of priesthood. Why? Because they are the true eternal principles the Lord Almighty has ordained; and who can help it? Men cannot, the angels cannot and all the powers of earth and hell cannot take it off; but thus saith the Eternal I Am, What I Am: 'I take it off at my pleasure,' and not one particle of power can that posterity of Cain have, until the time comes th[at] says he will have it taken away. That time will come when they will have the privilege of all we have the privilege of and more.

"In the Kingdom of God on the earth, the Africans cannot hold one particle of power in Government. The subjects, the rightful servants of the residue of the children of Adam and the residue of the childre--through the benign influence of the Spirit of the Lord--have the privilege of seeing to the posterity of Cain; inasmuch as it is the Lord's will they should receive the spirit of God by baptism; and that is the end of their privilege; and there is not power on earth to give them any more power.

"You talk of the dark skin, I never saw a White man on earth. I have seen persons whose hair came pretty nigh being white,but to talk about white skins, it is something entirely unknown-- though some skins are fairer than others. Look at the black eye and the jet black hair we often see upon men and women who are called white; there is no such things as White folks. We are the children of Adam who receive the blessings and that is enough for us if we are not quite White.

"But let me tell you further: Let my seed mingle with the seed of Cain; that brings the curse upon me and upon my generations -we will reap the same rewards with Cain.

"In the priesthood I will tell you what it will do. Were the children of God to mingle their seed with the seed of Cain. it would not only bring the curse of being deprived of the power of the priesthood upon themselves, but they entail it upon their children after them and they cannot get rid of it.

"If a man in an unguarded moment should commit such a transgression--if he would walk up and say cut off my head and kill man. woman and child--it would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin.

"Would this be to curse them? No. It would be a blessing to them; it would do them good that they might be saved with their brethren. A man would shudder should they here us take about killing folk but it is one of the greatest blessings to some to kill them, although the true principles of it are not understood.

"I will ha[ve] one thing more: It is not in the power of a man on the face of the earth to take more life than he can give; that is a proper son of Adam. How many times I have heard it said, and how many times has it been reiterated in my ears and in yours, that to take a life is to take what you cannot give? This is perfect nonsense; what do I do by taking a man's head off after he is condemned by the Law? I put an end to the existence of the mortal tabernacle but the life still remains. The body and the spirit is only separated; this is all that can be done by any mortal man upon the face of the earth.

"Can I give that life? I can. I can make as good tabernacles as any other man; if you do not believe it, go and look at my children; therefore, that saying is nonsense. We form the tabernacle for the eternal spirit or life that comes from God. We can only put an end to the existence of that tabernacle; and this is the principle of sacrifice.

"What was the cause of the Ancients drawing up hundreds and thousands of bullocks and heifers and lambs and doves and almost every other creature around them, of which they took the best and the fattest and offered them up as sacrifices unto the Lord? Was it not for the remission of the sins of the people?

"We read also in the New Testament that a man was sacrificed for the sins of the people. If he had not shed that blood which was given to him in the organization of his body or tabernacle, you and I could have had no remission of sins. It is the greatest blessing that could come to some men to shed their blood on the ground and let it come up before the Lord as an atonement. You nor I cannot take any more life than we can give.

"Again to the subject before us, as to the men bearing rule: Not one of the children of old Cain have one particle of right to bear rule in Government affairs from first to last> They have no business there. This privilege was taken from them by there own transgressions and I cannot help it; and should you or I bear rule we ought to do it with dignity and honor before God.

"I am as much opposed to the principle of slavery as any man in the present acceptation or usage of the term, [if] it is abused. I am opposed to abusing that which God has decreed, to take a blessing, and make a curse of it.

"It is a great blessing to the seed of Adam to have the seed of Cain for servants; but those they serve should use them with all the heart and feeling, as they would use their own children, and their compassion should reach over them, and round about them, and treat them as kindly and with that humane feeling necessary to be shown to mortal beings of the human species. Under these circumstances there blessings in life are greater in proportion than those who have to provide the bread and dinner for them.

"We know there is a portion of inhabitants of the earth who dwell in Asia that are Negroes and said to be Jews. The blood of Judah has not only mingled almost with all nations but also with the blood of Cain and they have mingled their seeds together. These Negro Jews may keep up all the outer ordinnances of the Jewish religion; they may have their sacrifices and they may perform all the religious ceremonies any people on earth could perform; but let me tell you that the day they consented to mingle their seed with Canaan, the priesthood was taken away from Judah and that portion of Judah's seed will never get any rule, or blessings of the priesthood until Cain gets it.

"Let this [Mormon] Church which is called the Kingdom of God on the earth. We will summon the First Presidency, the Twelve, the High Council, the Bishopric and all the Elders of Israel. Suppose we summon them to appear here and here declare that it is right to mingle our seed with the Black race of Cain--that they shall come in with us and be partakers with us of all the blessings God has given to us.

"On that very day and hour we should do so, the priesthood is taken from this Church and Kingdom and God leaves us to our fate. The moment we consent to mingle with the seed of Cain the [Mormonm] Church must go to destruction--we should receive the curse which has been placed upon the seed of Cain and never more be numbered with the children of Adam who are heirs to the priesthood until that curse be removed.

"Therefore, I will not consent for one moment to have an African dictate [to] me or any Brethren, with regard to [Mormon] Church or State Government. I may vary in my viewes from others and they may think I am foolish in the things I have spoken and think that they know more than I do, but I know I know more than they do.

"If the Africans cannot bear rule in the [Mormon] Church of God, what business have they to bear rule in the State and Government affairs of this Territory or any others?

"I[n] the Government affairs of States and Territories and Kingdoms, by right God should govern. He should rule over nations and control kings. If we suffer the Devil to rule over us, we shall not accomplish any good. I want the Lord to rule and be our Governor and and Dictator--and we are the boys to execute.

"I shall not consent for a moment to give way to a Gentile Spirit of contention, which is the cause of ang[er]--difference to the alienations of every good feeling. It is for you and I to take a course, to bind our feelings together in an everlasting bond of union inasmuch as we love the Lord, which we ought to do more than selves.

"Consequently I will not consent for a moment to have the children of Cain rule me nor my Brethren. No, it is not right.

"But say some, is there any thing of this kind in the Constitution, the U.S. has given us? If you will allow me the privilege telling right out, it is none of their damned business what we do or say here. What we do . . . is for them to sanction and then for us to say what we like about it. It is written right out in the Constitution, 'that every free White male inhabitant above the age of 21 years,' etc.

"My mind is the same to day as when we where poring over that Constitution; any light upon the subject is the same; my judgement is the same, only a little more so.

"Perhaps I have said enough upon this subject. I have given you the true principles and doctrine. No man can vote for me or my Brethren in this Territory who has not the privilege of acting in [Mormon] Church affairs. Every man and woman and child in this Territory are citizens; to say the contrary is all nonsense to me.

"The Indians are citizens, the Africans are citizens and the Jews tha[t] come from Asia that are almost entirely of the blood of Cain. It is our duty to take care of them and administer to them in all the acts of humanity and kindness; they shall have the right of citizenship, but shall not have the right to dictate in [Mormon] Church and State matters.

"The abolitionists of the East have cirest them [?] and their whole argument [is] calculated to darken counsel, as it was here yesterday. As for our bills passing here, we may lay the foundation for what? For men to come here from Africa or elsewhere by hundreds of thousands? When these men come here from the Islands, are they going to hold offices in Government? No. It is for men who understand the knowlege of Government affairs to hold such offices and on the other make provisions for them to plow and to reap and enjoy all that human beings can enjoy and we protect them in it.

"Do we know how to ameliorate the condition of these people? We do. Supose that five thousands of them come from the Pacific Islands, and 10 or 15 thousands from Japan or from China. Not one soul of them would know how to vote for a Government officer. They therefore ought no in the first thing have anything to do in Government affairs.

"What the Gentiles are doing, we are consenting [for them] to do. What we are trying to do today is to make the Negro equal with us in all our privilege.

"My voice shall be against all the day long. I shall not consent for one moment. I will call them a council. I say I will not consent for one moment for you to lay a plan to bring a curse upon this people. I[t] shall not be while I am here."

("Curse of Cain? Racism in the Mormon Church," Appendix A: Speech by Gov. Young in Joint Session of the Legislature, [Territory of Utah] . . . Giving His Views on Slavery," 5 February 1852, in "Brigham Young Addresses," Ms d 1234, Box 48, folder 3, LDS Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah, typescript by H. Michael Marquardt, corrected here for spelling, grammar and punctuation, original uncorrected version at: http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/curseofcain_appendix_a.htm)


The spinning and downplaying by LDS apologists of Mormon Church-sanctioned and -practiced slavery (along with its politically-calculated and conveniently-timed flip-flopping on the matter) is concisely countered by RfM poster "oddcouplet":

"[Joseph] Smith and the early [Mormon] Church waffled quite a bit on slavery. Generally, they were against it when they were headquartered in a free state such as Ohio and Illinois, and supportive of it when they were in a slave state such as Missouri. The generally pro-slavery Missourians were very sensitive about this and the suspicion that the Mormons were predominantly abolitionist was probably one of the factors that contributed to the friction in Missouri.

"Utah was a different story. The Kansas-Nebraska Act permitted each territory to decide whether or not it wanted slavery. UTAH WAS THE ONLY TERRITORY THAT VOTED TO BECOME A SLAVE TERRITORY [emphasis added].

"At any one time during the period from slavery's adoption by the [Utah] territorial legislature in 1852 until its abolition by federal order in 1862, there were about 30 African-American slaves in Utah. There were many more enslaved Indians, though there's no way to be sure of the exact number."

("Re: 'Joseph Smith and Slavery,'" by "oddcouplet," on "Recovery from Mormonism" discussion board, 5 March 2012, at: http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,433528,434315#msg-434315)
_____


--Exhibit B

A Blessing from the Bigots: Black Mormon-"Owned" Slaves in Heaven--Only the Best for the "Cursed"

One such Mormon-"owned" slave was Jane Elizabeth Manning James--otherwise known among her Mormon friends and White overseers as "Aunt Jane."

Aunt Jane was a faithful Black Mormon convert who worked in the household of Joseph and Emma Smith. After years of faithful belief and devotion to clean-up duty, she had the audacity to repeatedly petition the leaders of the Mormon Church to be sealed via temple endowment to her husband, but was denied her request by the Quorum of the Twelve.

Instead, she was made to settle for her White "owner," Joseph Smith--as his slave for time and all eternity:

"The Territory of Utah gave up the practice of slavery along with the slave-holding states; however, the fact that they countenanced it when it was being practiced shows how insensitive they were to the feelings of black people. Even after the slaves were set free the Mormons continued to talk against blacks. In the year 1884, Angus M. Cannon said that 'a colored man . . . is not capable of receiving the Priesthood, and can never reach the highest Celestial glory of the Kingdom of God.' ('The Salt Lake Tribune,' October 5, 1884)

"The idea that Blacks were inferior and should only be servants to the Whites persisted in Mormon theology. In fact, Mormon leaders seemed to feel that Blacks would still be servants in heaven. On August 26, 1908, President Joseph F. Smith related that a Black woman was sealed as a servant to Joseph Smith:

"'The same efforts he said had been made by Aunt Jane to receive her endowments and be sealed to her husband and have her children sealed to their parents and her appeal was made to all the Presidents from President Young down to the present First Presidency. But President Cannon conceived the idea that, under the circumstances, it would be proper to permit her to go to the temple to be adopted to the Prophet Joseph Smith as his servant and this was done. This seemed to ease her mind for a little while but did not satisfy her, and she still pleaded for her endowments.' ('Excerpts From The Weekly Council Meetings Of The Quorum Of The Twelve Apostles,' as printed in 'Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?,' p. 584).

"The idea that a Black is only worthy of the position of a servant has deep roots in Mormon theology. Mark E. Petersen, . . . [former] Apostle in the church, once said that if a 'Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get celestial glory.' ('Race Problems-As They Affect The Church,' a speech delivered at Brigham Young University, August 27, 1954)."

(Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Changing the Anti-Black Doctrine," Chapter 10, Part 1, in "The Changing World of Mormonism," Utah Lighthouse Ministry, at: http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech10a.htm)


Jane Elizabeth Manning James (1813-1908)--even in faith, a victim of Mormon bigotry, RIP:

"Jane Elizabeth Manning was born in Wilton, Connecticut, one of five children of Isaac and Phyllis Manning, a free black family. Although Jane was a member of the local Presbyterian Church, she remained spiritually unfulfilled until 1842 when she heard the message of a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . . . .

"Soon afterwards she joined the Mormon Church. One year following her conversion, Jane Elizabeth and several family members who had also converted decided to move to Nauvoo, Illinois, the headquarters of the Mormon Church. After traveling by boat to Buffalo, New York, the African-American Mormons, unable to pay additional fares, began an eight-hundred-mile journey by foot to Nauvoo. In Nauvoo, Jane lived and worked in the home of Joseph Smith, Jr. the founder of the LDS Church and his wife, Emma.

"Following the 1844 murder of Joseph Smith, Jr. and his brother Hyrum in Carthage, Illinois, Mormon leaders under Brigham Young decided to abandon Nauvoo and look for a safe haven in the West away from forces hostile to the LDS Church.

"In the fall of 1847, Jane, her husband Isaac James whom she married in 1841, and two sons traveled across the plains to the new home of the LDS Church in the Salt Lake Valley. They were the first free black pioneers in the Mormon settlement and Jane would spend the remaining fifty-one years of her life in Utah. They shared the hardships of their fellow Mormons and engaged in the spirit of mutual aid and cooperation that characterized LDS pioneer life.

"By the 1880s Jane became increasingly concerned about her place in the afterlife. Well aware of the LDS Church's proscriptions that prohibited Blacks from full participation in the rituals that were prerequisite to being eligible for a place in the celestial kingdom, she nonetheless argued for an exemption because of her faith.

"'Is there no blessing for me?,' she asked Church leaders for more than a decade. Those leaders refused her requests. They attempted to pacify her by authorizing her limited participation in LDS rituals.

"Through it all, Jane Manning James remained a devout Mormon and is generally recognized in LDS history for her unwavering faith. Jane Manning James died in Salt Lake City in 1908.

"A special monument to her is located in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, close to her gravesite, to commemorate her life and faith."

(Ronald G. Coleman, "'Is There No Blessing for Me?': Jane Elizabeth Manning James, A Mormon African American Woman," in Quintard Taylor and Shirley Ann Moore Wilson, eds., "African American Women Confront the West," 1600-2000 [Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press 2003], at: http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/james-jane-elizabeth-manning-1813-1908)


Ahhhhh, how sweetly described--and deceptively presented.

That "limited participation in LDS rituals," as it is euphemistically described above, is more fully laid out on pp. 152-157 of Coleman's biography of "Aunt Jane." There it is painfully detailed how, despite her faithfulness--and only because of her so-called "cursed" race--she was relentlessly denied her personal plea for access to the Mormon temple for her own family sealing endowment.

The First Presidency also rejected her request to be adopted, via temple sealing, into the family of Joseph and Emma Smith, in whose home she faithfully worked as a servant.

The First Presidency eventually, out of the kindness of their white-and-delightsome hearts, did permit her to be eternally sealed to Joseph Smith as his servant.

(Tracking note: Google search "Ronald G. Coleman Manning." Up will come "African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000 -Google Books Result." Click on that and Coleman's article will appear).


More on the patronizing treatment "Aunt Jane" received from the Mormon Church:

" . . . [H]ave you wondered why Jane walked to Nauvoo? It was because white Mormons would not allow her to ride with them or assist her in paying for passage. And once she arrived in Nauvoo the Beautiful, that 'Zion on the Mississippi,' she was either rebuffed or ignored by her fellow Saints, until finally someone pointed out Joseph Smith's home to her.

"Once she finally did meet Smith, he made Jane his house servant, and when Smith was murdered in 1844, Brigham Young then took in Jane James as his servant as well. Despite her faithful service to the Church and its wealthy presidents, she lived most of her life in abject poverty.

"She arrived in the new Zion of Utah among the first of the Saints in September 1847, the first free Black woman in the territory, only to find that slavery was already being practiced there. Mormon Apostle Charles C. Rich owned slaves in Utah, which must have been a great trial of her faith. The only Western State or Territory to practice slavery was Utah.

"She wished to be 'sealed' to her loved ones for all eternity just like the white-skinned members of the congregation were allowed to be. For all of her sacrifice, the highest eternal blessing the Mormon church could offer Joseph Smith's former house servant was to 'seal' her to Joseph Smith as his servant forever.

"The words recited at this ceremony were that she was 'to be attached as a Servitor for eternity to the prophet Joseph Smith and in this capacity be connected with his family and be obedient to him in all things in the Lord as a faithful Servitor.'

"In essence, an eternal slave, bound to service a white master for eternity."

(For more on this final above account, along with a photograph of Jane Manning, see: "Nauvoo Pageant 2007: Just Who is Jane Manning?," in "Mormon Home Evening: Official Blog of Mormon Missions Midwest Outreach," 17 July 2007, at: http://mormonhomeevening.blogspot.com/2007/07/nauvoo-pageant-2007just-who-is-jane.html)
_____


--Exhibit C

The Mormon Church's Celestial Kingdom Entry Requirement for Blacks: If You're Good, We'll Let You In--As Servants--but Only If Your Skin Color is Beautifully White

President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Joseph Fielding Smith, in his book, “Answers to Gospel Questions,” declared:

“ . . . [I]f a Negro joins the [Mormon] Church through the waters of baptism and is confirmed by the laying on of hands and then he remains faithful and true to the teachings of the Church and in keeping the commandments the Lord has given, he will come forth in the first resurrection and will enter the celestial kingdom of God. . . . The Negro who accepts the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is entitled to salvation in the Celestial Kingdom of the highest heaven spoken of by Paul.

"'It is true that the work of the ministry is given to other peoples and why should the so-called Christian denominations complain? How many Negroes have been placed as ministers over white congregations in the so-called Christian denominations? It appears that a great deal of noise has been made over a problem that does not really exist or is not peculiar to the Latter-day Saints.'

"' . . . Mormons. . . can do more for the Negro than any other church on the face of the earth.'"

(Jospeh Fielding Smith, "Answers to Gospel Questions," vol. 2, p. 55, quoted in John Lewis Lund, “The Church and the Negro: A Discussion of Mormons, Negroes and the Priesthood,” Chapter VII, “What is the Status of the Negro in the Mormon Church?” [John Lewis Lund, copyright 1967], pp. 58-59)


What Mormons conveniently fail to note, of course, is their deep-seated, ugly belief that even if Mormons of African descent attain the highest level of the LDS Celestial Kingdom, they will only manage to do so through a mandatory process that involves their skin color being changed to white in order for them to reside among Mormon Whites and their White Mormon God.

Lund, in a chapter in his book headlined, “Church Leaders Speak Out on the Negro Question,” points to the case of Black Mormon convert Jane Manning James as an example of a Mormon of African descent making it to heaven--but only after having been turned White, literally.

As noted above, Jane Elizabeth Manning James (aka, "Aunt Jane") was a house servant to Joseph and Emma Smith in Nauvoo who--despite her unswerving faithfulness of 65 years to Mormonism--was denied the right by the White racists in the Mormon Church's First Presidency to be temple-sealed to her own family; instead, they had her officially sealed to Joseph Smith as his servant throughout eternity.

But being celestialized came with a catch: “Aunt Jane” first had to be "sanitized" because, according to White supremacist Mormon church doctrine, she had been born into a “cursed” lineage.

In order for her to be with Smith in the highest Mormon heaven, this Black woman would first have to have her "cursed" skin bleached white. The edict of Mormon church president Wilford Woodruff was clear, as Lund explains:

“Wilford Woodruff said about the Negro, 'The day will come when all that race will be redeemed and possess all the blessings that we now have,'"

Lund explains how this color-cleansing would work before this Black woman would be allowed into Mormon heaven to be Joseph Smith's forever slave:

“In [Matthias F.] Cowley's book, 'Wilford Woodruff' [p. 587], the following story is told:

“'There is one peculiar characteristic noticeable in the journal ow Wilford Woodruff., . . . [He] love to dwell upon the good deeds of others . . . . . He said in his journal of o of October, that year [1894], that 'Aunt Jane,' the colored sister, had been to see him She was anxious to go through the Temple and receive the highest ordinances of the Gospel. President Woodruff blessed her for her constant, never changing devotion to the Gospel but explained to her her disadvantages as one of the descendants of Cain.

“”In after years, when President Joseph F. Smith preached the funeral sermon of this same faithful woman, he declared that she would, in the resurrection, attain the longing of her soul and become a white and beautiful person.”

(John Lewis Lund, “The Church and the Negro: A Discussion of Mormons, Negroes and the Priesthood,” Chapter IX, pp. 85-86; see also, William E. Berrett, “The Church and the Negroid People,” historical supplement, in John J. Stewart, “Mormonism and the Negro: An Explanation and Defense of the Doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Regard to Negroes and Others of Negroid Blood” [Orem, Utah: Bookmark, a Division of Community Press Publishing Company, 1960], p. 16 of supplement)


The primitively racist comments of Mormon apostle Mark E. Petersen speak for themselves. On 27 August 1954 in an address to a BYU convention of LDS religion teachers entitled “Race Problems--As They Affect the Church,” he informed the audience that "[i]f that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get a celestial resurrection."

*****


These days one does not often see Mormons openly pointing out that, according to their Church's top “prophet, seer and revelator,” any faithful Mormon Black person will, in the end, “enter the Celestial Kingdom” as “a white and beautiful person.”

Perhaps even for the Mormon Church's most abject apologists, this might be too racist to strut in front of decent company.

Don't put it past them, though, to tenderly harbor it in the bigoted recesses of their white-and-delightsome hearts.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/2013 11:10PM by steve benson.

Hey if you can't make a case, just copy & paste.

Reasonable rates for logic lessons from a professional philosopher . . . you can even take MLK Blvd there if you like.

I'll teach you about anecdotal fallacy, which is what your latest copy job is.

You can post story after story of stupid things Mormon apostles said and still not make the case that Utah is worse than Mississippi.

2 Lynchings vs 500+ lynchings. A ratio of 250:1--- but go copy & paste another poorly written article about mean things some Utahns said.

that's the difference between racism in a state like Utah and a state in the South. Utah is probably one the last few places in the USA where a person could grow up and live without seeing any black people at all except in the cinema or on television. In contrast, many small towns in the South are in minority majority areas and most of the white people in town interact with blacks either at work or school -- but not at home as friends. This has changed in recent years to some extent but southern blacks and whites still go to separate churches, bars, social events, etc.

I have a few friends I've made over the years, really gentle and authentic sorts, and I don't think you can generalize about their culture here. They live in various neighborhoods within the city, and there's less of the "concentration" in the Central City neighborhood there was when I was young.

JMHO, but racism is slowly "on its way out here" no doubt because the LDS Church finally "came out against it" and is telling its memmbers they shouldn't be that way and of course, never were (and is re-writing its horrible history on that subject as fast and as furiously as it can shake the Etch-a-Sketch). One factor that appears to be moving things forward more quickly is there doesn't seem to be the "cultural guilt" that the South has over slavery.

Without straying too far into politics, I think the latent racism here is on par with the other "red" states, based on the irrational hatred of our African-American President. Our country is still a work in progress on that one...

Here's a bit of Salt Lake's racist past that one would hopes would make Paula Deen blush, but alas, I think otherwise...

http://www.coonchickeninn.com/history/history.html

JUst stating the facts of what I have seen on my mission in the Dirty South...that of the two dozen MLK Blvds I have rode my bicycle down, every last one of them where in the dirtiest most rundown areas of the towns, and were talking worse than anything you will see in the hoods of SLC and Ogden. So it doesnt suprise me that Utah's arent the purdiest.

Maybe MLKJr Boulevard is not all that and a bag of chips.

But lots of Lamanites have moved to this hopelessly Racist place from Mexico lindo y querido.

I'm not complaining; I'm bragging. Now if they would just start voting so they can change our liquor laws.