Latter-day Saints And Racism

After the assassination of Smith, Brigham Young led the LDS Church to settle Utah. Slavery issues often coincided with attempts at statehood. Church leaders were frequently forced to address the position of the church concerning the Negro race. Church elders, including Young, often spoke out against slavery in the South, but the increasing number of black migrations into the territory of Utah between 1847-1850 began to complicate the feeling of many Church leaders. Young and several other Church apostles were often quick to remark on the dangers of racial intermixture especially through marriage. Young believed that any white man guilty of mingling “his seed with the seed of Cane…. could redeem himself” or “have salvation” only by having “his head cut off” and “his Blood [spilt] on the ground”7 According to the Compromise of 1850 the territory of Utah was left open to slavery. A U.S. census taken in 1860 calculated that Twenty-nine slaves resided in the Utah territory8. In 1852 Utah territorial legislature outlawed all black-white racial intermixture, as well as the right of African Americans to vote, hold public office, and joining the Territorial militia9. Church leaders for the first time began to speak out publicly about their practice of black priesthood denial. Elders further affirmed the subordinate position of Blacks by barring them from any Temple visitation rights. Any marriage that occurred by African American members of the Church could not take place at a Mormon temple.

A large portion of the Book of Mormon describes the history of several pre-Christian civilizations that existed throughout America. A group of Israelites lead by a righteous man named Nephi established a society of god loving people. Nephi’s two brothers Laman and Lemuel rose up against their brother and formed a band of dissidents that rejected Nephi’s religious ideas. The righteous people came to be called the Nephites, while the nomadic dissidents were called Lamanites. The Lamanites were cursed by the Lord with the skin of darkness and became known as “a dark, and loathsome, and filthy people full of idleness and all manner of Abomination”1. Eventually the nations of the Amlicites and the Zoramites were cast with dark skin and joined the Lamanites. The Nephite ultimately turned ungodly and became extinct due to numerous battles fought both among themselves and with the Lamanites.

In1974 the NAACP filled a lawsuit with a Federal court against the Church in support of Byron Marchant, an African-American Mormon scoutmaster14. Mormon-sponsored Boy Scout troops required any senior patrol leaders to hold the title of priesthood, thus blacks were excluded. As a result to the lawsuit the Church reversed it’s discriminatory policy against scoutmasters’. Further attempts to segregate African-Americans are evident through the formation of the Genesis Group. The Genesis Group was formed for the estimated two hundred black Mormons who resided in Salt Lake City. The group held meeting in a chapel that was also used for several branches of the Liberty Stake.

The inability of the Church to avoid social pressures was most likely the main reason for the revelation. Negative media, criticism from the African American community, threats of civil rights lawsuits, and internal disarray reached a boiling point. Furthermore the spread of the Church to multi-racial countries located in Central and South America and Asia made it increasingly difficult to point out which members of the Church contained the so-called seed of Cain. Allowing equal rights for African-Americans allowed the Church to vastly expand its missionary work to urban Cities in the United States as well as to African Countries. Studies conducted by the Church as of January 1, 1980 provided information on the increase of diversity among Mormon members living abroad: South America contained a total of over three-hundred thousand memb

Some topics in this essay:
African Americans, Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, Utah Slavery, South America, Spencer Kimball, Book Mormon, Capitol Building, County July, South Civil, church leaders, african americans, mormon church, joseph smith, black priesthood, black priesthood denial, salt lake, priesthood denial, subordinate role, prophet joseph, civil rights, prophet joseph smith, church jesus christ, christ latter-day saints, hold title priesthood,