You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind. The first man that committed the odious crime of killing of one his brethren [Cain] will be cursed the longest of any children of Adam ... [T]he Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and the black skin. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses VII:290
You may inquire of the intelligent of the world whether they can tell why the aborigines of this country are dark, loathsome, ignorant, and sunken into the depths of degradation ... When the Lord has a people, he makes covenants with them and gives unto them promises: then, if they transgress his law, change his ordinances, and break his covenants he has made with them, he will put a mark upon them, as in the case of the Lamanites and other portions of the house of Israel; but by-and-by they will become a white and delightsome people. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses VII:336
Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man mixes who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses X:110, second president
Our doctrine is right. There is no deception in it. It requires no argument, for it is a self-evident fact. Still, when we meddle with that which we know nothing about, we are apt to fall into error and differ; but we have so much which we do know, and think about and talk about, that we have no time to speculate about that which we do not know. We know that God lives. Brigham Young X:327
Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a sin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the Holy Priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses XI:272
Why is it, in fact, that we should have a devil? Why did the Lord not kill him long ago? Because he could not do without him. He needed the devil and a great many of those who do his bidding to keep men straight, that we may learn to place our dependence on God, and trust in Him, and to observe his laws and keep his commandments. When he destroyed the inhabitants of the antediluvian world, he suffered a descendant of Cain to come through the flood in order that he might be properly represented upon the earth. John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 23:336, third president
Any man having one drop of the seed of Cane in him cannot hold the priesthood and if no other Prophet ever spake it before I will say it now in the name of Jesus Christ, I know it is true and they know it. The Negro cannot hold one particle of Government ... Let me consent today to mingle my seed with the seed of Cane. It would bring the same curse upon me. And it would upon any man. And if any man mingles his seed with the seed of Cane the only way he could get rid of it or have salvation would be to come forward and have his head cut off and spill his blood upon the ground. It would also take the life of his children. Wilford Woodruff Journal 4:97-99 February 1852, fourth president
Their skin is quite black, their hair woolly and black, their intelligence stunted, and they appear never to have arisen from the most savage state of barbarism. The Juvenile Instructor 3:157
In fact we believe it to be a great sin in the eyes of our Heavenly Father for a white person to marry a black one. And further, that it is a proof of the mercy of God that no such race appear to be able to continue for many generations. ibid. 3:165
From this it is very clear that the mark which was set upon the descendants of Cain was a skin of blackness, and there can be no doubt that this was the mark that Cain himself received; in fact, it has been noticed in our day that men who have lost the spirit of the Lord, and from whom his blessings have been withdrawn, have turned dark to such an extend as to excite the comments of all who have known them. Juvenile Instructor 26:635
If we sit with Negroes at our tables, if we entertain them as our guests and social equals, if we disregard the color line in all other relations, is it possible to maintain it fixedly in the sexual relation, in the marriage of our sons and daughters, in the propagation of our species? Unquestionably, No! ... Is the South justified in this absolute denial of social equality to the Negro, no matter what his virtues or abilities or accomplishments? We affirm, then, that the South is entirely right in thus keeping open at all times, at all hazards, and at all sacrifices an impassable social chasm between Black and White. This she must do in behalf of her blood, her essence, of the stock of her Caucasian Race. William Benjamin Smith, The Color Line, cited approvingly B H Roberts, First Year Book in the Seventy’s Course in Theology pp231-33, 1931
The moment the bar of absolute separation is thrown down in the south, that moment the bloom of her spirit is blighted forever ... That the negro is markedly inferior to the Caucasian is proved both craniologically and by six thousand years of planet-wide experimentation; and that the commingling of inferior with superior must lower the higher is just as certain as that the half-sum of two and six is only four. ibid.
Slaves are real estate in this and other states. Missouri Evening and Morning Star 1833
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. W W Phelps, editor ‘Missouri Evening and Mormon Star’
Where can be the common sense of any wishing to see the slaves of the south set at liberty ... Such a thing could not take place without corrupting all civil and wholesome society, of both the north and the south! Let the Blacks of the South be free and our community is overrun with paupers and a reckless mass of human beings, uncultivated, untaught and unaccustomed to provide for themselves the necessaries of life – endangering the chastity of every female who might by chance be found in our streets – our prisons filled with convicts, and the hangman wearied with executing the functions of his office! ... [T]he project of emancipation is destructive to our government and the notion of amalgamation is devilish! – And insensible to feeling must be the heart, and low indeed must be the mind, that would consent for a moment, to see his fair daughter, his sister, or perhaps, his bosom companion, in the embrace of a negro! Messenger and Advocate vol 2 pp299-301
O, stop and tell me, Red Man,
Who are you, why you roam,
And how you get your living;
Have you no God, no home? Hymn 292 verse 1 1887
Great Spirit! Listen to the red man’s wail!
Thou hast the power to help him in his woe,
Thy mighty arm was never known to fail;
Great Chieftain! Save him from the pale-faced foe. Hymn 313 verse 1 1887
June 4, 1879 – John Taylor and apostles decline to allow Elijah Abel to receive temple endowment because his is Negroid, even though Abel received Melchizedek priesthood with Joseph Smith’s authorization. This African American regularly attends his Seventy’s quorum meetings and serves proselytising mission just before his death. Deconstructor, board post ‘Explain the Prophets (Great Moments in Mormon History)’
And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. II Nephi 5:21 (uncensored version)
Skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion. Alma 3:6
O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God. Jacob 3:88
We believe it just to preach the gospel to the nations of the earth, and warn the righteous to save themselves from the corruption of the world; but we do not believe it right to interfere with bond-servants, neither preach the gospel to, nor baptize them contrary to the will and wish of their masters, nor to meddle with or influence them in the least to cause them to be dissatisfied with their situations in this life, thereby jeopardizing the lives of men; such interference we believe to be unlawful and unjust, and dangerous to the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in servitude. Doctrine & Covenants 134:12
A colored man ... is not capable of receiving the Priesthood, and can never reach the highest Celestial glory of the Kingdom of God. Angus M Cannon, cited The Salt Lake Tribune 5th October 1884
If the Deseret News is careful not to offend [Nazi] Germany, and I gather ... that it is falling backwards on the attempt, it is my guess that first of all the Church is afraid of complete banishment. Fawn Brodie
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.’ Steve Benson, board post 14th October 2009, ‘Given LDS Doctrine and Practice, Dallin Oaks Has no Moral Authority to Lecture Anyone on Civil Rights’ citing Jeff Jacoby, The Death of American Racism
The premise that the Mormon Church’s official racist doctrines have supposedly been left unclear by speculation and opinion based on limited understanding is a deliberately-peddled falsehood that, as the historical record proves, was not demonstrated in the official doctrinal position statements of (drum roll, please) the Mormon Church’s own First Presidencies. Key evidence of that reality is demonstrated by First Presidency pronouncements issued during the leadership tenure of George Albert Smith (and supported by back-channel counselor writings from said First Presidency). Indeed, that First Presidency provided various scriptural and historical defenses of not only the Mormon Church’s official Black priesthood ban, but also of the Church’s official position against interracial marriage with Blacks ...