The following two paragraphs are from a combination of articles and publication written about the Black 14 at the University of Wyoming. “The Black 14” historical documentary written by Mike McElreath, Tony Pedersen, and Steve Costin. Produced by Dr. Niyi Coker Jr.
On October 18, 1969, fourteen African American football players were kicked off the University of Wyoming football team for taking a stance against unfair religious practices. The night before a critical game against their traditional rival Brigham Young University, an institution affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a simple black armband stood in the way of these fourteen players and their much anticipated game. Their reasons for wanting to wear black armbands during the football game was a way to protest against what they considered to be the racist policy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, more commonly known as the LDS or Mormon Church. In 1969, the Mormon Church did not allow African Americans to hold the priesthood. This prevented African Americans from blessing, preparing or passing the sacrament, from administering sacred ordinances such as baptisms, confirmations, or priesthood blessings, and from holding leadership positions in the church.
The protest by the players was to coincide with a nonviolent protest planned by the Black Student Alliance at the University of Wyoming. Although it was a simple, silent protest, the coach refused their request to wear armbands. As published in the local newspaper, “Not only did Coach Eaton kick the players off the team he lectured to them heatedly in the War Memorial Fieldhouse that same day, demeaning them, according to the players and another witness.” When the players tried to speak, he told them to “shut up”. After long intense meetings, the University’s officials and the Governor of the State supported the coach’s decision in removing the players from the team. The coach not only stripped these football players of their athletic status, but he denied them the right to stand up for something they believed in. Some may view the coach’s decision as a racial insult. The attention of the Black 14 incident by the national media was immediate. These players historically became known as the Black 14.
This important piece of Wyoming history exemplifies past racial policy and supporting doctrine that has inspired me to look more into the details of the Mormon religion; which is viewed by some as a religious institution with past racist ideology. For the past two years I have studied and researched the Mormon Church’s views on culture and race by examining the teachings and historical research associated with the central teaching that associated dark skin with a curse of Cain and Ham. My research has lead me to presenting and analyzing key factors that have been debated over and over. I have examined historical events, political policies and sacred text that have been used to justify discrimination and stereotypes towards blacks. I hope to shed light on the negative identity associated with the curse of dark skin that can damage understanding and embracing diversity of other cultures. In addition, I have analyzed theories used to justify the Church’s stance on denying blacks from receiving the Priesthood, and then what attempt they made to remedy the situation.
So, how did the ban of the priesthood on blacks come about? Many scholars have speculated on a number of reasons for the denial of the priesthood from blacks. I have analyzed a few of the religion-based reasoning arguments and explored some examples on how the Mormon Church has tried to sustain its racial ideology by using religious text to justify their teachings and beliefs. I have looked into four areas that I have identified as areas of debate within and outside the Mormon Church.
The first area is the acceptance of traditional American and European biblical teachings associated with the origins of blacks from the lineage of Cain and Ham, which can be seen in the teaching and translation from Joseph Smith’s Pearl of Great Price; second, the well documented and researched “Missouri thesis”; third, Brigham Young’s political influences in regards to gaining statehood; and fourth, the creation and development of the Genesis Group for black members in the Mormon Church. By exploring these areas I will attempt to analyze how black Mormons deal with and negotiate between defined cultural/racial identities that they cannot disassociation themselves from and religious beliefs and traditions that expect them to accept an inferior role to be accepted into the church. My argument is that religion can best be viewed as a network of relationships between social factors that can be translated over and over for one’s own purpose. As you will see, religion has been used as a tool to control the masses for one’s own purpose or profit.
Many scholars have theorized reasons why the Church withheld the Priesthood from blacks. The Book of Abraham from the Pearl of Great Price, another work written by Joseph Smith, refers to the people of Ham in Egypt as being ineligible from holding the Priesthood. This most likely was because a woman, Egyptus, daughter of Ham (son of Noah and father of Canaan) discovered the land of Egypt; so all descendents were thus forbidden to hold the Priesthood. Abraham Chapter 1 verse 27 states, “Now, Pharaoh, being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood…through Ham, therefore my father was led away by their idolatry.” Armand Mauss states, “No reason or explanation is provided in the scripture for this proscription, and nothing in any of the scriptures connects the lineage of the pharaohs to black Africans in general.” Because Canaan, son of Ham, was cursed to be a servant unto his brethren by Noah, resembling black slavery, there is vague correlation between Egyptians, descendants of Canaan and blacks, yet still no lineage lines. Thus, one can speculate that sacred text has been used or directed as a tool to control and oppress groups of people.
Mauss also argues, “Joseph Smith clearly identified the Church with the tribe of Ephraim as yearly as November 1831. But such identification at the early date was more symbolic than literal.” Joseph Smith never intended the translation of the curse of black skin to be taken literally and he did not restrict the Priesthood from any lineage during his lifetime. Joseph Smith is believed to have been present when Elijah Abel was ordained with Priesthood blessings. Elijah Abel a free African American became the first black to hold the Priesthood. Smith never made a formal declaration as to who does or does not qualify to hold the priesthood and many of his writings and quotes show he was rather indecisive on this matter. He stated, “I can say, that the curse is not yet taken off the sons of Canaan, neither will be until it is affected by as great power as caused it to come; and the people who interfere the least with the decrees and purposes of God in this matter, will come under the least condemnation before him.” Here he is justifying the use of black slavery rather than condemning blacks from receiving the priesthood. Joseph Smith seems to have believed that blacks should be allowed to receive the priesthood while concurrently reasoning them to be fit for slavery. Some authors, such as Fawn Mckay Brodie suggest that Joseph Smith may have believed that slavery went even further than the curse of Ham by linking blacks to the premortal existence when one-third were neutral in their decision of whom to follow (Christ or Lucifer), but joined the victors and were cursed for that reason.
Another theory regarding the Mormon’s stance on blacks and the Priesthood demonstrates a political rather than religious reason. Steven L.Taggart’s heavily researched work Mormonism’s Negro Policy: Social and Historical Origins, first published in 1970 states that the Church “had no explicit doctrine regarding slavery when it entered Missouri.” The “Missouri thesis” was introduced in the late twentieth century as part of the new Mormon history. This thesis traces the denial of the priesthood from blacks to conflicts between Mormons and non-Mormons in the Slave State of Missouri in the 1830s. Many believe that the Mormons who migrated to this Slave State from Free states, like New York and Ohio, felt that in order to avoid further misunderstanding and persecution for their religious beliefs; they adopted anti-black policies and took a pro-slavery stance. Consequently, this included restricting blacks from holding the priesthood. Taggart says, “This was done to ‘reduce the conflict’ between the Latter-day Saints and their non-Mormon Missouri neighbors.” Thomas Tweed elaborates on the subject of crossing and dwelling, in which the Mormon pioneers were doing until their move to the west. Tweed writes, “Religions are organic-cultural flows, then is to suggest they are confluences of organic channels and cultural currents that conjoin to create institutional networks that, in turn, prescribe, transmit, and transform tropes, beliefs, values, emotions, artifacts, and rituals.” Tweed’s argument that religious interpretations of cultural trajectories cannot ignore the outside influences and demands makes sense in regards to the continuance migration of the Mormons from place to place in search of a religious Zion.
Furthermore, Bruce Lincoln explores the connection between religion and role of structures that hold the power and control. Lincoln argues, “The dominant fraction disseminates a characteristic ideology through all segments of society, propounding a set of fundamental values and principles that, while expressed in terms of lofty abstraction or eternal truth, nevertheless serves to further the interests of those who hold power.” This goes to show that history of religion can and will continue to be translated by the ones with the strongest/loudest voice and most power.
Brigham Young, the second president of the Church had different views than Joseph Smith on black policies, and some theorize that he had much influence on denying blacks the priesthood not for religious purposes, but for political profit. Lester Bush writes, “Joseph Smith did not connect that lineage [Egyptians] to any restriction on the priesthood and did not withhold the priesthood from black church members during his lifetime; the restriction emerged gradually during the 1840s and was formally introduced only in 1852 by Brigham Young, who then connected it to the lineage of Cain; and then resorted to the Book of Abraham to justify denial of the priesthood occurred only after the work was formally canonized late in the nineteenth century.” Young was so eager for Utah to gain statehood that he agreed Utah would become a slave state. At the time of awarding statehood to the newly acquired west, the federal government was alternating between awarding each territory the title of Slave State and Free State. Because of Young’s desires to have control over moral and civil laws, he used the teaching of Cain and the curse of Cain to religiously justify his reasoning about denying the priesthood from blacks. According to Taggart, “The Book of Abraham suggests that Noah’s son Ham perpetuated the seed of Cain through his wife, Egyptus, who was Canaanite descent, and that consequently Ham’s descendants were forbidden to hold the priesthood.” Mormon Church leaders were stretching to find religious text that could be used to justify their racist ideology. Young continued to seek out other sacred texts that could strengthen his argument by using the Book of Moses Chapter 5 verse 25, “And it shall be said in time to come-That these abominations were had from Cain; for he rejected the greater counsel which was had from God; and this is a cursing which I will put upon thee, except thou repent.” Thus, misleading generation upon generation to believe that it was by the power of God that blacks and other minorities were not worthy to be ordained to priests or have any say in the Church’s leadership.
It was only in 1978 that the church altered rules that prohibited black men from holding the priesthood. Author of Minority Mormons, Emily Gurnon, writes, “The governing body received in that year what it called a revelation that blacks could fulfill all leadership roles.” This believed revelation from heaven was received by the president at the time, Spencer W. Kimball, who for years before his time as president of the Mormon Church struggled with the reasoning behind this ban of the priesthood. He was concerned about the image that was being portrayed of the Mormon Church toward blacks. Because of his concerns one of the first actions he took as president of the Church was to form the Genesis Group.
Spencer W. Kimball appointed Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson to develop and assist in the creation of the Genesis Group . The creation of the group served as a platform for blacks to speak their minds, without feeling the pressures of having to conform to a certain identity. The purpose of the group was two-fold; one to help retain black members of the church, by creating a welcoming environment that strengthened the voices of it members by explicitly celebrating and articulating the diverse experiences of its members; and two, to publicly show others that the Mormon Church is attempting to understand diversity and is welcoming to all groups of people. Both of these attempts have healed some of the historical racial
policies.
I have had the opportunity to become friends with one of those leaders. Darius Gray, former president of the Genesis Group is an amazing man with a great history. If you do not know him, I would encourage you to meet him.
Article from Mormon Times: "Football, racial issues--then understanding."
http://www.mormontimes.com/people_news/sports/?id=11320
Works cited:
The Laramie Daily Boomerang – May 22, 1998
This introduction is from a combination of articles and publication written about the Black 14 at the University of Wyoming. “The Black 14” historical documentary written by Mike McElreath, Tony Pedersen, and Steve Costin. Produced by Dr. Niyi Coker Jr.
Jeremiah Johnke. The Banding Iron. University of Wyoming Student Newspaper. November 12, 2002.
Translated by Joseph Smith. The Pearl of Great Price.
Armand Mauss. All Abraham’s Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage. University of Illinois Press. 2003. Page #238.
Newell G. Bringhurst and Darron T. Smith. Black and Mormon. University of Illinois Press. 2006. Page #25.
Thomas A. Tweed. Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion. Harvard University Press. 2006. Page # 69.
Bruce Lincoln. Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11. University of Chicago Press. 2003. Page # 79.
Armand Mauss. All Abraham’s Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage. University of Illinois Press. 2003. Page #240.
Newell G. Bringhurst and Darron T. Smith. Black and Mormon. University of Illinois Press. 2006. Page #16.
Translated by Joseph Smith. The Pearl of Great Price.
Emily Gurnon. “Minority Mormons.” Christian Century Vol. 111 Issue 5, February 16, 1994. Page 2 of article online. http://web.ebscohost.com.
The Genesis Group still actively meets on the first Sunday of every month in Utah to this day.
Transcript of Interview. Darius Gray. Utah’s African-American Voices. www.kued.org./production/voices/interviews/gray.htm.
Emily Gurnon. “Minority Mormons.” Christian Century Vol. 111 Issue 5, February 16, 1994. Page 2 of article online. http://web.ebscohost.com.
Ibid Page 2 of article online.
Newell G. Bringhurst and Darron T. Smith. Black and Mormon. University of Illinois Press. 2006. Page #121.
Victor Brown. “Minorities: A Latter-day Saint Definition.” New Era, September 1972
Armand Mauss. All Abraham’s Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage. University of Illinois Press. 2003. Page #231.
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