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Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness
Mormonism is one of the few homegrown religions in the United States, one that emerged out of the religious fervor of the early nineteenth century. Yet, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have struggled for status and recognition. In this book, W. Paul Reeve explores the ways in which nineteenth century Protestant white America made outsiders out of an inside religious group. Much of what has been written on Mormon otherness centers upon economic, cultural, doctrinal, marital, and political differences that set Mormons apart from mainstream America. Reeve instead looks at how Protestants racialized Mormons, using physical differences in order to define Mormons as non-White to help justify their expulsion from Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. He analyzes and contextualizes the rhetoric on Mormons as a race with period discussions of the Native American, African American, Oriental, Turk/Islam, and European immigrant races. He also examines how Mormon male, female, and child bodies were characterized in these racialized debates. For instance, while Mormons argued that polygamy was ordained by God, and so created angelic, celestial, and elevated offspring, their opponents suggested that the children were degenerate and deformed.
The Protestant white majority was convinced that Mormonism represented a racial-not merely religious-departure from the mainstream and spent considerable effort attempting to deny Mormon whiteness. Being white brought access to political, social, and economic power, all aspects of citizenship in which outsiders sought to limit or prevent Mormon participation. At least a part of those efforts came through persistent attacks on the collective Mormon body, ways in which outsiders suggested that Mormons were physically different, racially more similar to marginalized groups than they were white. Medical doctors went so far as to suggest that Mormon polygamy was spawning a new race. Mormons responded with aspirations toward whiteness. It was a back and forth struggle between what outsiders imagined and what Mormons believed. Mormons ultimately emerged triumphant, but not unscathed. Mormon leaders moved away from universalistic ideals toward segregated priesthood and temples, policies firmly in place by the early twentieth century. So successful were Mormons at claiming whiteness for themselves that by the time Mormon Mitt Romney sought the White House in 2012, he was labeled "the whitest white man to run for office in recent memory." Ending with reflections on ongoing views of the Mormon body, this groundbreaking book brings together literatures on religion, whiteness studies, and nineteenth century racial history with the history of politics and migration.
The Protestant white majority was convinced that Mormonism represented a racial-not merely religious-departure from the mainstream and spent considerable effort attempting to deny Mormon whiteness. Being white brought access to political, social, and economic power, all aspects of citizenship in which outsiders sought to limit or prevent Mormon participation. At least a part of those efforts came through persistent attacks on the collective Mormon body, ways in which outsiders suggested that Mormons were physically different, racially more similar to marginalized groups than they were white. Medical doctors went so far as to suggest that Mormon polygamy was spawning a new race. Mormons responded with aspirations toward whiteness. It was a back and forth struggle between what outsiders imagined and what Mormons believed. Mormons ultimately emerged triumphant, but not unscathed. Mormon leaders moved away from universalistic ideals toward segregated priesthood and temples, policies firmly in place by the early twentieth century. So successful were Mormons at claiming whiteness for themselves that by the time Mormon Mitt Romney sought the White House in 2012, he was labeled "the whitest white man to run for office in recent memory." Ending with reflections on ongoing views of the Mormon body, this groundbreaking book brings together literatures on religion, whiteness studies, and nineteenth century racial history with the history of politics and migration.
351 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 27, 2014
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About the author
W. Paul Reeve
11 books24 followersW. Paul Reeve is Chair of the History Department and Simmons Chair of Mormon Studies at the University of Utah where he teaches courses on Utah history, Mormon history, and the history of the U.S. West. His book, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness, (Oxford, 2015) received the Mormon History Association’s Best Book Award, the John Whitmer Historical Association’s Smith-Pettit Best Book Award, and the Utah State Historical Society’s Francis Armstrong Madsen Best History Book Award. In 2023, Deseret Book published his Let's Talk about Race and Priesthood, with a foreword by Darius Gray. He is the recipient of the Utah Council for the Social Studies’ University Teacher of the Year award. He is Project Manager and General Editor of a digital database, Century of Black Mormons, designed to identify all known Black Latter-day Saints baptized between 1830 and 1930. The database is live at http://centuryofblackmormons.org
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
June 2, 2016
Short review: This is a well-researched, fascinating look at an American-born religious group that has an intriguing history. If you’re interested in race, religion, history, or the overlap of all three, this is a must-read.
Long review:
I need to start this with a disclaimer that I’m a Mormon. Not only a Mormon, but a “Utah Mormon,” who has family members in the LDS/Mormon Church going back to 1830, the year that religion was founded. So that may bias my reading of this book. I’m also a history teacher, and I think that the history of the Mormons as a religion, as a culture, and as builders of a secular “kingdom” in the Western United States in the 19th Century is one of the most interesting and compelling stories in American history. Even then, I’ve never considered the story of the Mormons to be that of an entirely different race.
W. Paul Reeve, Associate Professor of History at the University of Utah, makes the claim that Mormons were indeed seen as a different race by 19th Century Americans, and that this idea shaped interactions between Mormons and “Gentiles” (church members’ term for outsiders) for the better part of a century. This racialization contributed to the Mormons being forced from homes in Missouri and Illinois, and was part of the impetus for their settling of the Great Basin—pretty much as far away as they could get from other (protestant, white) Americans.
This racializing of the Mormons is particularly odd considering the current notion that all Mormons are as white (or fake-tan) as Mitt Romney, or as bland and white bread as my own family ancestry, mostly English, Danish and Scottish. I’m super damn white. But by 19th Century standards, I’d be considered a separate race…which at the time would also mean that I had limited rights. Reeve points to an arc in Mormondom that starts with Mormons being considered as white (as “normal”) as other Americans, but then becoming more and more conflated with various races and traditions, and being forced to prove their whiteness. This racialization goes beyond skin color and into outright deformity, including claims that Mormons had tails and horns. Seriously. Horns. As Mormons were forced to prove their equality with other Americans, they seemed to overshoot the mark, denying rights to African Americans, moving away from perceived alliances with Native Americans, and other races. By the 1950s, they were finally considered as white as other Americans…but by that point, the tides were turning. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing, and within a few decades, the Mormons’ denial of priesthood rites to blacks was seen as racist as their own treatment had been a century before.
Reeve has written a masterpiece that lays out the thinking of nineteenth century Americans, using a political cartoon showing a “Mormon Elder-Berry” holding hands with his offspring from multiple wives, each a different race. He uses this as the framework for the book, with chapters on African Americans, Native Americans, Oriental, and other races. He points out that other newcomers to the United States, like Irish and Italians, were also considered “other,” but were generally adopted into the body as Americans within a generation. Mormons were still a separate race.
Using letters, journal entries, newspaper articles, and remarkable political cartoons, Reeve gives us the historical evidence. It ends up being a fascinating look at how Americans constructed the very concept of “race.” How did they decide who was in, how did they decide who was out? How long would it take a group of people to be considered an American?
Most poignant, and most troubling, are the chapters about the evolution of the Mormon policy, and eventual beliefs, regarding African Americans. In the earliest years of the church, there were black members in congregations, they held the priesthood, they had access to “saving” ordinances. Over the course of a few decades, all of that changed. Reeve gives us the evidence explaining when and how and why it happened, and the fallout that lasted for a century. When you have a hundred years of a policy that discriminates against a race, is it any wonder that the modern LDS Church is still trying to get over that hurdle of racism? The priesthood ban based on race was lifted in 1978, but still, nearly forty years later, it’s an issue. This book explains why, and in a concluding chapter “From Not White to Too White: The Continuing Contest over the Mormon Body,” Reeve gets into 21st Century issues that are still bubbling to the surface.
Some scholarly books are just written for other historians to read. This is one that is still academic, but is able to be read and (I think) enjoyed by those who are interested in the topic. Reeve has a conversational style, with enough irony and humor to take some of the sting out of what is at times a very controversial book. Especially for those of us who are Mormon, and who are confronted with the racism of our ancestors or our religious peers. Besides enjoying the information found in the book, I enjoyed reading the book.
This was a readable, well-researched, fascinating look at an American-born religious group that has an intriguing history. If you’re interested in race, religion, history, or the overlap of all three, this is a must-read.
Long review:
I need to start this with a disclaimer that I’m a Mormon. Not only a Mormon, but a “Utah Mormon,” who has family members in the LDS/Mormon Church going back to 1830, the year that religion was founded. So that may bias my reading of this book. I’m also a history teacher, and I think that the history of the Mormons as a religion, as a culture, and as builders of a secular “kingdom” in the Western United States in the 19th Century is one of the most interesting and compelling stories in American history. Even then, I’ve never considered the story of the Mormons to be that of an entirely different race.
W. Paul Reeve, Associate Professor of History at the University of Utah, makes the claim that Mormons were indeed seen as a different race by 19th Century Americans, and that this idea shaped interactions between Mormons and “Gentiles” (church members’ term for outsiders) for the better part of a century. This racialization contributed to the Mormons being forced from homes in Missouri and Illinois, and was part of the impetus for their settling of the Great Basin—pretty much as far away as they could get from other (protestant, white) Americans.
This racializing of the Mormons is particularly odd considering the current notion that all Mormons are as white (or fake-tan) as Mitt Romney, or as bland and white bread as my own family ancestry, mostly English, Danish and Scottish. I’m super damn white. But by 19th Century standards, I’d be considered a separate race…which at the time would also mean that I had limited rights. Reeve points to an arc in Mormondom that starts with Mormons being considered as white (as “normal”) as other Americans, but then becoming more and more conflated with various races and traditions, and being forced to prove their whiteness. This racialization goes beyond skin color and into outright deformity, including claims that Mormons had tails and horns. Seriously. Horns. As Mormons were forced to prove their equality with other Americans, they seemed to overshoot the mark, denying rights to African Americans, moving away from perceived alliances with Native Americans, and other races. By the 1950s, they were finally considered as white as other Americans…but by that point, the tides were turning. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing, and within a few decades, the Mormons’ denial of priesthood rites to blacks was seen as racist as their own treatment had been a century before.
Reeve has written a masterpiece that lays out the thinking of nineteenth century Americans, using a political cartoon showing a “Mormon Elder-Berry” holding hands with his offspring from multiple wives, each a different race. He uses this as the framework for the book, with chapters on African Americans, Native Americans, Oriental, and other races. He points out that other newcomers to the United States, like Irish and Italians, were also considered “other,” but were generally adopted into the body as Americans within a generation. Mormons were still a separate race.
Using letters, journal entries, newspaper articles, and remarkable political cartoons, Reeve gives us the historical evidence. It ends up being a fascinating look at how Americans constructed the very concept of “race.” How did they decide who was in, how did they decide who was out? How long would it take a group of people to be considered an American?
Most poignant, and most troubling, are the chapters about the evolution of the Mormon policy, and eventual beliefs, regarding African Americans. In the earliest years of the church, there were black members in congregations, they held the priesthood, they had access to “saving” ordinances. Over the course of a few decades, all of that changed. Reeve gives us the evidence explaining when and how and why it happened, and the fallout that lasted for a century. When you have a hundred years of a policy that discriminates against a race, is it any wonder that the modern LDS Church is still trying to get over that hurdle of racism? The priesthood ban based on race was lifted in 1978, but still, nearly forty years later, it’s an issue. This book explains why, and in a concluding chapter “From Not White to Too White: The Continuing Contest over the Mormon Body,” Reeve gets into 21st Century issues that are still bubbling to the surface.
Some scholarly books are just written for other historians to read. This is one that is still academic, but is able to be read and (I think) enjoyed by those who are interested in the topic. Reeve has a conversational style, with enough irony and humor to take some of the sting out of what is at times a very controversial book. Especially for those of us who are Mormon, and who are confronted with the racism of our ancestors or our religious peers. Besides enjoying the information found in the book, I enjoyed reading the book.
This was a readable, well-researched, fascinating look at an American-born religious group that has an intriguing history. If you’re interested in race, religion, history, or the overlap of all three, this is a must-read.
February 23, 2015
Candid and powerful with plenty of surprises and ironic turns. An important book on Mormonism, but also on race in America more broadly. Full review to follow.
December 31, 2015
The definitive treatment of the Mormon racial exclusion policy. Honest and unflinching and sympathetic. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Mormonism or the history of race in America.
January 10, 2018
W. Paul Reeve has crafted here a much-needed Mormon Studies book exploring the racial dimensions of Mormonism. He cleverly begins with a political cartoon from a 1904 Life Magazine publication that depicts a Mormon "Elder" and his nine six-year-olds to access a less-remembered American cultural objection to Mormon polygamy. Not only did the Protestant white majority in the nineteenth century America object to Mormon polygamy because it offended their Victorian notions of monogamist sexuality/morality, but it also was feared as contributing to racial amalgamation and degradation. Put another way, Americans viewed Mormon polygamy as both a cause and a sign of racial degradation; Mormons were viewed as a race separate from the white Americans of a "purer" European heritage. In the eyes of nineteenth-century American protestants, converts to Mormonism not only participated in a religious-departure but also a racial-departure from the mainstream.
Mormon whiteness, which would have granted them equal access to political, social, and economic power and citizenship, was denied by the larger American society and subsequently contested by Mormon leaders. The collective American body suggested that Mormons were physically different and racially more similar to non-white marginalized groups and medical doctors even went on record to explain that Mormon polygamy was spawning a new race. In response, Mormons aspired toward whiteness by differentiating themselves and segregating non-whites in various cultural ways. Mormons ultimately emerged white by mid-twentieth century. This came at the expense of Mormonism's own black converts, who were withheld certain priesthood privileges and temple ordinances. In winning a seat at the "white" table, the Mormons stayed too long such that by the time Mormon Mitt Romney sought the White House in 2012, he was labelled "the whitest white man to run for office in recent memory." Mormons were again on the wrong side of white.
Coming back to the political cartoon, Reeve points out that in the present day one might rightly suspect that the church might recruit several of Elder Berry’s children for its “I’m a Mormon” media campaign: an effort to promote a heterogeneous, global identity for Mormonism in the twenty-first century. In 1904, however, the Life magazine cartoon was not a celebration of Mormon diversity, but a lingering nineteenth-century construction of mythic mixed-race Mormon families. Mormon leaders were struggling to orchestrate a new image for Mormonism: transitioning from a polygamous, racially suspect past to a monogamist, racially sure and pure future.
This "racial" transition is organized into chapters that reveal the amount of sources and most controversial aspects of Mormon racial history. The first chapter deals with the most forgotten aspects of nineteenth century Mormon history: "Mormonism" was depicted as a degraded racial category in American society. Then there are two chapters on Native American relations with Mormonism. While rhetorically more sympathetic toward Native Americans--who were the believed descendants of Book of Mormon people--than Protestant Americans at large, their actual relations played out in ways that were tragically American. There are then four chapters on African American relations with Mormonism. This is where the work gets particularly interesting. Reeve unpacks the complicated history in which Joseph Smith baptized, ordained, and sealed black converts to Mormonism before the policy of not ordaining nor allowing sealing ordinances to take place for black converts was institutionalized by Brigham Young. There was a messy transition period in which African-American priesthood holders were living among the Mormons without their children (or family) being able to follow in their footsteps of ordinance-reception. Eventually, as the nineteenth-century African Americans died, early twentieth-century Mormon leaders helped to reconstruct memory and Mormon doctrine to link the racial ban to the Church's origins. Reeve reveals the more nuanced process of racial and memory construction with thorough research and careful writing. The final chapter collapses Chinese, Mongolian, Muslim, and all other "oriental" considerations associated with Mormonism during the nineteenth century. While the polygamous parallel is fairly straightforward, Reeve does some interesting work with how a particular Protestant minister favored Chinese converts to Christianity over Mormons, who he saw as too corrupt and racially unable to assimilate. This was not common in that most Americans lumped both groups together as unable to assimilate (see the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882), but it does reveal how much of a distinct, racial construct had been built.
This book is a fascinating read for all Mormons and any one curious about how race has been constructed in American history. Reeve successfully demonstrates that race is both ascribed from the outside and aspired to from within. Race is a slippery category for historical analysis, but it is essential to grapple with it in order to more fully understand American (including Mormon) history.
Mormon whiteness, which would have granted them equal access to political, social, and economic power and citizenship, was denied by the larger American society and subsequently contested by Mormon leaders. The collective American body suggested that Mormons were physically different and racially more similar to non-white marginalized groups and medical doctors even went on record to explain that Mormon polygamy was spawning a new race. In response, Mormons aspired toward whiteness by differentiating themselves and segregating non-whites in various cultural ways. Mormons ultimately emerged white by mid-twentieth century. This came at the expense of Mormonism's own black converts, who were withheld certain priesthood privileges and temple ordinances. In winning a seat at the "white" table, the Mormons stayed too long such that by the time Mormon Mitt Romney sought the White House in 2012, he was labelled "the whitest white man to run for office in recent memory." Mormons were again on the wrong side of white.
Coming back to the political cartoon, Reeve points out that in the present day one might rightly suspect that the church might recruit several of Elder Berry’s children for its “I’m a Mormon” media campaign: an effort to promote a heterogeneous, global identity for Mormonism in the twenty-first century. In 1904, however, the Life magazine cartoon was not a celebration of Mormon diversity, but a lingering nineteenth-century construction of mythic mixed-race Mormon families. Mormon leaders were struggling to orchestrate a new image for Mormonism: transitioning from a polygamous, racially suspect past to a monogamist, racially sure and pure future.
This "racial" transition is organized into chapters that reveal the amount of sources and most controversial aspects of Mormon racial history. The first chapter deals with the most forgotten aspects of nineteenth century Mormon history: "Mormonism" was depicted as a degraded racial category in American society. Then there are two chapters on Native American relations with Mormonism. While rhetorically more sympathetic toward Native Americans--who were the believed descendants of Book of Mormon people--than Protestant Americans at large, their actual relations played out in ways that were tragically American. There are then four chapters on African American relations with Mormonism. This is where the work gets particularly interesting. Reeve unpacks the complicated history in which Joseph Smith baptized, ordained, and sealed black converts to Mormonism before the policy of not ordaining nor allowing sealing ordinances to take place for black converts was institutionalized by Brigham Young. There was a messy transition period in which African-American priesthood holders were living among the Mormons without their children (or family) being able to follow in their footsteps of ordinance-reception. Eventually, as the nineteenth-century African Americans died, early twentieth-century Mormon leaders helped to reconstruct memory and Mormon doctrine to link the racial ban to the Church's origins. Reeve reveals the more nuanced process of racial and memory construction with thorough research and careful writing. The final chapter collapses Chinese, Mongolian, Muslim, and all other "oriental" considerations associated with Mormonism during the nineteenth century. While the polygamous parallel is fairly straightforward, Reeve does some interesting work with how a particular Protestant minister favored Chinese converts to Christianity over Mormons, who he saw as too corrupt and racially unable to assimilate. This was not common in that most Americans lumped both groups together as unable to assimilate (see the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882), but it does reveal how much of a distinct, racial construct had been built.
This book is a fascinating read for all Mormons and any one curious about how race has been constructed in American history. Reeve successfully demonstrates that race is both ascribed from the outside and aspired to from within. Race is a slippery category for historical analysis, but it is essential to grapple with it in order to more fully understand American (including Mormon) history.
September 27, 2020
This is, currently, the definitive book explore Mormonism and race in the nineteenth century. Thorough, careful, and detailed, Reeve gives context and analysis to the American racial beliefs and rhetoric that shaped Mormonism within and without.
During the 19th Century, critics of Mormons used racial framing to marginalize our religious minority. Mormons were cast as yellow, pale, sickly, unhealthy, part asian, part black, part racial degenerate. Because race is more a social construct and not a biological one, attempts at casting these largely anglo-danish Americans Mormons as racially different never had a consistent physical description.
But, this racial critique influenced how Mormon leadership presented themselves to the world. In an effort to legitimize themselves, they frequently went through great efforts to show that they were white and respectable. Joseph, in Nauvoo, who had taught racial universalism, sought to establish stronger ties with the Native American tribes in the region and be friendly. After pushback from the gentile neighbors of accusations of race mixing, Joseph backed off his friendly promises.
Reeve, who authored the Church's 2013 essay on Race and the Priesthood, gives a full account of the events that lead Brigham Young, who once also expressed racially universalist doctrines, evolved in the 1840's to teach a fiercer and dogmatic racial white supremacy. While, many of his biting racial beliefs did not pass on to later generations, such as blood atonement for race mixing, his temple and priesthood ban did last for another 130 years. Subsequent generations creatively sought to resolve the scriptural conflict of "all are alike into God, both black and white" with the racially exclusive temple practice. So, the memories of early black converts, black priesthood holders, and blacks participating in temple rituals, were forgotten. False memories replaced them. Not until historians did work in the 1970's were these false memories exposed to reveal the truth of Mormonism's universal core foundation.
Reeve paints with tremendous nuance, probably more so than my review, here. Early Mormon leaders were not simple racists believing any ol' cartoon depiction of racial minorities. Reeve goes through our experience with Indians, Blacks, and Asians. All were different. All had various causes and results. For example, initially mission presidents were hopeful and thought highly of Chinese immigrants as a potential source of converts. They were a hard working, diligent, moral people. However, once American prejudice against the Chinese increased, so, too, did Mormon prejudice against them, some calling them lazy, filthy and "bloody, and cruel."
This desire by the marginalized Mormon to be accepted by the broader white protestant American society came at a cost of being less accepting of blacks, natives, and chinese. Once we left polygamy behind us and acquired political autonomy through statehood, we turned a corner. We finally had become White in the eyes of the broader American public. In fact, the church owned newspaper ran a cartoon inviting President Teddy Roosevelt to Utah to demonstrate our fertility and propagation of white children. "No race suicide here," read the 1903 illustration.
Today, we are still known as being largely White. We became White on purpose and will need to do more work to dispel it. Notably, the "I'm a Mormon" marketing campaign prominently featured mixed race couples and families. Books and research such as Reeve's will do much to help us understand our racial past.
Only when we know where we came from can we true direct where we are going.
During the 19th Century, critics of Mormons used racial framing to marginalize our religious minority. Mormons were cast as yellow, pale, sickly, unhealthy, part asian, part black, part racial degenerate. Because race is more a social construct and not a biological one, attempts at casting these largely anglo-danish Americans Mormons as racially different never had a consistent physical description.
But, this racial critique influenced how Mormon leadership presented themselves to the world. In an effort to legitimize themselves, they frequently went through great efforts to show that they were white and respectable. Joseph, in Nauvoo, who had taught racial universalism, sought to establish stronger ties with the Native American tribes in the region and be friendly. After pushback from the gentile neighbors of accusations of race mixing, Joseph backed off his friendly promises.
Reeve, who authored the Church's 2013 essay on Race and the Priesthood, gives a full account of the events that lead Brigham Young, who once also expressed racially universalist doctrines, evolved in the 1840's to teach a fiercer and dogmatic racial white supremacy. While, many of his biting racial beliefs did not pass on to later generations, such as blood atonement for race mixing, his temple and priesthood ban did last for another 130 years. Subsequent generations creatively sought to resolve the scriptural conflict of "all are alike into God, both black and white" with the racially exclusive temple practice. So, the memories of early black converts, black priesthood holders, and blacks participating in temple rituals, were forgotten. False memories replaced them. Not until historians did work in the 1970's were these false memories exposed to reveal the truth of Mormonism's universal core foundation.
Reeve paints with tremendous nuance, probably more so than my review, here. Early Mormon leaders were not simple racists believing any ol' cartoon depiction of racial minorities. Reeve goes through our experience with Indians, Blacks, and Asians. All were different. All had various causes and results. For example, initially mission presidents were hopeful and thought highly of Chinese immigrants as a potential source of converts. They were a hard working, diligent, moral people. However, once American prejudice against the Chinese increased, so, too, did Mormon prejudice against them, some calling them lazy, filthy and "bloody, and cruel."
This desire by the marginalized Mormon to be accepted by the broader white protestant American society came at a cost of being less accepting of blacks, natives, and chinese. Once we left polygamy behind us and acquired political autonomy through statehood, we turned a corner. We finally had become White in the eyes of the broader American public. In fact, the church owned newspaper ran a cartoon inviting President Teddy Roosevelt to Utah to demonstrate our fertility and propagation of white children. "No race suicide here," read the 1903 illustration.
Today, we are still known as being largely White. We became White on purpose and will need to do more work to dispel it. Notably, the "I'm a Mormon" marketing campaign prominently featured mixed race couples and families. Books and research such as Reeve's will do much to help us understand our racial past.
Only when we know where we came from can we true direct where we are going.
March 10, 2021
This book includes many things I didn't know that provide context for the things I do know. As missionaries in South America in the early 1970s, my husband and I both had heart-wrenching experiences with the Church's policy on teaching those of African descent. How grateful we are to have seen that policy change dramatically in 1978.
As we now honestly try to understand and to root out racism in ourselves, we find it ironic that, after years of trying to be white enough, the Church is now viewed as too white. I suppose it will take as long to change that public perception as it did to change the perception of members of the Church as subhuman. It seems like we have a long way to go to truly build Zion.
I recognize this book as very well researched and written. However, I'm not a historian and found it a bit hard to read.
As we now honestly try to understand and to root out racism in ourselves, we find it ironic that, after years of trying to be white enough, the Church is now viewed as too white. I suppose it will take as long to change that public perception as it did to change the perception of members of the Church as subhuman. It seems like we have a long way to go to truly build Zion.
I recognize this book as very well researched and written. However, I'm not a historian and found it a bit hard to read.
June 19, 2021
The information in this book is essential reading for anybody associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Reeve actually had some of his source material transcribed from shorthand for the first time ever to get accurate depictions of Mormons' responses to racialization. And these "new" documents deserve to be reckoned with. Props to the Church History department for supporting this type of historical research and using it in their Church history series, "Saints." Shame on Mormons for ignoring or endeavoring to downplay any of this history. My one complaint is that I would like to see a book of this caliber published by a person of color and met with equal amounts of acclaim and respect. The fact that all of this had to come from the mind of a white guy (however well-respected) is proof that we haven't moved the needle toward religious racial justice as far as it needs to go.
January 16, 2022
Discussion between Terryl Givens and Paul Reeve about this book:
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0...
This is a very important book, documenting the evolution of the priesthood and temple bans for black members of the church, and the eventual restoration. It was informative about how leaders struggled with the evolving changes in the 19th and 20th century culture in the US, and how culture affected the policies.
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0...
This is a very important book, documenting the evolution of the priesthood and temple bans for black members of the church, and the eventual restoration. It was informative about how leaders struggled with the evolving changes in the 19th and 20th century culture in the US, and how culture affected the policies.
June 4, 2025
A fascinating look into how Mormonism began as a religion that wasn't seen as white enough to the surrounding culture, to the point where it's seen as too white to the surrounding culture. A great book on both racial ideas and politics in the greater American experiment. (Oddly enough, some of the plot lines about lost and fallen civilizations in Conan the Barbarian short stories make more sense to me now.) It talks about the views of Americans on blacks, groups we now call white (Italians, Irish, etc.), Chinese, and Indians, all through the lens of how Mormons were seen in relations to those other groups, both from the Mormon perspective (in the 19th century trying to be seen as white) and the outside perspective (seeing Mormons as degenerating the white race through their actions and thereby becoming like the other races).
Also probably the most thorough discussion of blacks and Mormons I've yet seen, so chapters 4-7 are a great primer on race relations regarding African-Americans in Mormonism, all in light of the greater American cultural context.
The book itself was well-organized around a single political cartoon, "Mormon Elder-Berry—Out With His Six-Year Olds, Who Take After Their Mothers" (seen on the cover) and that provides a nice overarching structure to the book as well that I found most welcome.
I'd suspect that, in 10-15 years, this will be required reading for anybody wanting to understand the history of Mormonism and race relations. It will be a classic.
Also, for a believing Latter-day Saint such as myself, a great look into the missteps we've made in the past with regard to our non-white brothers and sisters, and how we as a church are doing much, much better with regard to the injunction from the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 26:33:
Also probably the most thorough discussion of blacks and Mormons I've yet seen, so chapters 4-7 are a great primer on race relations regarding African-Americans in Mormonism, all in light of the greater American cultural context.
The book itself was well-organized around a single political cartoon, "Mormon Elder-Berry—Out With His Six-Year Olds, Who Take After Their Mothers" (seen on the cover) and that provides a nice overarching structure to the book as well that I found most welcome.
I'd suspect that, in 10-15 years, this will be required reading for anybody wanting to understand the history of Mormonism and race relations. It will be a classic.
Also, for a believing Latter-day Saint such as myself, a great look into the missteps we've made in the past with regard to our non-white brothers and sisters, and how we as a church are doing much, much better with regard to the injunction from the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 26:33:
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.
September 8, 2020
A landmark in Mormon scholarship. By contextualizing Mormonism within a 19th century America in which racism was mainstream and in which any suspect differences were viewed in racial terms, Reeve opens up unexplored relationships between Mormons and a number of different racial groups (native Americans, Blacks, and Asians). Using an enormous array of primary sources, he makes the compelling case that Mormonism's fraught relationship with other racial minorities, particularly blacks, were a product of Mormons themselves being racialized by white Protestant Americans. In essence, Mormons had to fight hard to assert and maintain their whiteness in the face of accusations of race mixing and degradation brought primarily by their adherence to polygamy, a practice which turned white Protestant America firmly against them and caused them to be viewed in derogatory racial terms, a position that carried serious political consequences.
In order to assert and protect their own whiteness, Mormons officially adopted many of the racial views of their contemporary Americans, eventually codifying a priesthood and temple ban for blacks and rewriting church history and doctrine in an effort to distance themselves as much as they could from their own racialization. By the mid 20th century Mormons had successfully reclaimed their whiteness but the collateral damage reverberates to this day. Remarkable and fascinating.
In order to assert and protect their own whiteness, Mormons officially adopted many of the racial views of their contemporary Americans, eventually codifying a priesthood and temple ban for blacks and rewriting church history and doctrine in an effort to distance themselves as much as they could from their own racialization. By the mid 20th century Mormons had successfully reclaimed their whiteness but the collateral damage reverberates to this day. Remarkable and fascinating.
August 31, 2022
This is a wonderful, important book that I wouldn't recommend to very many people. Read enough history and you get used to the fact that there's an atrocity or two under every rock, and there are some particularly unpleasant ones here. If you're interested in the topic but just passing through, check out the author on Faith Matters podcast episode #51 "The Real Story of the Priesthood-Temple Ban" where he gives some of the historical background and a thoughtful perspective on living with faith together with a full understanding of this troubling history. After that, if you want to go no-holds-barred, as deep as historically possible, this is the book for you.
We misunderstand and misteach a lot of early church history. Most persecution early Mormons endured was political, not religious. And early Mormons did plenty of persecuting of their own against non-white populations. This is the story of the early church within the larger context of American history. It shows why and how the church was viewed and treated by outsiders, and why and how the church viewed and treated those outsiders in turn. It's impossible to tell this story without an understanding of racial views, and this book puts them appropriately in the center.
The biggest takeaway is one church members should know but too often downplay or forget: prophets are fallible. And not just in the little things around the edges. If the church can justify and defend a priesthood ban for 120+ years, what other things are we so wrong about today? What will we look back on as the big blind spots of our generation?
We misunderstand and misteach a lot of early church history. Most persecution early Mormons endured was political, not religious. And early Mormons did plenty of persecuting of their own against non-white populations. This is the story of the early church within the larger context of American history. It shows why and how the church was viewed and treated by outsiders, and why and how the church viewed and treated those outsiders in turn. It's impossible to tell this story without an understanding of racial views, and this book puts them appropriately in the center.
The biggest takeaway is one church members should know but too often downplay or forget: prophets are fallible. And not just in the little things around the edges. If the church can justify and defend a priesthood ban for 120+ years, what other things are we so wrong about today? What will we look back on as the big blind spots of our generation?
June 27, 2022
This book was incredibly detailed and extensively researched. As the history of race relationships within the Church of Jesus Christ can be a very sensitive subject, I appreciated being able to read this objective information. I was very interested to read about the influence that polygamy had on how members were viewed racially. Overall, a worthwhile and important read that I would recommend.
February 18, 2022
I was too young to remember the 1978 “Revelation on Priestood” and did not appreciate the watershed moment this was in the history of the Church. Further, my available reading on the subject in my youth was the likes of Mormon Doctrine and Milton Hunter’s Pearl of Greater Commentary, which indoctrinate pre-1978 racial view not consistent with the current worldview or even the current philosophy promoted by the Church. Recently, I was fortunate to read Lester Bush's 1973 Dialogue article (www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/up...). Even - or especially - reading to decades after its publication, I found that it widened my perspective on a view of race issues in the Church that I probably should have known but that I did not. With that backdrop, Religion of a Different Color was a wonderful way to commemorate Black History month. This book is a great read in the way it filled in gaps from the Lester Bush article and the way it portrayed views of race and the Mormon faith both from the inside looking out and the outside looking in.
Race relations in the United States has had a sordid past and the Church has not escaped unscathed. Ironically, the original message of “Mormonism” is one of universalism in the sense that “inviteth them all to come unto [Christ] and partake of his goodness”. This was a message too progressive for its time and, unfortunately, a message that was evidently too radical for both its members and leaders to fully embrace. The universalistic message cast a wide net of converts, who came with their own prejudices and worldviews. While other churches of the day could divide congregations along racial lines, the Mormons had to deal with congregations of mixed biases and mixed races. “The very universalism of the opening decades of Mormonism laid the groundwork for the later racial divide”.
The outsiders view of Mormons as a “new race” only increased the hurdle to achieve the ability of the Church to “invite all to come and partake”. As Mormons were cast by outsiders as “White Indians”, “the Mormon Coon”, and “the Mormon Turk”, it created an atmosphere where Mormons were struggling for an identity of acceptance, which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century mean a struggle for whiteness. This struggle contributed to an acceptance of moving away from the universal invitation.
But Religion of a Different Color does not just give an appreciation of the atmosphere that led to the Church’s (and the United States’) racial struggles, it also gives an appreciation for how poor communication lead to the racial priesthood and temple ban. It was like a bad game of Telephone where even the original message was based on faulty scriptural interpretation that, after decades of “telephone” lead to more faulty scriptural interpretation (and even invention) that feed into the telephone message.
I appreciated the book’s in-depth insights into the tragic unfolding and perpetuation of the priesthood and temple restrictions. If I have any criticisms about the book, it would be that I felt that it did not seem to give as in-depth description of the lifting of the ban. The book does give reference to Edward Kimball’s BYU Studies Article (https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/sp...), which I recommend as a post-script to this book.
The race relations with blacks is not the only subject of the book. Mormon’s relations with Native Americans (and how this contrasts with blacks) and is also discussed. This history has helped give me perspective on the Church’s past Indian Student Placement Program (ISPP) that I did not have previously. Moreover, it gives appreciation of the Mormon “race” as viewed by outsiders, which was at play during the history of the United States, and at many ways is at play today. Embracing the ideal that “all are alike unto God” has been and continues to challenge all people – and even those who acknowledge God have not been free from blemishes.
Race relations in the United States has had a sordid past and the Church has not escaped unscathed. Ironically, the original message of “Mormonism” is one of universalism in the sense that “inviteth them all to come unto [Christ] and partake of his goodness”. This was a message too progressive for its time and, unfortunately, a message that was evidently too radical for both its members and leaders to fully embrace. The universalistic message cast a wide net of converts, who came with their own prejudices and worldviews. While other churches of the day could divide congregations along racial lines, the Mormons had to deal with congregations of mixed biases and mixed races. “The very universalism of the opening decades of Mormonism laid the groundwork for the later racial divide”.
The outsiders view of Mormons as a “new race” only increased the hurdle to achieve the ability of the Church to “invite all to come and partake”. As Mormons were cast by outsiders as “White Indians”, “the Mormon Coon”, and “the Mormon Turk”, it created an atmosphere where Mormons were struggling for an identity of acceptance, which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century mean a struggle for whiteness. This struggle contributed to an acceptance of moving away from the universal invitation.
But Religion of a Different Color does not just give an appreciation of the atmosphere that led to the Church’s (and the United States’) racial struggles, it also gives an appreciation for how poor communication lead to the racial priesthood and temple ban. It was like a bad game of Telephone where even the original message was based on faulty scriptural interpretation that, after decades of “telephone” lead to more faulty scriptural interpretation (and even invention) that feed into the telephone message.
I appreciated the book’s in-depth insights into the tragic unfolding and perpetuation of the priesthood and temple restrictions. If I have any criticisms about the book, it would be that I felt that it did not seem to give as in-depth description of the lifting of the ban. The book does give reference to Edward Kimball’s BYU Studies Article (https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/sp...), which I recommend as a post-script to this book.
The race relations with blacks is not the only subject of the book. Mormon’s relations with Native Americans (and how this contrasts with blacks) and is also discussed. This history has helped give me perspective on the Church’s past Indian Student Placement Program (ISPP) that I did not have previously. Moreover, it gives appreciation of the Mormon “race” as viewed by outsiders, which was at play during the history of the United States, and at many ways is at play today. Embracing the ideal that “all are alike unto God” has been and continues to challenge all people – and even those who acknowledge God have not been free from blemishes.
March 10, 2017
Race has always been a part of Mormonism. Often it is discussed in regard to the priesthood/temple ban that was lifted in 1978. The truth is that the story of race in Mormonism is much greater and longer than that. Racial distinctions are found in Mormon scripture and have been the basis for a variety of attitudes among Mormon people throughout the existence of the church Joseph Smith founded. Racism is the second most popular topic Mormons are known for (Polygamy wins first place) and in the contemporary church justification for past racist doctrines and practices have been officially disavowed as theories and folklore and have been enthusiastically traded for more inclusive teachings and scriptures that express a view of a more benevolent God that "denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, ... [for] all are alike unto God."
While this current inclusive approach, with respect to race, is morally correct it seems equally good to know and come to understand the incorrect thinking of the Mormon past. W. Paul Reeve has provided us with a phenomenal guide into the 19th century american psyche (both Mormon and non-Mormon) as well as the documents that substantiate the shifting attitudes surrounding race within the broader american culture and within Mormonism. The entire book is a trove of historical statements and actions as well as analyses of the thinking behind such statements and actions.
Often when learning or discussing racial practices of the past, be it slavery, segregation, or violent hate crimes the superficial context we frame the disgusting views and actions of people from our past is "products of their time" or some similar iteration that seems to diffuse the rage and confusion that jumps into our minds when thinking of our ancestors treating fellow human beings badly solely for the color of their skin. In Religion of a Different Color's first chapter Reeve illustrates an in-depth understanding of exactly how 19th century american people thought about and used racial designations both as a way to explain away groups they found to be offensive that were already visually distinct from themselves (any group other than white anglo-saxons) and as an effective means of making those that appear similar (white anglo-saxons) to be "the other" because of differences in religious beliefs and practices.
Reeve continues to illustrate the many ways in which Mormons tried to show America that they were indeed fully white (i.e. fully human) throughout the 19th century and continued well into the 20th century. This effort backfired on them because by the time they achieved their whiteness the country and turned against them and finally made changes to be more inclusive and dismantle the white supremacy that was once universally valued. Each chapter focuses on a particular ethnic group and specific doctrines, attitudes, and practices that all changed and morphed over time in response to public perception and changing internal values. Eventually the church forgot about it's early black members and black men ordained to the priesthood and simultaneously moved the justification of race doctrines from the bible, to Joseph Smith, and finally to God (and who can question God?). LDS leadership stood behind God as a shield during their march towards full american acceptance and whiteness. A complete reversal of race-based restrictions in 1978 was then followed by outsider scrutiny of Mormonism's racist past and more recently a renewed focus on Mormon bodies being whiter than ever.
Read a longer review of mine here.
http://www.amazon.com/Mormon-Church-B...
While this current inclusive approach, with respect to race, is morally correct it seems equally good to know and come to understand the incorrect thinking of the Mormon past. W. Paul Reeve has provided us with a phenomenal guide into the 19th century american psyche (both Mormon and non-Mormon) as well as the documents that substantiate the shifting attitudes surrounding race within the broader american culture and within Mormonism. The entire book is a trove of historical statements and actions as well as analyses of the thinking behind such statements and actions.
Often when learning or discussing racial practices of the past, be it slavery, segregation, or violent hate crimes the superficial context we frame the disgusting views and actions of people from our past is "products of their time" or some similar iteration that seems to diffuse the rage and confusion that jumps into our minds when thinking of our ancestors treating fellow human beings badly solely for the color of their skin. In Religion of a Different Color's first chapter Reeve illustrates an in-depth understanding of exactly how 19th century american people thought about and used racial designations both as a way to explain away groups they found to be offensive that were already visually distinct from themselves (any group other than white anglo-saxons) and as an effective means of making those that appear similar (white anglo-saxons) to be "the other" because of differences in religious beliefs and practices.
Reeve continues to illustrate the many ways in which Mormons tried to show America that they were indeed fully white (i.e. fully human) throughout the 19th century and continued well into the 20th century. This effort backfired on them because by the time they achieved their whiteness the country and turned against them and finally made changes to be more inclusive and dismantle the white supremacy that was once universally valued. Each chapter focuses on a particular ethnic group and specific doctrines, attitudes, and practices that all changed and morphed over time in response to public perception and changing internal values. Eventually the church forgot about it's early black members and black men ordained to the priesthood and simultaneously moved the justification of race doctrines from the bible, to Joseph Smith, and finally to God (and who can question God?). LDS leadership stood behind God as a shield during their march towards full american acceptance and whiteness. A complete reversal of race-based restrictions in 1978 was then followed by outsider scrutiny of Mormonism's racist past and more recently a renewed focus on Mormon bodies being whiter than ever.
Read a longer review of mine here.
http://www.amazon.com/Mormon-Church-B...
March 13, 2021
In "Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness," W. Paul Reeve argues that the transition period of Mormonism at the turn of the twentieth century was not only “from polygamy to monogamy, from outsider to insider, from communalism to capitalism, from isolation to integration, and … from insular to global,” (Reeve, 3) but also racial: from physically different to similar and from non-white to white. His chapters examine ‘Mormon Elder-Berry’s children’, demonstrating the insistence on creating a Mormon other across American history. This included sinister pseudoscientific physiognomic and phrenological studies, derogatory images and slurs, identifying them as “white Indians”, Orientals, forced removals, extermination rhetoric, and other tactics. It also demonstrates the dynamic Mormon interaction with the creation, perpetuation and resistance of such otherness as they navigated claiming a complex racialized identity for themselves.
Race as a constructed category and a process of “racial imagination” (Reeve, 262) along with its intertwined religious identities, looms large in this week’s readings. As Reeve put it, “race was a socially invented category and not a biological reality, … [that] operate[s] as a hierarchical system designed to create order and superiority out of the perceived disorder of the confluence of peoples in America” (4, 3). Pasquier speaks of how, as “Irish Catholics gained power in both American public life and the American Catholic Church, Irishness came to be associated more with whiteness, while new immigrant groups like the Italians and Chinese became the latest dark-skinned others” (Pasquier, 10, my emphasis). A potent exemplification of the dynamic perception of race appears in Reeve’s words: “in practicing polygamy Mormons were [perceived to be] performing race … in recreating a Southern slave aristocracy out of Mormon polygamy, the image from Puck implied that race was mutable, especially as Mormon women performed blackness. As white slaves in the field, Mormon women turned metaphorically black.” (Reeve, 173, 169). In response, Mormons decided to “perform whiteness” (Reeve, 187).
The book deconstructs racial identity as a static construction and demonstrate how it is constantly negotiated and in a process of becoming (to use Deleuzian language). Mormons fought back by various ways, like reversing polygamy, claiming a British-Israelite connection, demonstrating physical health and adapting their racial norms. “The Mormon body became a battleground on which the LDS hierarchy and the federal government grappled to inscribe very different values, laws, and morality signifying either racial ascendancy or racial deterioration.” (Reeve, 10). Mormons remain in a dynamic process that impacts and is impacted by heritage, language, politics, color, financial and educational concerns, complex religious affiliation and racial identity.
Race as a constructed category and a process of “racial imagination” (Reeve, 262) along with its intertwined religious identities, looms large in this week’s readings. As Reeve put it, “race was a socially invented category and not a biological reality, … [that] operate[s] as a hierarchical system designed to create order and superiority out of the perceived disorder of the confluence of peoples in America” (4, 3). Pasquier speaks of how, as “Irish Catholics gained power in both American public life and the American Catholic Church, Irishness came to be associated more with whiteness, while new immigrant groups like the Italians and Chinese became the latest dark-skinned others” (Pasquier, 10, my emphasis). A potent exemplification of the dynamic perception of race appears in Reeve’s words: “in practicing polygamy Mormons were [perceived to be] performing race … in recreating a Southern slave aristocracy out of Mormon polygamy, the image from Puck implied that race was mutable, especially as Mormon women performed blackness. As white slaves in the field, Mormon women turned metaphorically black.” (Reeve, 173, 169). In response, Mormons decided to “perform whiteness” (Reeve, 187).
The book deconstructs racial identity as a static construction and demonstrate how it is constantly negotiated and in a process of becoming (to use Deleuzian language). Mormons fought back by various ways, like reversing polygamy, claiming a British-Israelite connection, demonstrating physical health and adapting their racial norms. “The Mormon body became a battleground on which the LDS hierarchy and the federal government grappled to inscribe very different values, laws, and morality signifying either racial ascendancy or racial deterioration.” (Reeve, 10). Mormons remain in a dynamic process that impacts and is impacted by heritage, language, politics, color, financial and educational concerns, complex religious affiliation and racial identity.
November 23, 2025
Quote all the brutish letters and exaggerated cartoons you want, but the only Mormons made to ride in the back of the societal (and spiritual) bus were those with the same skin colour as Abel, Lewis and Black Pete
March 18, 2022
I give this book four stars for content, because it was clearly well-researched and helped me better understand the history of my church. However, it was REALLY hard to slog through this because it has tiny font, long chapters, and a lack of narrative (and there are also a lot of punctuation and formatting errors). It reads as a textbook, and it took me months to read because I could only read it in small chunks before falling asleep. This isn't to say that the content is boring. It is fascinating, especially the chapters on Blacks and the priesthood.
Things I want to remember:
- Brigham Young was instrumental in legalizing slavery in Utah in the 1850s, though he referred to Black slaves as "servants." Members of the church also bought Native American children as part of "purchasing them into freedom" and were required to provide them education and clothe them.
- While Joseph Smith believed Blacks had a lack of opportunity for education and self-improvement because of the slave system, Brigham Young "asserted divine curses, a race-based priesthood ban, and the inherent incapacity of Blacks to govern whites." He believed God and put the inequality in place as a result of Cain killing Abel. He also taught members that a person could jeopardize their place in heaven by polluting priesthood lineage. According to Young, ancient Israelites brought a curse upon themselves. He said: "The nations have wandered in darkness for centuries. If they had not mixed their blood, the Priesthood would never have been taken from them."
- Brigham Young said that "Until the last drop of Abel's blood receives the priesthood, and enjoys the blessings of the same, Cain shall bear the curse" in explaining the priesthood ban in 1852. He also suggested the mark of Cain made Blacks physically different from other races, suggesting the mark was "the flat nose and black skin."
- Orson Pratt argued against the "servant code" legislation and the priesthood ban, saying that divine "curses" were particular to a time and place and did not automatically touch all future generations. He said: "Shall we take then the innocent African that has committed no sin and damn him to slavery and bondage without receiving any authority from heaven to do so?"
- Brigham Young did not want to deny only the priesthood to Blacks but also any right to participate in government. When arguing a voting rights bill in Utah territory, he said, "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 their own transgressions, and I cannot help it...I will not consent for a moment to have the children of Cain rule me nor my brethren."
- By suggesting Blacks had the priesthood removed "by their own transgressions," the author, W. Paul Reeve, points out that Young created a race-based division to cloud Black redemption and make each generation after Cain responsible anew for the consequences of Cain's murder of Abel -- even as the second Article of Faith teaches members that "men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression." This quote from Reeve hit hard: "Young held millions of Blacks responsible for the consequences of Cain's murder, something they took no part in."
- Songwriter W.W. Phelps suggested Black people inherited three curses: "one from Cain for killing Abel, one from Ham for marrying a Black wife, and one from Noah for ridiculing what God had respect for." Later church president John Taylor continued the tradition of using the Bible to justify the priesthood ban, suggesting that Cain's curse continued through Ham's wife, and saying Blacks passed through the flood so that "the devil should have a representation upon the earth as well as God."
- Brigham Young was also against mixed-race marriages and said: "If the white man 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."
Reading this book helped me see The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the time period and better understand leaders rationale and decisions, but it also made it abundantly more clear that racism has always been a part of the church -- and that we have to do better at rooting it out.
Things I want to remember:
- Brigham Young was instrumental in legalizing slavery in Utah in the 1850s, though he referred to Black slaves as "servants." Members of the church also bought Native American children as part of "purchasing them into freedom" and were required to provide them education and clothe them.
- While Joseph Smith believed Blacks had a lack of opportunity for education and self-improvement because of the slave system, Brigham Young "asserted divine curses, a race-based priesthood ban, and the inherent incapacity of Blacks to govern whites." He believed God and put the inequality in place as a result of Cain killing Abel. He also taught members that a person could jeopardize their place in heaven by polluting priesthood lineage. According to Young, ancient Israelites brought a curse upon themselves. He said: "The nations have wandered in darkness for centuries. If they had not mixed their blood, the Priesthood would never have been taken from them."
- Brigham Young said that "Until the last drop of Abel's blood receives the priesthood, and enjoys the blessings of the same, Cain shall bear the curse" in explaining the priesthood ban in 1852. He also suggested the mark of Cain made Blacks physically different from other races, suggesting the mark was "the flat nose and black skin."
- Orson Pratt argued against the "servant code" legislation and the priesthood ban, saying that divine "curses" were particular to a time and place and did not automatically touch all future generations. He said: "Shall we take then the innocent African that has committed no sin and damn him to slavery and bondage without receiving any authority from heaven to do so?"
- Brigham Young did not want to deny only the priesthood to Blacks but also any right to participate in government. When arguing a voting rights bill in Utah territory, he said, "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 their own transgressions, and I cannot help it...I will not consent for a moment to have the children of Cain rule me nor my brethren."
- By suggesting Blacks had the priesthood removed "by their own transgressions," the author, W. Paul Reeve, points out that Young created a race-based division to cloud Black redemption and make each generation after Cain responsible anew for the consequences of Cain's murder of Abel -- even as the second Article of Faith teaches members that "men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transgression." This quote from Reeve hit hard: "Young held millions of Blacks responsible for the consequences of Cain's murder, something they took no part in."
- Songwriter W.W. Phelps suggested Black people inherited three curses: "one from Cain for killing Abel, one from Ham for marrying a Black wife, and one from Noah for ridiculing what God had respect for." Later church president John Taylor continued the tradition of using the Bible to justify the priesthood ban, suggesting that Cain's curse continued through Ham's wife, and saying Blacks passed through the flood so that "the devil should have a representation upon the earth as well as God."
- Brigham Young was also against mixed-race marriages and said: "If the white man 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."
Reading this book helped me see The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the time period and better understand leaders rationale and decisions, but it also made it abundantly more clear that racism has always been a part of the church -- and that we have to do better at rooting it out.
August 22, 2025
In the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons, in other words), its members were seen as a separate, inferior race, distinct from white Anglo-Saxons. Normally, race was understood as physical characteristics (skin color, etc.) that were believed to cause certain practices (like stealing). For Mormons, it was the other way around: although they were initially white, their practices, especially polygamy, were thought to transform them into a physically distinct race. Scientists wrote about their “marked physiological inferiority” and claimed that polygamy made the women subservient and the men lustful and sensual.
This was partially because Mormon religious practices were Orientalized. Polygamy was associated with Turks and Muslims, not with good, God-fearing Christians. Polygamy was also seen as a kind of white slavery, a kind of exploitation that treated white women the way slave owners treated Black slaves. Mormons were also accused of blind obedience to a prophet who received direct revelations from God; again, theocracy was for Muslims, not for freedom-loving American Christians.
Mormons were also portrayed as too progressive and universalist. They were accused of marrying Black people and Native Americans, and of preaching directly to Black slaves. Stories of Black Mormon men marrying white women were especially alarming to the broader public.
American society feared a conspiracy between Native people and Mormons to wage war, fears that got worse when Mormons and Southern Paiute Natives killed settlers in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Native Americans also held a special place in Mormon theology, believed to be descendants of ancient Israelites. Although cursed with dark skin, they could become “a white and delightsome people” through intermarriage with Mormons.
In their effort to move closer to whiteness, Mormon theology grew virulently racist toward Black people. They were believed either to have remained neutral in the war in Heaven between Jesus and Satan, or to be descendants of Cain. In either case, they were cursed with black skin and excluded from the priesthood (which was open to all white men) and from temple blessings.
The irony is that Black men were initially permitted to hold the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s leadership. It was Brigham Young who reversed this policy, even calling for the death penalty for interracial marriages. Early Black Mormons were largely forgotten, and no good theological justification for this reversal was given.
I had always known about racism in LDS theology and about the religious discrimination Mormons faced, but I had never connected the two. The conscious effort by the LDS Church to become white through racist theology was interesting, says a lot about how race was constructed in early America.
Quotes
Mormons had secured a white identity for themselves at the expense of their black brothers and sisters. Black Pete, Q. Walker Lewis, Elijah Abel, Jane Manning James, William McCary, and various other black Mormons became forgotten pioneers, replaced in collective Mormon memory by a white priesthood, white temples, and a segregated theology that insisted that God implemented Mormonism’s bans and that they had been there from the start.
Mormon polygamy, when imagined as white slavery, disrupted prevailing racial conventions and threatened American democracy in the process. The idea of enslaved whites unified people in the North and South in disgust.
Mormons were sometimes viewed as “white Indians,” racial renegades who fled civilized society in 1847 to join the savages. Outsiders reinforced this idea with persistent accusations of Mormon-Indian conspiracies, stories of Mormons baptizing and controlling whole tribes, thousands of armed Indians at the beck and call of Mormon leaders ready to overthrow civilization as soon as Mormon prophets gave the signal, Indian agency notwithstanding
This was partially because Mormon religious practices were Orientalized. Polygamy was associated with Turks and Muslims, not with good, God-fearing Christians. Polygamy was also seen as a kind of white slavery, a kind of exploitation that treated white women the way slave owners treated Black slaves. Mormons were also accused of blind obedience to a prophet who received direct revelations from God; again, theocracy was for Muslims, not for freedom-loving American Christians.
Mormons were also portrayed as too progressive and universalist. They were accused of marrying Black people and Native Americans, and of preaching directly to Black slaves. Stories of Black Mormon men marrying white women were especially alarming to the broader public.
American society feared a conspiracy between Native people and Mormons to wage war, fears that got worse when Mormons and Southern Paiute Natives killed settlers in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Native Americans also held a special place in Mormon theology, believed to be descendants of ancient Israelites. Although cursed with dark skin, they could become “a white and delightsome people” through intermarriage with Mormons.
In their effort to move closer to whiteness, Mormon theology grew virulently racist toward Black people. They were believed either to have remained neutral in the war in Heaven between Jesus and Satan, or to be descendants of Cain. In either case, they were cursed with black skin and excluded from the priesthood (which was open to all white men) and from temple blessings.
The irony is that Black men were initially permitted to hold the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s leadership. It was Brigham Young who reversed this policy, even calling for the death penalty for interracial marriages. Early Black Mormons were largely forgotten, and no good theological justification for this reversal was given.
I had always known about racism in LDS theology and about the religious discrimination Mormons faced, but I had never connected the two. The conscious effort by the LDS Church to become white through racist theology was interesting, says a lot about how race was constructed in early America.
Quotes
Mormons had secured a white identity for themselves at the expense of their black brothers and sisters. Black Pete, Q. Walker Lewis, Elijah Abel, Jane Manning James, William McCary, and various other black Mormons became forgotten pioneers, replaced in collective Mormon memory by a white priesthood, white temples, and a segregated theology that insisted that God implemented Mormonism’s bans and that they had been there from the start.
Mormon polygamy, when imagined as white slavery, disrupted prevailing racial conventions and threatened American democracy in the process. The idea of enslaved whites unified people in the North and South in disgust.
Mormons were sometimes viewed as “white Indians,” racial renegades who fled civilized society in 1847 to join the savages. Outsiders reinforced this idea with persistent accusations of Mormon-Indian conspiracies, stories of Mormons baptizing and controlling whole tribes, thousands of armed Indians at the beck and call of Mormon leaders ready to overthrow civilization as soon as Mormon prophets gave the signal, Indian agency notwithstanding
January 2, 2020
A very poor summary of the main points of this book in bullet point form and in loose chronological order:
- Early Mormons were accused by mainstream American society of being non-white.
- These attacks were especially salient with Americans because of weird racialized attitudes towards polygamy, (some limited) interracial mixing between Mormons and native American groups, and because people already viewed Mormons as being dangerously inclusive during a period in which some believed that interracial marriage would literally result in extinction.
- They didn't like being called black, oriental, Turkish or whatever other group they were compared to in an attempt to "other" them. The Mormons at this time were also politically vulnerable - during the early years, they were driven out of Missouri and Illinois by mob violence and in Utah were only a territory. Being perceived as being "non-white" was an invitation to being lynched, expelled or mobbed.
- At first, the Mormons didn't do anything about those perceptions. Joseph Smith was reasonably sympathetic to black people and allowed black people to recieve temple ordinances and hold the priesthood (although there were only two black priesthood holders, maybe because there just weren't that many black members when Joseph Smith was alive?). He was, however, very against interracial marriage.
-Anyways, the Mormons eventually sold out and adopted exclusionary policies in order to convince people that they were white. This happened during Brigham Young's presidency, and the priesthood ban was adopted a few years after Brigham Young and everyone else started talking about "Cain's curse."
- These policies evolved and in some cases became harsher than the original rule. For instance, there was a long-running sporadic debate over what percentage of black heritage would make a person ineligible for full membership. At first, a person that was part black could maybe be considered white. But by the 1900s, if you had even "one drop" of black ancestry, you were subject to the racist restrictions.
- The Mormons forgot that the restrictions had all started with Brigham Young and ascribed the priesthood restrictions and ban on interracial marriage to Joseph Smith in an attempt to give the explanations greater authority.
- Despite these attempts by Mormons to blend in, Americans mostly ignored these attempts to be white until the 1950s. But the Mormons really bought in and even developed ideological explanations for the exclusionary policies. These explanations were eventually considered to be doctrine so much so that church leaders said that the priesthood ban was "God's commandment."
- The result is that Mormons are overwhelmingly perceived as white just when people start caring more about "diversity" than "whiteness." Good job everyone.
Most of what I just wrote is probably incorrect, so I would recommend reading this book yourself.
- Early Mormons were accused by mainstream American society of being non-white.
- These attacks were especially salient with Americans because of weird racialized attitudes towards polygamy, (some limited) interracial mixing between Mormons and native American groups, and because people already viewed Mormons as being dangerously inclusive during a period in which some believed that interracial marriage would literally result in extinction.
- They didn't like being called black, oriental, Turkish or whatever other group they were compared to in an attempt to "other" them. The Mormons at this time were also politically vulnerable - during the early years, they were driven out of Missouri and Illinois by mob violence and in Utah were only a territory. Being perceived as being "non-white" was an invitation to being lynched, expelled or mobbed.
- At first, the Mormons didn't do anything about those perceptions. Joseph Smith was reasonably sympathetic to black people and allowed black people to recieve temple ordinances and hold the priesthood (although there were only two black priesthood holders, maybe because there just weren't that many black members when Joseph Smith was alive?). He was, however, very against interracial marriage.
-Anyways, the Mormons eventually sold out and adopted exclusionary policies in order to convince people that they were white. This happened during Brigham Young's presidency, and the priesthood ban was adopted a few years after Brigham Young and everyone else started talking about "Cain's curse."
- These policies evolved and in some cases became harsher than the original rule. For instance, there was a long-running sporadic debate over what percentage of black heritage would make a person ineligible for full membership. At first, a person that was part black could maybe be considered white. But by the 1900s, if you had even "one drop" of black ancestry, you were subject to the racist restrictions.
- The Mormons forgot that the restrictions had all started with Brigham Young and ascribed the priesthood restrictions and ban on interracial marriage to Joseph Smith in an attempt to give the explanations greater authority.
- Despite these attempts by Mormons to blend in, Americans mostly ignored these attempts to be white until the 1950s. But the Mormons really bought in and even developed ideological explanations for the exclusionary policies. These explanations were eventually considered to be doctrine so much so that church leaders said that the priesthood ban was "God's commandment."
- The result is that Mormons are overwhelmingly perceived as white just when people start caring more about "diversity" than "whiteness." Good job everyone.
Most of what I just wrote is probably incorrect, so I would recommend reading this book yourself.
September 23, 2020
I've meant to get to this book for years and am glad I finally read it - this is an absolute must read for anyone with an interest in Mormon studies. It is also a very interesting history from a race studies perspective. A powerful biography of 19th century Mormonism vis-a-vis race, Reeve both reviews the relationship of Mormonism vis-a-vis Native Americans, African Americans, and "Orientals" (Chinese, Turks, etc.) - as well as Mormonism's perception as racially different by mainstream America.
The latter might be a surprise to some, but Reeve clearly shows how Mormons in the 19th century were perceived as being so different from the rest of America that they were even ascribed as racially different. This is illustrated well through multiple pictures from magazines and periodicals of the time depicting Mormons as multiracial, a negative portrayal for a racist white America. Polygamy was the biggest reason for this racial othering, buoyed by theories about polygamy producing a racially inferior people, as well as by polygamy's association with Orientals, especially Muslims and Chinese. Mormons were also said to attract the "dredges" of society, or the most inferior white people, in turn producing an inferior race. This form of racializing Mormonism acknowledges the ironic truth that Mormons were largely white - but had to be distinguished as different regardless.
Reeve's history clearly shows how the LDS Church transitioned from being relatively more racially inclusive under Joseph Smith to becoming less so under Brigham Young. In the process we learn more about the background for the Church's infamous Priesthood ban, which wasn't lifted until 1978. The book also shows how Mormons sought "whiteness" - acceptance within the majoritarian white mainstream of America - and eventually achieved this acceptance in the 20th century. The irony being that Mormons ended up becoming too "white" as the American center moved from discriminatory segregation to a multiracial multiculturalism (in spite of the current white supremacist backlash).
I also find this book fascinating from a more global race/ethnicity studies perspective. The fact that 19th century Americans thought of Mormons as racially different clearly shows how race exists in the mind more than, or rather than, in reality. It is also a clearly documented case of ethnicity being constructed. One can almost imagine this history having an alternate ending of Mormons becoming recognized as a different race. This has fascinating implications for studies on the construction of ethnicity in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, where European colonialism shaped or even created new ethnic identities.
The latter might be a surprise to some, but Reeve clearly shows how Mormons in the 19th century were perceived as being so different from the rest of America that they were even ascribed as racially different. This is illustrated well through multiple pictures from magazines and periodicals of the time depicting Mormons as multiracial, a negative portrayal for a racist white America. Polygamy was the biggest reason for this racial othering, buoyed by theories about polygamy producing a racially inferior people, as well as by polygamy's association with Orientals, especially Muslims and Chinese. Mormons were also said to attract the "dredges" of society, or the most inferior white people, in turn producing an inferior race. This form of racializing Mormonism acknowledges the ironic truth that Mormons were largely white - but had to be distinguished as different regardless.
Reeve's history clearly shows how the LDS Church transitioned from being relatively more racially inclusive under Joseph Smith to becoming less so under Brigham Young. In the process we learn more about the background for the Church's infamous Priesthood ban, which wasn't lifted until 1978. The book also shows how Mormons sought "whiteness" - acceptance within the majoritarian white mainstream of America - and eventually achieved this acceptance in the 20th century. The irony being that Mormons ended up becoming too "white" as the American center moved from discriminatory segregation to a multiracial multiculturalism (in spite of the current white supremacist backlash).
I also find this book fascinating from a more global race/ethnicity studies perspective. The fact that 19th century Americans thought of Mormons as racially different clearly shows how race exists in the mind more than, or rather than, in reality. It is also a clearly documented case of ethnicity being constructed. One can almost imagine this history having an alternate ending of Mormons becoming recognized as a different race. This has fascinating implications for studies on the construction of ethnicity in places like Sub-Saharan Africa, where European colonialism shaped or even created new ethnic identities.
April 20, 2022
A very thoroughly researched look at race and specifically whiteness in the LDS church. Reeve posits that the early church was more embracing of people with different racial backgrounds than the surrounding society where they found themselves, and that Joseph Smith embraced the Book of Mormon concept of "all are alike unto God." However, that society around them did not react positively to the church for a variety of reasons, with the racial reasons being new to me. The book suggests that society separated Mormons from "citizens" of their communities, and through the 1800s increasingly categorized them with either Native Americans and Blacks, then later Chinese and Muslims - essentially suggesting that their religion made them "not (or less) white" and therefore not worthy of living in the same society as the rest of the white nation.
Reeve suggests that this had an impact on Brigham Young and later prophets, leading them to show that the church belonged with the mainstream society by doing things like distancing the church from the early openness to racial differences. This includes a fascinating discussion of the ban on priesthood for blacks, showing the strange historical development of the "doctrine," and a persuasive assertion of church leadership's later revisionist history on how the ban came about.
Ultimately the author argues that in its attempt to fit into the mainstream the Church ended up swinging the pendulum too far, eventually becoming "too white" for society as a whole, as it has not cleaned up the longstanding vestiges of the priesthood ban.
This is a very good look at racial issues that have been embedded in the relationship between the LDS Church and the society in which it has found itself through the 1800s, the 1900s, and into the 2000s. The book does not go as deeply into internal racial issues as it could have (i.e. racial attitudes among non-leadership members and how things played out on the ground while leadership danced around the issues), but that is a book for another day.
Reeve suggests that this had an impact on Brigham Young and later prophets, leading them to show that the church belonged with the mainstream society by doing things like distancing the church from the early openness to racial differences. This includes a fascinating discussion of the ban on priesthood for blacks, showing the strange historical development of the "doctrine," and a persuasive assertion of church leadership's later revisionist history on how the ban came about.
Ultimately the author argues that in its attempt to fit into the mainstream the Church ended up swinging the pendulum too far, eventually becoming "too white" for society as a whole, as it has not cleaned up the longstanding vestiges of the priesthood ban.
This is a very good look at racial issues that have been embedded in the relationship between the LDS Church and the society in which it has found itself through the 1800s, the 1900s, and into the 2000s. The book does not go as deeply into internal racial issues as it could have (i.e. racial attitudes among non-leadership members and how things played out on the ground while leadership danced around the issues), but that is a book for another day.
November 21, 2021
When I first heard about this book from a podcast I was worried it was going to be some kind of biased anti-Mormon literature, but it couldn't be further from the truth.
I found this book wonderfully researched, thought out, and presented in a way that is professional, honest, and yet understanding to the situations of the people in the 1800s. I found the explanations and diagrams intriguing to say the very least and found my understanding of not only early Mormonism, but also the racial views of the country at large, expanded. This book, in my opinion as a member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints, is essential in understanding the church's history, why things were done the way they were when it came to race, and why persecutions they experienced were deemed to many as justifiable.
I loved that this book neither condemns nor deflects from how things occurred within the church when it came to race, but simply tells the reader the information with the understanding that this is history, the good, the bad, the ugly. I have found myself not only informed, but strangely enough with my faith strengthened, for I believe there is power in knowing truth.
I found this book wonderfully researched, thought out, and presented in a way that is professional, honest, and yet understanding to the situations of the people in the 1800s. I found the explanations and diagrams intriguing to say the very least and found my understanding of not only early Mormonism, but also the racial views of the country at large, expanded. This book, in my opinion as a member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints, is essential in understanding the church's history, why things were done the way they were when it came to race, and why persecutions they experienced were deemed to many as justifiable.
I loved that this book neither condemns nor deflects from how things occurred within the church when it came to race, but simply tells the reader the information with the understanding that this is history, the good, the bad, the ugly. I have found myself not only informed, but strangely enough with my faith strengthened, for I believe there is power in knowing truth.
June 3, 2025
Paul Reeve’s Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness focuses on race within and the radicalization Mormons in the eighteenth century. The book’s historiographical contributions surround its discussion of persecution and discrimination against Mormons to American racial hierarchies. Reeve cites a diverse mix of United States government documents, LDS Church records, and newspaper articles. Focusing on discriminatory portrayals and discussions of members of the LDS Church, Reeve contends that the predominantly-Protestant population of the United States distanced Mormons from categorizations of Whiteness. While Anglo-American members benefitted from their Whiteness and disenfranchised African American and Native American adherents to the Mormon faith, White Protestants held Mormons to a lower level of Whiteness. Reeve focuses on white protestant comparisons to Native American cultural practices in discussions of Mormon polygamy, arguing that Mormons remained highly exorcized within the United States. Reeve connects the radicalization of White Mormons to the enforcement of a strict racial hierarchy within the Church.
September 14, 2021
Religions often hold beliefs, practices, and histories that can seem peculiar, illogical, or hypocritical, especially to those who are outsiders or non-adherents of a particular faith. At times, faithful practitioners of a religion can have similar feelings or concerns about past decisions or practices. As a practicing Latter Day Saint, I'd say that "Religion of a Different Color" is a masterful exposition of the social, political, and religious forces that prompted the evolution of one of the most embarrassing and un-Christlike decisions by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- the decision to deny the Priesthood to men of black African decent for nearly 100 years. It's not always easy to ponder the warts and failures of a religion that one holds dear, but "Religion of a Different Color" is such a thorough, unflinching, and measured analysis that one can only come away from it determined to do better.
February 15, 2024
This book traces the historical ways Americans in the 19th century pulled unique characteristics of Mormons, like polygamy, early black priesthood holders, interracial marriage, and the Book of Mormon's focus on Native Americans, and twisted them together to form racially-charged stereotypes.
"Certainly if people of such white ancestry as the Mormon could be so thoroughly racialized as red, black, yellow, and less white, then race truly is a 'hideous monster of the mind'. The Mormon story lats bare, in all of its ugly and naked defenselessness, the self-interested and manipulative nature of racial identity construction."
The book itself was rather dry, so I skipped a few chapters. But the book feels relevant as we continue to work through the racial history of our country, as well as try to recognize he ways that racist language evolves over time (and still exist today).
"Certainly if people of such white ancestry as the Mormon could be so thoroughly racialized as red, black, yellow, and less white, then race truly is a 'hideous monster of the mind'. The Mormon story lats bare, in all of its ugly and naked defenselessness, the self-interested and manipulative nature of racial identity construction."
The book itself was rather dry, so I skipped a few chapters. But the book feels relevant as we continue to work through the racial history of our country, as well as try to recognize he ways that racist language evolves over time (and still exist today).
November 8, 2021
As a Latter-Day Saint, I needed to understand more about the priesthood ban and why it stayed in place for so long. This book answered a lot of my questions. It does an amazing job of framing the times in which many of these decisions were made.
I had no idea of the conflation between Mormons and other persecuted races. The book is amazingly researched, and I only did it one star because some of the topics feel like they needed some editing. It feels like he repeated a lot of his points.
In the end, I learned so much from this book and I really appreciated all the hard work that went into it.
What conclusions did I draw from the book? You will have to send me a DM if you want to find out. Or, read the book for yourself
I had no idea of the conflation between Mormons and other persecuted races. The book is amazingly researched, and I only did it one star because some of the topics feel like they needed some editing. It feels like he repeated a lot of his points.
In the end, I learned so much from this book and I really appreciated all the hard work that went into it.
What conclusions did I draw from the book? You will have to send me a DM if you want to find out. Or, read the book for yourself
June 11, 2021
Mostly, this was really, really fantastic. Especially the chapters dealing with Native Americans and Black people. This is the story of how white Mormons became not white enough, and then too white, and is really important to understanding the LDS Church today. Excellent and sweeping research.
My only complaints were 1) the racial designations were historical, yes, but many are slurs today and I wish he had not used them in the book except when unavoidably quoting historical texts (I do not understand why he did this, except a surprising--given the book topic--disregard for BIPOC feelings??); and 2) sometimes it felt like he was reaching a bit in the Asian chapter.
My only complaints were 1) the racial designations were historical, yes, but many are slurs today and I wish he had not used them in the book except when unavoidably quoting historical texts (I do not understand why he did this, except a surprising--given the book topic--disregard for BIPOC feelings??); and 2) sometimes it felt like he was reaching a bit in the Asian chapter.
July 19, 2017
This has been a great book to help me understand how American in the 19th and 20 centuries viewed, understood, and applied race to people, especially the Mormon religion. I typically thought that the racial issues surrounding Mormons and Americans centered on white and black, but through this book I have come to better understand that there were many racial classifications applied to the Mormon Church.
W. Paul Reeve has done a great job in crafting a narrative that isn't messy and helps one to understand each racial term used for the Mormon church in its perspective element and time.
W. Paul Reeve has done a great job in crafting a narrative that isn't messy and helps one to understand each racial term used for the Mormon church in its perspective element and time.
October 4, 2020
A fascinating exploration of the social constructs of race and whiteness. It demonstrates socio-political views in the 19th century that Mormons were not white enough and were racialised as red/native, black, or oriental. It really hits home the absurdity of race, and racism and demonstrates how fitting in racially, how being accepted by mainstream society was more important than perpetuating Mormonism's universalist vision.
June 11, 2017
This is a FANTASTIC book that everyone should read. It helps you understand the struggles of the early saints and their battle with being "white". It also explains their relationship with the Native Americans as they moved west. Also, gives multiple examples and stories involving "blacks and the Priesthood"and the different controversies surrounding that. Well written and very enlightening.
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