Throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's, Ezra Taft Benson espoused far right-wing political views, and shared them openly. He believed Communists to be everywhere and behind seemingly anything he disagreed with. Despite serving in the Repubican Eisenhower administration, he even viewed the administration as full of socialists and Communists, and believed many of the administrations policies represented this. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Ezra Taft Benson opposed it, claiming it was "a communist program", and that it's leaders were Communists or puppets of the Communists.
In 1966, Ezra Taft Benson published a pamphlet entitled "Civil Rights, Tool of Communist Deception". In a similar vein, during a 1972 general conference, Benson recommended that all Mormons read Gary Allen's New World Order tract "None Dare Call it A Conspiracy".
Ezra Taft Benson openly promoted the far-right John Birch Society, a sort of predecessor to some of the more extreme aspects of the modern Tea Party. While he did not belong to the organization, he lauded it as "the most effective non-church organization in our fight against creeping socialism and Godless Communism." In 1963, the First Presidency stated: “We deplore the presumption of some politicians, especially officers, co-ordinators and members of the John Birch Society, who undertake to align the Church or its leadership with their partisan views.” This was interpreted by some as a direct jab at Ezra Taft Benson due to his activities during this time. Summarizing a meeting he’d held with Church president David O. McKay, President Hugh B. Brown wrote, “We agreed that we had done the right thing in letting the members of the Church and the world know that the Church does not in any way endorse or subscribe to the John Birch Society.” Later, when the Birch Society was working with Apostle Ezra Taft Benson to get President McKay’s photo on the cover of the Society’s American Opinion magazine, President McKay said emphatically, “I do not want anything to do with it. I do not want my name associated with John Birch.”While the Church continued to reiterate it's political neutrality, Benson allowed Church buildings to be used for political purposes of the right-wing, particularly in the candidacy of Richard Nixon for governor of California. He also made a comment in an interview that one could not be a good Church member and a Democrat, despite the fact that many Apostles, including members of the First Presidency were Democrats at the time.
In 1967, the infamous "Black Hammer: A Study of Black Power, Red Influence, and White Alternatives" book was published with a foreward by Ezra Taft Benson. Benson's foreword discussed the civil rights movement as a Communist program for revolution in America and praised the segregationist theories of Hargis and others. The cover of the book featured the decapitated and bleeding head of an African-American man.
In 1968 Benson tried to link up with George Wallace, a Southern racist and segregationist who declared his bid for the Presidency. Benson travelled to Alabama to discuss Wallace's candidacy and to promote himself as a possible running mate. Wallace sent a letter to President McKay requesting that Benson be allowed to be the Vice Presidential candidate in Wallace's third party bid. President McKay refused and sent a back a denial letter.
In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his last speech "I've been to the Mountaintop". On April 4, King was shot and killed in Memphis. President Johnson declared a national day of mourning on April 7. During this time, Benson released and circulated a statement accusing Martin Luther King of affiliating with communist organizations, and making the claim that "the Communists will use Mr. King's death for as much yardage as possible."Even in Benson's secular positions, Benson often angered groups he spoke to by making overly political, sexist and racist remarks. The result was that often apology letters had to be sent out by his empoyers (the US government for instance) or the Church, depending on the nature of the function.
The cover of this book makes no sense. Isn't the premise of the book the idea that black people are Communists? If so, why was the stereotyped black man on the cover decapitated by a Communist sickle?
ReplyDeleteNo, although I see the mistake you've made and how that would lead one to the wrong conclusion.
ReplyDeleteThe message of this book and of many of Ezra Taft Benson's views was not that black people were Communists, it was that blacks were pawns in a Communist conspiracy to overthrow the American government, and that segregation would protect America from the inflamed mobs of black people who had been worked up by Communists to demand their civil rights.
Benson, and this book, held that blacks were unknowingly fulfilling the sinister plot of Communists by demanding their civil rights. Of course, what's crazy about that is that it assumes that blacks would not want to pursue their civil rights regardless of who saw that as desirable. It's ridiculous to think of blacks during that time sitting around as saying, "Hey, you know, I really think we should be treated as equals and guaranteed our constitutional rights, but since Communists feel the same way, I think we should not pursue that goal." That's pretty much the position Benson and his ideological companions of the time (Skousen for instance) were taking.
In his talk "Civil Rights: Tool of Deception" Benson put it this way:
"we must not place the blame upon Negroes. They are merely the unfortunate group which has been selected by professional communist agitators to be used as the primary source of cannon fodder. Not one in a thousand Americans–black or white–really understands the full implications of today’s civil rights agitation. The planning, direction, and leadership come from the communists, and most of those are white men who fully intend to destroy America by spilling Negro blood, rather than their own."