Hey Basin Cruiser. I like that you put J. Reuben Clark in your signature.
"During Clark's lifetime, Utah had
de facto segregation policies, and males of African descent were
excluded from the
LDS priesthood. As a church leader, Clark resisted the social integration of whites and blacks and strongly opposed
interracial marriage, explaining in a 1949 letter: "Since they are not entitled to the Priesthood, the Church discourages social intercourse with the negro race, because such intercourse leads to marriage, and the offspring possess negro blood and is therefore subject to the inhibition set out in our Scripture."
[51] Clark nevertheless expressed support for
Brown v. Board of Education, stating that "the Latter-day Saints willingly accord to [blacks] in civil matters all the rights, privileges, liberties, and protection guaranteed them... in all their social, economic, and political activities."
[52]
Quinn notes that "there was one ethnic group, however, for whom Reuben expressed lifelong dislike and distrust—the Jewish people."
[53] According to Quinn, Clark kept several copies of
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in his personal library and shared it and other anti-Semitic publications with colleagues and acquaintances.
[54] He expressed anti-Semitic attitudes in "code words publicly and in specifics privately" and used his church position to obstruct what he perceived as "Jewish influence."
[55] After
Nazi Germany's
annexation of Austria, Clark denied desperate pleas by Austrian
Mormon converts from Judaism who sought the church's help in emigrating to safety.
[56]"
