-- 24 Jun 1965
[A Birch student-spy] complained to Ernest Wilkinson in 1965 about Poll's negative reviews of the Skousen's Naked Communist and of None Dare Call It Treason. (1)
-- 2 July 1965
The NAACP in July 1965 passed a unanimous resolution asking all Third World nations "to refuse to grant visa to missionaries and representatives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . . . until such time as the doctrine of non-white inferiority is changed and rescinded by that church and a positive policy of support for civil rights is taken." ["Critical of Church: NAACP Studies Action," Deseret News, 2 July 1965, A-6] (2)
-- July 21, 1965
Reed Benson, the John Birch Society's representative in the nation's capital, has accused Martin Luther King of hurting the cause of the American Negro. Benson, son of former Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, said King has "set back the cause of the Negro in this country for years, many years". "I'm not opposed to civil rights. I am opposed to men like Martin Luther King." ... (3)
-- mid-Aug 1965
The Watts riot of African-Americans erupted in Los Angeles (4)
-- 19-22 Aug 1965
BYU president Ernest Wilkinson ... attended three days of private indoctrination by the president of the Birch Society, and ... resolved "to press forward for more training along this line at the BYU." (5)
-- 1 Sept 1965
On 17 August the society's "Major Coordinators" sent instructions to all the Birch officers in California to take "immediate action" to "expose the so-called Civil Rights Movement." (8)
A follow-up letter instructed Birch Society leaders in Los Angeles County to "take advantage of the current situation" as a means of repudiating civil rights activism. (9)
-- 2 Sep 1965
Reed Benson escalated both the Birch conflict and racial tensions in Mormonism with a memorandum to all Birch Society chapters in Utah on 2 September 1965:
It is common knowledge that the Civil Rights Movement is Communist controlled, influenced and dominated. . . . Our founder and guide, Mr. Robert Welch, has instructed us that when necessary we must adopt the communist technique in our ever present battle against Godless Communism. It is urged that in the coming weeks the Utah Chapters begin a whispering campaign and foster rumors that the Civil Rights groups are going to organize demonstrations in Salt Lake City in connection with the forthcoming LDS conference. . . . A few well placed comments will soon mushroom out of control and before the conference begins there will be such a feeling of unrest and distrust that the populace will hardly know who to believe. The news media will play it to the very hilt. No matter what the Civil Rights leaders may try to say to deny it the seed will have been sown and again the Civil Rights movement will suffer a telling blow. President McKay's nephew, Quinn McKay, recognized the letter's signature and regarded it as genuine. (10)
Endnotes:
1 - Poll to Wilkinson, 24 June 1965, defending himself against the complaints by Bryce -- as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992) and Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
2 - "Benson Ties Rights Issue to Reds in Mormon Rift," Washington Post, 13 Apr. 1965, A-5; Seattle Times, 5 May 1965,13; "NAACP Asks Foreign Bar of Missionaries," Daily Utah Chronicle, 6 May 1965, 1, 3, 4; Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 May 1965, 6, Microforms, Marriott Library. I could not find any reference to this in Deseret News or Salt Lake Tribune for May; The Salt Lake City chapter of the NAACP had called for the national resolution in apparent response to Apostle Benson's statement a month earlier that the civil rights movement was Communist and revolutionary. These are referenced in in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992) and Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
3 - "Bircher Asserts King Injures Negro's Cause," Modesto Bee, Jul 21, 1965 (provided by Joe Geisner)
4 - D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992) and Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
5 - Wilkinson diary, 19-22 Aug. 1965, as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992) and Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
8 - D. Richard Pine and Charles R. Armour to "All Coordinators, Section Leaders and Chapter Leaders in California," 17 Aug. 1965, and D. Richard Pine to "Coordinators, Section Leaders and Chapter Leaders—L.A. County," 1 Sept. 1965, in Harvey B. Schechter, How To Listen to a John Birch Society Speaker, 3d. ed. rev. (New York: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 1967), 25-26 -- as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992) and Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
9 - Quinn, "Mormon Political Conflicts".
10 - Reed A. Benson, "Memo to the Utah Chapters," 2 Sept. 1965, on letterhead of the John Birch Society, photocopy in Williams Papers; Quinn G. McKay to J. D. Williams, 20 May 1966, Williams Papers. These are referenced in in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992) and Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
LDS History Chronology: Ezra Taft Benson
Mormon History Timeline: the life of Ezra Taft Benson
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
