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The “Mississippi Of The West”: Religion, Conservatism, And Racial Politics In Utah, 1960–1978, Jessica Nelson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis examines what historians have written about African Americans in Utah as well as two carefully selected episodes from 1960 to 1978 that illustrate the complexities of race and cultural politics in the state of Utah during this time. Unlike the political and racial discourse in other states, Mormonism and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints became a large part of the dialogue in Utah because of LDS teachings on race and the predominance of Latter-day Saints in the state. The effect of these teachings was not contained to church buildings, but seeped into secular spaces such …