Stone memorializing Brigham Young
Item
- Legacies Classification
- Memorial Type
- Memorial Context
- Memorialized Subject
- Title
- Background and Context
- Physical Description
- Memorial Inscription
- Date created, installed or dedicated
- Funded by
- Campus Location
- Location: Institution, City, State
-
Memorial Object
-
Plaque/Marker
-
Young, Brigham
-
Stone memorializing Brigham Young
-
The Walk of Fame was created in 1929 by then-President Hamilton Holt to honor significant historical figures. The memorial is located in the center of campus around Mills Lawn.
Brigham Young (1801-1877) was an early leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and, following the death of Joseph Smith, was elected church president.
Young taught his followers to view non-White people as sub-human, especially those of African descent. Africans, he argued, were descendants of Cain and were, therefore, eternally cursed. He supported slavery as a divine institution and opposed miscegenation. Thanks to Young, these views became deeply embedded in Mormonism.
In an 1852 speech, Young spoke out against the possibility of racial equality. Young described “the mark” placed upon the descendants of Cain by God to distinguish them from others as seen, “on the countenance of every African you ever did see upon the face of the earth, or ever will see.” He thought that allowing African Americans governmental or religious authority would be tantamount to allowing “the Devil to rule over us,” and suggested their only privilege should be legal citizenship. Although Young did not enslave African Americans himself, he defended slavery using Biblical examples, and was a destructive force in the radicalization of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints.
Young was included in the Walk of Fame in May 1946 in honor of Vestal Malone--a Rollins student and World War II veteran who had killed himself on campus in January 1946. Malone's mother worked at the college, and she orchestrated the acquisition of the stone. The stone was supposedly part of a wall that Young sat on. The stone was blessed by Bishop Lamoyne Melville of the Church of the Latter Day Saints before being shipped to Florida.
-
Brown stone, 14in x 7in
-
Brigham Young: Fillmore, Utah
-
May 1946
-
Bishop Lamoyne Melville, the Mormon Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), and Mrs. A. W. Malone
Hamilton Holt
Position: 1317 (56 views)