180 years ago today - Jan 2, 1843

Contrary to then-current views of the inherent inferiority of African-Americans, Smith affirmed that social environment, not nature, determined their status: "Change their situations with the whites, and they [African-Americans] would be like them." However, he opposed racial intermarriage and integration, and instead favored emancipation and black nationalism: "Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species, and put them on a national equalization."

[Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 7: Selected Chronology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power]

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