Ben, I don’t know McDaniel’s background – she didn’t offer anything in her letters that explicitly addressed this. I am also interested in this – and I think I may try to get in contact with her and with Judy Geissler (who you will meet in my next post) – as BHodges asked about.

Dan, I think that what happened at BYU could have happened at other non-Southern, less liberal schools in the US, as students from different backgrounds and beliefs tried to decide what their views on civil rights were. However, it does seem to me that much of the US had moved on from a focus on communism when it was still frequently discussed as a real threat at BYU, and so I’d be interested in seeing if the purported link between King and communism was discussed at such a level at other universities.

Will, it does seem that the paper was indeed not published during that time period. The hard copy and the microfilm copies at the HBLL (which is where I’ve conducted this research) both contain a gap (which still could just simply mean a gap in what the library had for the paper), but the editor provides a timeline in his first editor’s note to McDaniel about how the paper was not published during that time period as a part of the justification for not publishing news on King’s death. Thanks for sharing your own experiences about being at BYU at this time!

David G., There were a good amount of students who believed in ties between King and communism. That was something frequently invoked in 1968 and 1969 by BYU students. I’m personally grateful, though, for the students who actively spoke against those who believed in that connection.

Skeptic, I do hope to publish this research in one format or another. I think it’s an integral part of BYU history, as the history of race in Utah and in the West.

Are you sure spring break started on April 5–a Friday?–and ended on April 10–a Wednesday? I think I flew to California to decide where I was going to continue my education that spring break, and I think it was before the assassination. But my personal memory is not that great. I assume you’re not relying on a gap in the microfilm. I know a BYU master’s thesis assumed “The Valley Tan” ended a week before its actual demise on 29 February 1860–apparently because the BYU microfilm lacked that most interesting final number.

You are right. In the dorm basement that night BYU students expressed their attitudes towards civil rights in a manner that evoked LDS teachings and principles. And our views varied greatly: I, for one, left the religion in part because of the policies, then presented as doctrines, unchangeable sacred writ, that made God out to be a racist. A few of us in the room were horrified at the news, but most didn’t seem moved by it, and there were a vocal few who proclaimed it a good thing that the commie was dead. What do you suppose Ernest L. Wilkinson thought?

I can testify that Barbara McDaniel was one brave lady. I wonder what happened to her.

Will Bagley

It was interesting to read how people appealed to the gospel in support of their different positions. It sounded a lot like current discussions on immigration, race, taxes, environment…well everything. I guess some things never change.