The Senate: Today and 1955
Fifty-three years ago, the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency traveled to Arizona to hold hearings on the ''polygamist community impact on children.'' It was part of a multi-year look at the possible causes of juvenile delinquency; other hearings focused on comic books and television.
Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the behest of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, will again consider polygamy though with a broader lens this time: women and children.
The focus of the 1955 hearings was the polygamous sect now known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Today's hearing zeroes in on the same group.
In 1955, the sect was based at the Utah-Arizona stateline in a community known as Short Creek. The hearings were triggered by the 1953 raid on the community staged by Arizona authorities, who took all the women and children into custody and kept them for two years.
Hearings were held in Phoenix on April 28 and May 2, 1955.
The panel heard from the following witnesses:
Mrs. A., an 18-year-old housewife from Short Creek, Ariz.
Former judge David F. Anderson of Utah’s Sixth District.
Bernard T. Caine, Mohave City attorney.
Mrs. F., a housewife from Short Creek, Ariz.
Mrs. F2, a 17-year-old plural wife from Short Creek, Ariz.
J.W. Faulkner, former judge from Mohave City, Ariz., and the judge who presided over the legal proceedings that followed the1953 raid.
Mr. JJ of Short Creek, Ariz.
Milton E. Moody, superintendent of schools for Washington County, Utah.
Mrs. Alphonso Nyborg, wife of the deputy sheriff, Short Creek, Ariz.
Alphonso Nyborg, deputy sheriff of Short Creek, Ariz.
Frank L. Porter, Mohave County sheriff.
Mrs. W., postmistress of Short Creek, Ariz.
Today, the FLDS are upset about not being invited to participate in the senate hearing. In the 1950s, they were upset about being made to participate.
Historian Ken Driggs says the sect members who testified were ''unwilling participants'' who suffered from a ''massive loss of memory.''
I have tried to locate a transcript online but can not find one. I know I have one at home (in Utah) and will share any interesting exchanges I find.
Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee, at the behest of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, will again consider polygamy though with a broader lens this time: women and children.
The focus of the 1955 hearings was the polygamous sect now known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Today's hearing zeroes in on the same group.
In 1955, the sect was based at the Utah-Arizona stateline in a community known as Short Creek. The hearings were triggered by the 1953 raid on the community staged by Arizona authorities, who took all the women and children into custody and kept them for two years.
Hearings were held in Phoenix on April 28 and May 2, 1955.
The panel heard from the following witnesses:
Mrs. A., an 18-year-old housewife from Short Creek, Ariz.
Former judge David F. Anderson of Utah’s Sixth District.
Bernard T. Caine, Mohave City attorney.
Mrs. F., a housewife from Short Creek, Ariz.
Mrs. F2, a 17-year-old plural wife from Short Creek, Ariz.
J.W. Faulkner, former judge from Mohave City, Ariz., and the judge who presided over the legal proceedings that followed the1953 raid.
Mr. JJ of Short Creek, Ariz.
Milton E. Moody, superintendent of schools for Washington County, Utah.
Mrs. Alphonso Nyborg, wife of the deputy sheriff, Short Creek, Ariz.
Alphonso Nyborg, deputy sheriff of Short Creek, Ariz.
Frank L. Porter, Mohave County sheriff.
Mrs. W., postmistress of Short Creek, Ariz.
Today, the FLDS are upset about not being invited to participate in the senate hearing. In the 1950s, they were upset about being made to participate.
Historian Ken Driggs says the sect members who testified were ''unwilling participants'' who suffered from a ''massive loss of memory.''
I have tried to locate a transcript online but can not find one. I know I have one at home (in Utah) and will share any interesting exchanges I find.
9 Comments:
It is a twist of history. However the biggest difference not noted between today and 1955 is today we are in an age of information.
Today there is freedom of communication and the internet.
Today there is FAR LESS bigotry than in 1955 (although we still have a good share of it).
Fast moving, far moving and open information make today's Senate Folly totally different and transparent.
ramblings, could explain why you believe there is less bigotry now than then? It seems to me there is massive amounts of bigotry on both sides.
In this age of information, too much information has been published. ie court documents of a minor. I feel this was deliberately done to cast judgement on a 16 year old girl..
Bigotry!!!!!!!!! Do you read the SLT comment boards? So upsetting with such evil talk, name calling, accusations, very little intelligent discussion.
It seems these people are guilty before the trials begin. Their goal is again to take the children from their mothers.
Once again we are taking the word of a non-FLDS person.
And yes, there is bigotry on both sides...the Neveda side and the Texas side, but let's make it 4-square and add the bigoted Utah side and Arizona side with the FLDS plunked smack dab in the middle - totally boxed in!
And MV, I totally agree with you. I quit even reading the SLT comments. I think the anti's comment there because if they do it on a blog there are too many posters that can, with intelligence and through research, disprove their rantings!
Don't you find it intersting that the hate comments are the same every time?
Who ever said "ignorance is bliss"? It should be "ignorance is lazy prejudice"
Polygamy like homosexuality is an alternative life style. You may get tolerance but don't expect acceptance. The vast majority of the public are monogamous hetrosexuals and don't want to see the spread of alternative lifestyles.
well, there is less discrimination and bigotry than before...
Not enough to make a huge difference, but less.
Blacks do not ride in the back of the bus and segregation has ended...these are some examples of improvement.
I was speaking in broad terms, not just referring to anti-polygamy bigots specifically.
Was reading the other day that Harry Reid is an LDS convert. We in the non-LDS, benightedly secularized hinterland probably don't appreciate the implications of this fact, but I have heard that converts to just about any faith tend to be especially zealous. Do non-LDS people really give two cents about polygamy? I know I don't. I never associated it with criminality and I don't understand why the assumption is made that the two necessarily go together. This whole thing stinks to High Heaven in my opinion. You people in Utah need to keep a very sharp eye on the Right Honorable Senator Reid.
Harry Reid is a Senator from Nevada. Why should Utah keep an eye on him?
Tried to keep an eye on him...but it hurt to much.
Now I need a therapist.
LOL
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