American History

William Morgan

William Morgan

William Morgan The abduction and suspected murder of William Morgan in western New York State in 1826 ignited a controversy that fed con...

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href=" " imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7xX-Iq9dZaqzDaD0uIFQ7cArLKHcXmG3A89i3ubARYN12dQ3H9gsjqdN9KdhZs1YgKULrVvWxdeIR6yGZGMqN9Ozvlh6RdJspc_rzRnzFTi5w7sHHfIDd0k1ShOuk_KXDakN4G6k_ztX2/s1600/Mormonism.jpg" width="250" /></a></div> The Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) was established on 6 April 1830, amid the religious fervor of the American Second Great Awakening. Founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805–1844), it was from the beginning the target of suspicion and oppression. In 1820, Smith, a mystic, treasure seeker, and diviner, claimed to have received a visit from God the Father and Jesus Christ. During this visitation Smith was told that all of the churches had turned aside from God and he had been commissioned to restore the “true church.” Seven years later Smith was contacted by the angel Moroni giving him instructions on where to find a set of gold plates inscribed with the Book of Mormon (written by and named after Moroni’s father). The book was written in “reformed Egyptian” and had to be translated through the “Urim and Thummim,” two seer (or peep) stones that were set in a breast-plate worn over the shoulders. The translation took three years and the plates were “swept away” by Moroni after it was done. In 1830, Smith published the book and a new religion was born. Attacks on Mormonism Since publication, the Book of Mormon has been attacked as an elaborate fraud. Critics have claimed that if Smith did not plagiarize it from the Old Testament and other sources, he made it up entirely. <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805416528/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=6ad7cf7faa7bde443b7d6477ff9fc919" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0805416528&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="amid" american="" awakening="" border="0" fervor="" great="" height="1" mormonism="" of="" religious="" second="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0805416528" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" width="1" /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937520757/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=aad34e38d75c0979a0e0640565ee4c55" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1937520757&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="amid" american="" awakening="" border="0" fervor="" great="" height="1" mormonism="" of="" religious="" second="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1937520757" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" width="1" /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> These charges have become harder to deflect in recent years, as evidence has emerged challenging the truthfulness of Joseph Smith on such matters as his conviction for treasure hunting and his use of folk magic. More damaging yet was the discovery of the actual scroll Smith allegedly used in his translation of the Book of Abraham. From its inception, the cult faced suspicion and hostility from larger society. Anti-Mormon feeling fed on the more general nativist fear of internal subversion in the United States of the nineteenth century. Faced with a rapidly changing society, many felt the need for unity and closed ranks against the forces of anti-U.S. movements. Any group thought too different was highly suspect and Americans suspected immigrants, Catholics, and Freemasons of plotting to overthrow the republic. Ultimately, nativists feared that these “un-American” groups wanted to control all of the United States. Mormons provided one more outlet for the mass <a href=" " target="_blank" title=Mormonism>paranoia</a>. Despite the heartfelt contention of most Mormons that they were Christians, the sect has never been accepted by Christian churches. They see the Mormon claim as an attempt to wrap their cultlike views in the respectable blanket of Christianity. This claim was perceived as another manifestation of the attempt to cover up the giant conspiracy. A major cause of suspicion was that the Latter-day Saints (LDS) exhibited several characteristics that were viewed as un-American. Because Mormon leaders ruled with an iron hand, they were seen as an unscrupulous, autocratic group of megalomaniacs plotting to overthrow the adab and social order. In addition, the secrecy of rituals fueled suspicion that the group was performing and plotting immoral and illegal acts. Even the structure of the sect caused some to view it as un-American. The membership was looked upon as unwitting and docile dupes—more mindless machines than humans. The sect demanded total allegiance and dominated virtually all aspects of its adherent’s life. These traits were viewed as a threat to the very basis of American life—democracy, religion, and justice. Of all the frightening rituals of the LDS, it was their belief in polygamy that brought forth the most outrage and disgust from their critics. Most Americans viewed the practice as a form of slavery. Through polygamy women became mere concubines at the beck and call of their masters. Multiple wives also provided a setting for all forms of immorality and critics imagined all variety of sexual abominations taking place within the Mormon sanctuary. Mormon History In 1833, the LDS faced their first real attacks and were forced to leave Jackson County, Missouri. When less subtle methods failed (opponents had destroyed the Mormon printing press and tarred and feathered the local leader), anti-Mormons went on a rampage. They burned and pillaged the Mormon settlement, forcing the residents to flee for their lives. In December 1840 Smith gathered the faithful in Illinois. He obtained a city charter from the state government and established the new community of Nauvoo. With the concomitant right to organize a government, including a militia, he felt that the sect was insulated from persecution. The initial years at Nauvoo were good for Smith and the Mormons. He managed to fill in the structure of his rapidly growing sect and even ran for U.S. president. Although he lost his bid for the presidency, the prophet was elected both mayor and lieutenant-general of the militia of Nauvoo. This intertwining of church and state offended many in Illinois, yet the Mormons might have weathered the storm had Smith not announced several additional heaven-sent proclamations. At Nauvoo, Smith (with the official title of “Seer, a Translator, a Prophet, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, and Elder of the Church through the will of God the Father, and the Grace of Your Lord Jesus Christ”) continued to have revelations regarding the mission and structure of the new denomination. Several of these revelations were especially vexing for many people, including some of the higher-ranking faithful. Smith first sealed some rituals and parts of the temple off to outsiders, and this “secrecy” served to further raise the suspicions of the larger community. In addition, Smith distanced his religion from traditional Christianity by proclaiming that humans, like God, were eternal and not created beings, and that the faithful could become gods themselves. It was, however, Smith’s pronouncement on marriage that really served to outrage people both within and outside of the sect. In 1844, Smith called for his disciples to adopt the ways of the Old Testament patriarchs and take multiple wives. Smith himself apparently had already been practicing polygamy for several years and had married at least forty-nine women. The call for a return to polygamy set off a firestorm. While some of the faithful reluctantly took on additional wives, several left the sect and founded an anti-Smith newspaper in Nauvoo. The Nauvoo Expositor was founded to expose the immoral practices, megalomania, and delusions of grandeur of the prophet and called for a return to the original teachings of the church, but the newspaper was only able to publish one issue. Smith ordered the paper’s printing press destroyed, the type scattered, and all recovered newspapers burned. The destruction of the opposition press resulted in the arrest of Smith and several of his confederates. While incarcerated, both Smith and his brother Hyram were murdered by a mob on 27 June 1844. After the death of Joseph Smith his followers split into a multitude of factions, each claiming to be the true church. The bulk of the faithful chose to follow Brigham Young, one of the church’s senior apostles. In the wake of Smith’s murder, Young managed to rally the faithful and when faced with a possible government-sponsored eviction from Nauvoo, led them on a heroic trek to the Salt Lake area of Utah. The migration west had been a goal of Joseph Smith. He felt that outside of U.S. territory the sect could practice their religion without interference. Unfortunately for Smith’s dream, only three years after Young led the faithful to Utah in 1847, it became a U.S. territory. Initially, the religionists were left to their own devices. Within a few years, however, Young’s autocratic government, the entanglement of church and state, and the issue of polygamy raised the ire of the national government. In 1857, President James Buchanan ordered troops into the area to “restore order.” The Mormons, while appearing ready to fight, acceded to the superior force and Young negotiated a peaceful resolution to the crisis. The only casualties in the “Mormon War” were a group of 120 California-bound settlers who were brutally murdered by a Mormon militia at Mountain Meadows. Despite their attempts at isolation, the LDS continued to have to deal with the wider world. As Utah grew and the United States solidified its control over the West, the Mormons were forced to dismantle the church-controlled political party and officially abandon the practice of polygamy in order to pave the way for statehood. Some families, disgusted with this abandonment of the founder’s teachings, left for areas in Canada and Mexico where they could continue the practice of multiple marriages. By the time of Utah statehood in 1898, the Latter-day Saints had moved from a radical millennialist sect to a prosperous and stable denomination. As their influence spread to surrounding states the Mormons became a major part of the religious landscape of the United States. Today, the Utah-based church boasts 11 million members, with 5.5 million in the United States. It still, however, has not gained acceptance as a mainstream denomination.

Mormonism

The Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) was established on 6 April 1830, amid the religious fervor of the American...

Jedidiah Morse

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="blank"><img alt="serving" as="" border="0" charlestown="" church="" congregational="" first="" jedidiah="" morse="" of="" pastor="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLgP66ixZyQb4RaLRopCbtanaoh6_GpTtEYvghK4Roa77kO_ObFi3tRezVQAC_zaUnVKLbjtLNVJFr2blRpzQ29f2ESJK9qfmnsbV2eCCZfZvKn8JXcNdJp95Li6KAs-RsV5WZewAWqNDX/s1600/Jedidiah-Morse.jpg" the="" title="Jedidiah" width="470" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jedidiah Morse</td></tr> </tbody></table> Rev. Jedidiah Morse (1761–1826) was one of the early American Republic’s best-known authors and clergymen, serving as pastor of the First Congregational Church of Charlestown, <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title=Jedidiah Morse>Massachusetts</a> (now part of Boston) for thirty years. Perhaps counterbalancing his other accomplishments, Morse was also one of the forerunners in the field of U.S. conspiracy theory. Besides his pastoral duties and frequent service as an orator on civic and political occasions, Morse was a pioneer in American geography, producing one of the first popular books on the subject, Geography Made Easy (1784), just a year after his graduation from Yale College. This was followed by a series of other works, most notably the two-volume American Universal Geography (1793), which altogether went through hundreds of editions. In an age when travel was still difficult, expensive, and infrequent, it is not too much to say that Jedidiah Morse taught most Americans of his day most of what they knew of the country beyond their own immediate horizons. <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0870498681/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=4d67b1263c660b7b4d3adfee14f0e4fb" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0870498681&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="serving" as="" border="0" charlestown="" church="" congregational="" first="" height="1" jedidiah="" morse="" of="" pastor="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0870498681" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" width="1" /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813509823/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=dde747bd3530591aaba9fa40eec6e471" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0813509823&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="serving" as="" border="0" charlestown="" church="" congregational="" first="" height="1" jedidiah="" morse="" of="" pastor="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0813509823" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" width="1" /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> Morse also made a name for himself as a prominent purveyor of anti-Illuminati conspiracy theories. In the hysterical kala of the <a href=" " target="_blank" title=Jedidiah Morse>XYZ Affair</a> and the Alien and Sedition Acts in the 1790s, Morse lent his considerable energy and prestige to the project of turning the Bavarian Illuminati into a mainstream political issue. Joined by many other prominent New England divines, including Yale College president Timothy Dwight, Morse almost succeeded. Like many other old-fashioned New England Calvinists, Morse was deeply alarmed at the seeming rise of “infidelity” in the 1790s, a category into which he put not just the outright rejection of Christian belief, but also its liberalization into less supernatural, more rational forms such as Unitarianism and deism. Besides mankind’s innate wickedness, Morse and his colleagues blamed radical politics, especially the French Revolution and its American sympathizers, for the decline of faith, and vice versa. The year 1794 was a turning point. Robespierre’s reign of terror raged in France, while the Democratic Republican Societies and the Whiskey Rebellion disturbed the political peace at home. That same year, deist speaker and organizer Elihu Palmer toured the United States, and Thomas Paine’s attack on revealed religion, The Age of Reason, first arrived on U.S. shores. Under the infidels’ influence, Morse believed, “uncleanness, Sabbath breaking & all the flood of iniquity which springs from these” ran riot among the people. To pillars of New England’s Federalist/Congregationalist “Standing Order,” under which the churches were supported by taxes and ministers used their pulpits to support the ruling political elite, it seemed that a “mental epidemic” was sweeping the country. It only got worse as the 1790s wore on. <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title=Jedidiah Morse>Criticism</a> of the government, and political activism against it, grew more intense during the battles over the Jay Treaty with England in 1796 and the presidency in the 1796 election. The pious Federalist John Adams beat the free-thinking Jefferson in that election, but with war against the French looming, Federalist hysteria came to a fever pitch. It was in this atmosphere, in 1797, that Jedidiah Morse, Timothy Dwight, and their colleagues discovered John Robison’s Proofs of a Conspiracy, finding in its account of the Illuminati campaign to destroy all religions and governments a ready explanation for many political and cultural trends that disturbed them. Morse launched his personal campaign against the Illuminati by giving two sermons on the national fast day proclaimed by President Adams for 9 May 1798, one at his own church and one at North Church, Boston. Following New England tradition, where sermons were popular reading matter and often served as political tracts, Morse’s effort was published soon afterwards. In his Sermon on the National Fast Day, Morse attacked the “deep-laid plan” of the French Republic “to destroy the confidence of the [American] people” in the men and institutions that governed them, a plan being implemented not just by the French themselves, but also by their local minions, the Democratic Republicans. What was worse, they had criticized the clergy, too, suggesting that some secret, even deeper design was “in operation, hostile to true liberty and religion,” preparing the way “for the spread” here of “that atheistical philosophy” that was “deluging the Old World in misery and blood.” Morse recommended Robison’s book as a judicious explanation of everything that was happening, attributing it all to “the dark conspiracies of the Illuminati”. Initially the response was less sensational than Morse must have hoped, but the controversy kept him and the Illuminati in the public eye for most of the next two years. Democratic Republican newspapers questioned Robison’s veracity, printing negative reviews of the book from the British press, and demanded proof of the charges. Not much proof was to be had, but Morse gamely struck back with newspaper articles and clippings defending Robison and attacking their critics. At the same, <a href=" " target="_blank" title=Jedidiah Morse>Salem</a> minister William Bentley, a rare Jeffersonian among the Massachusetts clergy, supplied equal amounts of material damning Morse’s position and his sources. The controversy was renewed and expanded with a round of published Thanksgiving sermons from Morse and many other New England ministers over the winter of 1798–1799. Morse’s included an appendix that tried to document a view of American events closely following the pattern of Robison’s and the Abbé Barruel’s accounts of the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">French Revolution</a>. The Democratic Republican Societies of 1793–1794 were not mere debating clubs, he tried to show, but extensions of the Illuminati. They had been founded by a French agent, “Citizen” Edmond Genet, and merely went underground and reappeared under other names after President Washington had publicly blamed them for the <a href=" " target="_blank" title=Jedidiah Morse>Whiskey Rebellion</a>. Morse finally seemed to get his Illuminati witch-hunt on firm ground with a third published sermon, originally given on another national fast day, 25 April 1799. This time a triumphant Morse claimed finally to have “complete and indubitable proof that such societies do exist, and have for many years existed, in the United States”. The smoking gun was a letter detailing the membership and <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title=Jedidiah Morse>organization</a> (all the way back in 1786) of a somewhat irregular Masonic organization called Wisdom Lodge in Portsmouth, Virginia, made up chiefly of immigrants from St. Domingue and France. There were suggestions of other U.S. lodges being in contact with Wisdom Lodge, and a mother club in France, but the connection to the Bavarian Illuminati was tenuous at best and the evidence of any real influence nonexistent. Nevertheless, Morse felt the case was sealed, and the Illuminati theory gained some ground, until it was derailed by a new controversy over Morse’s own integrity. It happened that both Morse and his antagonist William Bentley were in correspondence with the German geographer Christoph Ebeling. To both men, Ebeling had written letters castigating Robison’s book, contradicting many of the alleged facts it cited, and dismissing the idea that the Bavarian Illuminati still existed in any form. Rumors of the letters began to circulate in the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title=Jedidiah Morse>summer</a> of 1799. The following autumn, Bentley saw to it that the text of his Ebeling letter appeared in several newspapers, anonymously but describing the writer and recipient in such a way that readers might assume the Massachusetts man who received the letter was Morse himself. The Illuminati theory’s chief U.S. backer was forced on the defensive, unable to come clean without admitting that he had covered up incriminating <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title=Jedidiah Morse>information</a> even though it was provided by a respected colleague. By the end of 1799, Republican newspapers were openly ridiculing Morse and his ideas, and building a sort of satirical conspiracy theory about the “New England Illuminati,” an oligarchy of “political priests” of which Morse was said to be a ringleader. Morse soon had to drop the Illuminati theory from his repertoire, although he continued to fight for the old-time Puritan religion in other ways over the rest of his life. His skills as a controversialist and publishing entrepreneur were put to good use resisting the teaching of liberal theology at Harvard, promoting missions to the Indians and western migrants, and helping establish Andover Theological Seminary, the New England Tract Society, the American Bible Society, and the American Tract Society. The family tradition of scientific and artistic achievement mixed with conspiracy was carried on by Jedidiah’s son, Samuel F. B. Morse.

Jedidiah Morse

Jedidiah Morse Rev. Jedidiah Morse (1761–1826) was one of the early American Republic’s best-known authors and clergymen, serving as pa...

MOVE

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href=" " imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXixprt-AfB7XrozJtyx177D_PhzveNOk5qG21kiBjlhiOkKiQHAXabhtd6EhP9HW6Fb80pIaWeVVq50DXaQRuMI0ZhO1XYlIG1eIsjlmAPoq1id15TsmyezrypA2VhP-dMNiYZcZ_goB/s1600/move.jpg" width="470" /></a></div> A radical African American activist organization, MOVE was influenced by many of the Left’s turn to paranoia and conspiratorial thinking in the counter-cultural years of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Like those that made up the Weathermen and the Black Panther Party, MOVE members saw mainstream U.S. culture as beyond repair, and sought to form a counterconspiracy to create an alternative society in which its members could live. MOVE—it is unclear if the name of the <a href=" " target="_blank" title=MOVE>organization</a> has ever acted as a specific acronym—was founded in 1972 in the Powelton Village neighborhood of Philadelphia by African American handyman Vincent Leaphart. With the assistance of white graduate-student activist Donald Glassey, Leaphart (now calling himself John Africa; all MOVE members took the last name of Africa) wrote the Guidelines, a manifesto detailing the beliefs of MOVE. This document, clearly influenced by the counter-cultural New Left, Black Power, and environmental movements of the late 1960s/early 1970s, attempted to establish MOVE as a viable political organization, touching upon such themes as racism, police brutality, vegetarianism, <a href=" " target="_blank" title=MOVE>technology</a>, and political representation. In fact, much of MOVE’s early writings and rhetoric attempted to revive and build upon these earlier movements and, in the process, cure them of their excesses. Africa stressed the importance of cleansing one’s body, insisting that his followers abstain from all drugs and medicines, alcohol, meat, and ostentatious clothing. Science was “a trick” that only served to inculcate people into the “addictions” of the “System lifestyle” (Anderson and Hevenor, 9). What was needed, Africa stressed, was a back-to-nature manner of living. There would therefore be no birth control practiced within the MOVE organization, and members’ diets would consist almost exclusively of raw fruits and vegetables. Trash, human <a href=" " target="_blank" title=MOVE>waste</a>, and even dead animals were left to “cycle” back to the earth on MOVE property, leading to run-ins with both neighbors and the Philadelphia police. At the same time, MOVE children were to be naked in the summer and only lightly clothed in the <a href=" " target="_blank" title=MOVE>winter</a>, while adult males and females were commanded to grow their hair into unwashed dreadlocks and dress alike in blue jeans, blue denim jackets, and heavy-soled men’s boots. MOVE saw schools, political parties and leaders, and all branches of the law as corrupt and enslaving. Moreover, the forces that controlled such institutions were viewed as actively conspiring against MOVE members and their allies. For example, as MOVE member Jeanne Africa explained, “drugs were in the black community for a long time, but they didn’t have [drug rehabilitation] programs until it got into the white community .... The hierarchy would give you drugs to control you”. To MOVE, the most concrete representatives of this hierarchy were the police, and MOVE held many demonstrations aimed at focusing attention on issues of police abuse and brutality (Philadelphia, under law-and-order Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, had a national reputation for police misconduct during much of the 1970s). In a seven-month period in 1975, MOVE members were arrested on misdemeanor charges more than 150 times, fined $15,000, and sentenced to several lengthy prison sentences. Seeing the court system as perhaps the most oppressive tool of the “System” conspiracy, MOVE members made it a point to interrupt these sentencing hearings, often turning MOVE trials into veritable sideshows. As the 1970s drew to a close, MOVE’s rhetoric became more fiery and condemnatory, while their political activities became more confrontational— with members often seen brandishing firearms. Such trends were intensified after an 8 August 1978 confrontation with the police, which resulted in one officer dead and nine MOVE members sentenced to 30–100 years for their roles in the melee. Seeing themselves once again as victims of unwarranted oppression, MOVE made it their mission—from their new headquarters on Osage Avenue in west Philadelphia—to continuously call for the release of the “MOVE 9,” whom they saw as political prisoners in their struggle against the tyrannical Philadelphia government. This campaign, often carried out through megaphones and speakers from inside the increasingly fortified MOVE compound, reached its violent conclusion on 13 May 1985, when a showdown between the organization and the Philadelphia city government left eleven members dead (six adults and five children) and sixty-one homes destroyed. MOVE member Ramona Africa was convicted on riot and conspiracy charges in connection with the conflict, and served seven years in prison. MOVE continued to stay in the news throughout the remaining years of the 1980s, and even into the twenty-first century. In the aftermath of the tremendous destruction on Osage Avenue, then-Mayor Wilson W. Goode appointed the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission to examine the events leading up to, and including, the attack on MOVE. In March 1986, the commission issued a report condemning the actions of the city government, concluding that “dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable”. In June 1996, a jury ordered the city of Philadelphia and two former city officials—then-Police Commissioner Gregor Sambor and then-Fire Commissioner William Richard—to pay $1.5 million to a survivor and relatives of two members who died in the May 1985 confrontation. To many MOVE members and supporters, such findings vindicated their belief that the city had actively conspired against them throughout the previous two decades, and was now being made to pay for such actions. During the 1990s, many supporters of convicted murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal—who had written extensively on the 1978 MOVE confrontation and resulting trials—argued that Abu-Jamal had received an unjust sentence based in part on his association with MOVE. Finally, in September 2002 a man involved in a bitter custody dispute with a member of MOVE was found shot to death in a car in New Jersey, the same day he was to pick up the boy for an unsupervised visit. While there was no evidence tying the organization to the murder, MOVE representatives quickly denied any involvement in the crime, and in fact argued that the government was setting up MOVE for the killing. A steadfast belief in a vast conspiracy against them has clearly followed MOVE into the new millennium.

MOVE

A radical African American activist organization, MOVE was influenced by many of the Left’s turn to paranoia and conspiratorial thinking ...

Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad Elijah Muhammad was the most important early leader of the Nation of Islam , leading the organization for over forty ye...

Nation of Islam

Nation of Islam

Nation of Islam Mixing elements of traditional Islamic belief with black nationalism, the Nation of Islam has played an important and o...

Opinion Polls about Conspiracy Theories

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img about="" agree="" alt="most" americans="" at="" border="0" by="" conspiracy="" least="" one="" opinion="" polls="" popular="" posed="" scenario="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFCihOhifxggEFDYcn1I04uIkesIsCTvYpQ1rTrgPxQluNh8Rjsx1xfKr6q6bqv1rNyiKQLOLqEh-NcQWjAxDzlaIUXeP6OgiHnsQCbyBFBk72rPYX9lc9ligL99Eem8ho6iRjWiMiAAoj/s1600/conspiracy.jpg" that="" the="" theories="" title="Opinion" today="" width="470" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conspiracy Theories</td></tr> </tbody></table> According to polls, most Americans today agree that the scenario posed by at least one popular conspiracy theory is very likely or somewhat likely. On 25–29 June 1997, a survey was conducted of 1,009 people nationwide, with participants from every state and the District of Columbia. Guido H. Stempel III, distinguished professor of the EW Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and Thomas Hargrove of the Scripps Howard News Service conducted the survey. The results have a 4 percent margin of error with a 95 percent confidence interval, meaning that the results are projectable to all U.S. households 95 times out of 100 plus or minus 4 percentage points. At that time: <ul> <li>More than half (51 percent) believe it is very likely or somewhat likely that government officials were “directly responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy.”</li> <li>More than half (60 percent) believe is likely that military officials covered up the dangers of the Agent Orange chemical.</li> <li>Four-fifths (80 percent) believe it is likely that military officials are covering up information about U.S. soldiers’ exposure to nerve gas or germ warfare in the Gulf War.</li> <li>More than one-third (40 percent) believe it is likely that the FBI burned down the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.</li> <li>More than half (52 percent) believe it is likely that the CIA allowed drug dealers from Central America to sell crack cocaine to African Americans in U.S. inner cities.</li> <li>More than one-third believe it is likely the navy shot down <a href=" " target="_blank">TWA Flight 800</a> either intentionally or accidentally.</li> </ul> <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578593689/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=7d6bcbc0215260af131a733c07131956" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1578593689&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=theconthist-20" /></a><img about="" agree="" alt="most" americans="" at="" border="0" by="" conspiracy="" height="1" least="" one="" opinion="" polls="" popular="" posed="" scenario="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=theconthist-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1578593689" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" that="" the="" theories="" today="" width="1" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786719680/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=b1bf4319d1e6c7fc761b5d2964ed3fd2" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0786719680&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=theconthist-20" /></a><img about="" agree="" alt="most" americans="" at="" border="0" by="" conspiracy="" height="1" least="" one="" opinion="" polls="" popular="" posed="" scenario="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=theconthist-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0786719680" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" that="" the="" theories="" today="" width="1" /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> Respondents were asked if the above situations were likely to some degree. The above responses included the “very likely” and “somewhat likely” answers. Note that believing that something is “somewhat likely” may be the admission of possibility, not a firm belief. JFK Assassination <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img about="" agree="" alt="most" americans="" at="" border="0" by="" conspiracy="" least="" one="" opinion="" polls="" popular="" posed="" scenario="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsn4qEiL785825z2aTGvEQcQUFLX7Xaojl06qvtMptmwl17McTAkCaVtd0mZ3QLWEtCLSeDzwfouDh_B3w3cSlK9SORs0179IAimutRHB-CelC7qUPTfPN3RhakCa2lSJx9EfczRlYO3WT/s1600/jfk.jpg" that="" the="" theories="" title="Opinion" today="" width="470" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">JFK before assassination</td></tr> </tbody></table> Most Americans say that more than one person was involved in the JFK assassination. A Gallup Poll was conducted 26–28 March 2001 with telephone interviews of a randomly selected sample of 1,024 adults aged 18 and older. The results are projectable to all U.S. households with a 95 percent confidence and 3 percent margin of error. At that time, when asked, “Do you think that one man was responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy, or do you think that others were involved in a conspiracy?”—with the possible answers “one man,” “others involved” and “no opinion”: <blockquote> Fourth-fifths (81 percent) responded that they believed that other people were involved in a conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy, an all-time high.</blockquote> In the 1997 Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University nationwide poll, the question concerned not more than one person, but government officials with direct involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. The poll discovered: <blockquote> More than half (51 percent) of Americans believe it is very likely or somewhat likely that government officials were “directly responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy.”</blockquote> AIDS and Drugs <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img about="" agree="" alt="most" americans="" at="" border="0" by="" conspiracy="" least="" one="" opinion="" polls="" popular="" posed="" scenario="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6uKwOHMrouow84ASp2aBM2fMw3p6AJMepMWrfG482XSREl4nK4W4Hb3S1MusiGcvy2LiyKaMTnz7rbugUnPbVokObBrxgHmTA5-e-ksoAAZUF-0P5GiY-VwHCWV3r0u85w04Cb3SDEXbz/s1600/aids.jpg" that="" the="" theories="" title="Opinion" today="" width="470" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aids</td></tr> </tbody></table> A sizable number of people would agree with at least one of the accusations that the government manufactured AIDS or made drugs available in inner cities to attack African Americans. In a 1990 poll, reported in the 29 October 1990 edition of the New York Times: <ul> <li>Nearly one-third (29 percent) of black New Yorkers indicated belief that AIDS was “deliberately created in a laboratory in order to infect black people,” versus one in twenty (5 percent) among white New Yorkers.</li> <li>More than half (60 percent) of black New Yorkers indicated belief that the government “deliberately” made drugs available to poor black people, versus a little more than one in ten (12 percent) among white New Yorkers.</li> </ul> In another 1990 survey, reported in the 2 November 1995 edition of the Boston Globe: <blockquote> More than one-third (34 percent) of black churchgoers polled in five cities agreed “the AIDS virus was produced in a germ warfare laboratory.”</blockquote> The 1997 Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University nationwide poll discovered: <blockquote> More than half (52 percent) of Americans believe it likely that the CIA allowed drug dealers from Central America to sell crack cocaine to African Americans in U.S. inner cities.</blockquote> Pearl Harbor About one in three Americans say that <a href=" " target="_blank">President Roosevelt</a> knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor in advance. The Gallup Organization reports that in December 1941, 84 percent of Americans said the president had done “everything he should have to prevent war with Japan,” with only 9 percent disagreeing. Fifty years later, in 1991, Gallup found that nearly one-third of Americans (31 percent) agreed with the statement, “Roosevelt knew about Japanese plans to bomb <a href=" " target="_blank">Pearl Harbor</a> but did nothing about it because he wanted an excuse to involve the United States on the side of the Allies in the war,” with 47 percent disagreeing and 22 percent with no opinion. As an interesting side note, 19 percent said they still have not forgiven the Japanese. Moon Landings The conspiracy theory that the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">moon</a> landings were a fake is less popular. A Gallup Poll was conducted 13–14 July 1999 with telephone interviews of a randomly selected sample of 1,061 adults aged 18 and older. The results are projectable to all U.S. households with a 95 percent confidence and a 3 percent margin of error. When asked, “Thinking about the space exploration, do you think the government staged or faked the Apollo moon landing, or don’t you feel that way?”—with answers being, “Yes, staged,” “No,” and “No opinion”: <blockquote> Less than one in ten (6 percent) believes that the landing was faked while nearly nine in ten (89 percent) do not believe that the lunar landing was faked or staged.</blockquote> Time/CNN/Yakelovich Partners, Inc., conducted a similar poll 19–20 July 1995, with virtually identical wording, and produced similar results: <blockquote> Less than one in ten (6 percent) believes that the landing was faked while more than four-fifths (83 percent) do not believe that the lunar landing was faked or staged.</blockquote> UFOs Many Americans say that the government is hiding information about <a href=" " target="_blank">UFOs</a>. In the 1997 survey conducted by Guido H. Stempel III of the EW Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and Thomas Hargrove of the Scripps Howard News Service mentioned above, nearly half of Americans (47 percent) indicated that it is very likely or somewhat likely that “The U.S. Air Force is withholding proof of the existence of intelligent life from other planets.” Another study, sponsored by the SCI FI Channel and conducted 23–25 August by RoperASW, found that 72 percent of Americans believe the “government is not telling the public everything it knows about UFO activity,” and 68 percent believe the “government knows more about extraterrestrial life” than it says. The study was conducted among a representative example of 1,021 adults aged 18 and over, with a margin of error of +3 percent. Further, 60 percent of respondents in the RoperASW poll said the government “should not withhold information about UFO sightings,” while 58 percent said the government shouldn’t conceal information about “potential encounters with extraterrestrial life.” Trust in Government The above RoperASW study also discussed the issue of trust in government. The same poll found that about half of Americans (53 percent) say their “level of trust in the government has remained stable over the past five years,” while 29 percent say they trust the government “less than they did five years ago.” More than half of Americans (55 percent) said the government “does not share enough information with the public in general.” After the Oklahoma City bombing, a poll was conducted by the Gallup <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">organization</a> that found that 39 percent of Americans believed that the federal government had become too powerful and large and therefore was a threat to the freedoms and rights of average citizens. In 2000, this number increased to 45 percent, with 51 percent disagreeing that the federal government poses such a threat. The 2000 study was conducted 7–9 April 2000 among a randomly selected national sample of 1,006 adults aged 18 and over, with a margin of error of +3 percent.

Opinion Polls about Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy Theories According to polls, most Americans today agree that the scenario posed by at least one popular conspiracy theory is...