E.R. Braithwaite born / Joseph Smith assassinated - June 27

On this day in 1912, writer, social worker, teacher, and diplomat E.R. Braithwaite was born. / On this day in 1844, Joseph Smith, the leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, was murdered alongside his brother Hyrum by a mob in Carthage, Illinois.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, y'all, We're rerunning two episodes today in Troy the show.
Hi again, Welcome to this day in History Class where
History waits for no One. The day was June nineteen twelve.

(00:24):
Eustace Edward Ricardo Braithwaite was born in Georgetown, British Guyana
now Guyana, to Charles Eduardo and Elizabeth Martha Braithwaite. Braithwaite
is best remembered for his book To Sir with Love,
a memoir about teaching in the East End working class
district of London. Braithwaite was a teacher, a pilot, a

(00:46):
social worker, and a diplomat, and his writing addressed racism
and discrimination. Both of his parents graduated from Oxford University,
his mother with a degree in history and his father
with a degree in engineering. His father was a gold
and diamond minor. Braithwaite grew up as a part of
the emerging black middle class in British Guyana. He attended

(01:08):
Queen's College in Guyana, a notable high school, and in
nineteen forty Braithwaite began studying at the City College of
New York. He worked at an oil refinery in Aruba,
then moved to Britain, but soon he joined the Royal
Air Force, where he served as a pilot during World
War Two. After the war ended, Braithwaite went on to

(01:30):
attend the University of Cambridge, where he got his master's
degree in physics in nineteen forty nine. Braithwaite was planning
on pursuing his career in engineering once he graduated, but
he had a lot of trouble finding work as employers
were rejecting him because of his race. He said in
his autobiographical book Reluctant Neighbors, making plans on the half

(01:52):
realized stream of achievement as a physicist dreaming. Then the
bitterness of seeing the dream whittled away bit by bit,
day by day, in two weeks and months, until the
only place on the whole arid horizon was a Mangi
schoolhouse beside a bomb racked, rotting graveyard, in a smelly
classroom with forty six foul mouth youngsters, white English youngsters.

(02:17):
After striking out on getting a job and engineering, he
took a teaching position at a school in the East
End of London. Britain was still recovering from the devastation
the war had caused, and the East End was seriously
affected by poverty, crime, overcrowding, dangerous working conditions and for sanitation.
Most of braithwaite students were white and he was the

(02:39):
only black teacher on the faculty at St George's. The
school was progressive, but the students were unruly and Braithwaite
faced many difficulties there. Still, he grew to love teaching
at the school. His experiences at the school inspired him
to write the book to Sir with Love, which was
published in nineteen fifty line. The book is about Ricky Braithwaite,

(03:02):
a Guyanese teacher in London's East End. In the book,
Ricky struggles to encourage the undisciplined working class students and
gets feelings for a white teacher. To Stir with Love
tackled issues of race and class in London, and it
was adapted into a movie starring Sydney Pointier in nineteen
sixty seven. In nineteen fifty eight, Braithwaite left his teaching

(03:25):
position and began working as a welfare consultant with the
London County Council, specializing in working with immigrant families from
the Caribbean. His experience in this job led to his
second book, Paid Servant, a report about welfare work in London,
which was first published in nineteen sixty two. Paid Servant
is about his experiences and finding foster homes for children

(03:48):
of color. Braithwaite wrote more books over the course of
his life, including A Kind of Homecoming, which is a
memoir about his journey to West Africa, Choice of Straws,
which is a mystery novel, and Reluctant Neighbors, a book
about a black man and a white man who interact
on a train ride. Braithwaite's book Honorary White, A Visit

(04:08):
to South Africa talks about the relationships between blacks and
whites in South Africa. He wrote it after the ban
on his books was lifted in the country and he
visited South Africa as a so called honorary White, which
granted him more privileged than black people there. But beyond
his writing, Braithwaite was also a diplomat. He was a
human rights officer for the World Veterans Federation and education

(04:32):
consultant to UNESCO in Paris, the first permanent representative of
Guyana to the United Nations in New York, and Guyana's
ambassador to Venezuela. He also taught at New York University
and was a writer in residence at Florida State University
and Howard University. After he turned one hundred years old
in twelve and went back to Guyana, he was given

(04:54):
the Casiqus Crown, the country's highest honor. He died in
December of I'm Eve Stepko and hopefully you know a
little more about history today than you did yesterday. Get
more notes from history on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at
T D I h C podcast And if you have

(05:15):
not yet listened to another show that a host called Unpopular,
you can get it wherever you listen to this Day
in History Class. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see
you tomorrow. They all. I'm Eves and welcome to the
Stand History Class, a podcast that brings you a little

(05:36):
nugget of history every day. The day was jour. Joseph Smith,
the founder of Mormonism and leader of the Latter Day
Saint movement, was murdered alongside his brother him Ram by
an angry mob in Carthage, Illinois. At the time of

(05:59):
their killing, they were incarcerated at Carthage Jail awaiting trial
for charges of treason, inciting riot and destruction of the press.
In March of eighteen thirty, Joseph published the Book of Mormon,
which he claimed was a sacred text that contains writings
of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent. In
the book, Jesus Christ appears in the America's not long

(06:21):
after his resurrection. By the time of Smith's death fourteen
years later, the Latter day Saint movement had tens of
thousands of followers known as Mormons. In eighteen thirty one,
Smith proclaimed that God had designated western Missouri as the
place where Zion would gather in anticipation of Christ's second coming.
This new Jerusalem was supposedly the City of Independence in

(06:44):
Jackson County, Missouri. During the eighteen thirties, Smith sent out
missionaries and published revelations, growing his follower base. The growing
Mormon population in Missouri cost tensions and eventually episodes of
violence with non Mormon residents. In eight Mormons and non
Mormons went up against each other in the Missouri Mormon

(07:05):
War after they clashed in elections at Gallatin in October
of that year, Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs issued Missouri Executive
Order forty four, also known as the Mormon Extermination Order.
He said that quote, the Mormons must be treated as
enemies and must be exterminated or driven from the state
if necessary for the public peace. Their outrages are beyond

(07:27):
all description. Mormons were subsequently expelled from the state of Missouri,
and Smith and the Mormons moved to Illinois, finding a
new home at Navou. By forty four, several people who
were dissatisfied with Smith had left the LDS Church, along
with some non Mormons in the Navu area. They founded
the Navu Expositor, a newspaper that published a single issue

(07:51):
on June seven. The paper criticized Smith for a practicing
polygamy and claimed that he had tried to marry other
people's wives. Smith and the Navous City Council declared the
paper of public nuisance and had the Expositor and its
printing press destroyed. The destruction of the Expositor led to
a huge uproar against the LDS. People made violent threats

(08:14):
against Smith and his followers. Many had already denounced Smith
for acting as if he were above the law, but
critics sought legal charges against Smith for destruction of the press,
including charges of treason and inciting riot. Lawrence went out
first Smith's arrest. On June, Smith declared martial law and
called on the Navu Legion, a city militia, but after

(08:35):
briefly fleeing into Iowa Territory, Smith returned and surrendered. The
Smith brothers were transported to Carthage, the seat of Hancock County,
where they were immediately charged with treason against the state
of Illinois for declaring martial law and Navou Joseph Hiram
and some of their friends were put in a second
story sale at the Carthage Jail and held there until

(08:57):
they could be tried, and anti Mormon local militia called
the Carthage Grays was assigned to protect the Smiths. There
were reports of several threats being made against Smith by
militia members, but the governor dismissed them, and on the
afternoon of June a mob of between one hundred and
two hundred armed men stormed the Carthage Jail, their faces

(09:19):
painted black with a gunpowder. A mob member fired a
shot through the door, striking Hiram in the face and
killing him. Smith used a pistol that was smuggled to
him to shoot his attackers, reportedly wounding some of them.
Smith then made his way to the window, at which
point he was shot several times from the doorway and
from outside the window. He fell to the ground outside

(09:42):
the jail. There are conflicting reports on whether Smith was
dead when he hit the ground or died shortly thereafter,
but the mob soon dispersed. John Taylor and Willard Richards,
other Mormons targeted in the attack, survived. Joseph and Hiram
were buried in Navoo. Mormons condemned Governor Ford for neglecting

(10:02):
to take the malicious threats seriously and suspected him of
being party to the plot. Ford denied this, but later
he did write that it was good for the Mormons
to have been driven out of the state. The death
of the Smith brothers cost turbulence in the Latter day
Saint movement and in the line of succession. Today, the
LDS Church reports a membership of more than sixteen million.

(10:26):
I'm eaves step Coo, and hopefully you know a little
more about history today than you did yesterday. And if
you have any comments art suggestions, you can send them
to us. At this day at iHeart media dot com.
You can also hit us up on social media where
at t d i h C podcast. Thanks again for
listening to the show and we'll see you tomorrow. For

(10:55):
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