Racial Profiling and Discrimination

Throughout later versions of his stage persona, William Branham made several discriminatory and racially profiling statements that aligned with white supremacy groups. When examining the timeline of these statements as compared to the timeline of statements made by Roy E. Davis as he began organizing the battle against Civil Rights and desegregation as Imperial Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, there appear to be many intersections.

In the early years of his ministry, William Branham was working with men who were promoting antisemitism and hate speech under the guise of British Israelism.  Gordon Lindsay, Clem Davies, Roy E. Davis, William D. Upshaw, F. F. Bosworth, Paul Rader, Ralph Rader, and others believed that the twelve lost tribes of Israel were white-skinned and that the Jews migrating to Israel were impostors descending from the Serpent.  The Jews, according to this doctrine, were to be "the servants".

You've heard say, 'Oh, all the Jews is God's chosen people.' That's not right. That's not right. The Jews are not God's chosen people[1]

Now, remember, the servants has always been…God's servants is the Jew. Abraham was His servant. The Gentile is not a servant, it's a Bride, it's a son. This is the son, the Church is. The Jews are the servants. Oh, if you could just…if we just had time to comb them words out. A lot of times I do in the room there, run it all the way through the references and get it up. The Jews are a servant. If I stand here and take up all that time on 'a servant,' I don't hit the other spots, you see. So just remember, trace that through the Bible, and you'll find that the Jew is God's servant.[2]

Branham was strongly influenced by both Davis and California Klan leader Wesley A. Swift, the source of William Branham's "Serpent's Seed" doctrine, British Israelism, and "super race" Aryan theology.  Branham, Swift, Davis, and other white supremacists were spreading religious doctrines that the Anglo-Saxons were the "mother race", and black people were "mongrels".  To mix the two races, according to the doctrinal teaching, was similar to "hybreeding" an animal with a human.

That's the mother race of the Anglo-Saxon people, in England. That's right. And don't think…You don't have to go to England, just go down here in the southern states, you'll find the same thing.[3]

We give them integration. Now it's worse than it ever was.[4]

And now, the Chinese, the Chinese is a—a yellow person, Japanese, and so forth, and a Chinese. The Ethiopian is a—is a colored man, or the Negro that we have now. And he went down in those dark countries down there. And they—and—and they were…And then the white man was the Anglo-Saxon people which we are. And, of the—of the people here, what we call the white people, they come from England which was formerly called “Angel land.” And because they were white, and blond, and so forth…And scattered up Ireland, and Norway, and so forth, up in there. And they all come out of the Anglo-Saxon people.[5]

His description of Africans, specifically, attempted to distinguish humans with black skin from those with white skin. These descriptions, typically made once returning to American soil, were very offensive.

Cause, the Africans are big, burly, heavy fat-like people. Some of them are nearly seven-foot tall, and weigh, oh, two hundred and eighty, three hundred pounds, burly.[6]

Branham's description of the "burly" humans with black skin were not limited to people living in Africa. He also used those phrases to describe African Americans, both those enslaved and those he claimed to have met during his "healing" campaigns.

I was reading where Abraham Lincoln got off the boat down in New Orleans and during the day of slavery, and seen them taking a great big, burly colored man and his little wife, and his two kiddies, screaming, and crying, and praying. And they was auctioning him off there to breed him amongst bigger women, to bring forth a bigger bunch, healthier, fatter slaves.[7]

And they’d take those great, big burly men away from their wife and breed them to a—a bigger woman, or something or other, and bring a better set of slaves[8]

I walked in there and there was a great, big, burly-looking colored boy laying there about eighteen years old with the blankets in his hand going, “Uhm! Uhm! Uhm!” Said, “It’s so dark. It’s so dark. Uhm! So dark.”[9]

Like the other white supremacists of the era, Branham taught that the "evil bloodline" entered the human race via a sexual union between Eve and the Serpent from the Garden of Eden to produce Cain, which continued through Nimrod as part of the "Mystery Babylon" doctrine and resulted in the opposition to Jesus Christ.  According to this doctrine, Cain's "seed", i.e., the people with black skin (Jews), joined with Rome (the Roman Army) to oppose Christianity in Biblical Times.  In the 1940s-1960s, it was believed by white supremacists that the battle would return in modern times immediately before the Second Coming of Christ.

Now, just look at that spirit, how it rose up back there in Cain, how it come on down through Ham, on out through Nimrod, into Babylon; out of Babylon, come on down into the days of the coming of Jesus. Teachers, Bible students, and they failed to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ.[10]

Slavery and the Jim Crow Laws were a hot topics of Branham's era.  White supremacists of the time used the word "crow" in reference to the Jim Crow laws as a racial slur against people of color.  Branham was no exception.  After convincing his cult of personality that he was the return of "Elijah", Branham began describing Elijah's "servants", the "crows".  In some instances, Branham called the crows "colored servants."

Someone said to me, not long ago, I was preaching on Elijah, and the crows feeding him. I made a little rude statement, and colored people excuse me for this. But I said, 'He's a lot better off. They said he was crazy up there in that tree. He had colored servants to serve him every day. And when he wanted water, he'd reach down and get a drink. When it come time for a meal, a colored servant, a crow come brought him a sandwich.'[11]

On recorded statements from 1950 through 1964, William Branham used the racial slur "Aunt Jemima", "mammy", and "auntie" to describe females with black skin. The terms originated with Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and over time were used to further stereotype African American females.

And I looked, hanging out over the gate and there hung a typical Aunt Jemima. She had a… Instead of… She had a man’s shirt tied around her head.[12]

And he said, “Parson Branham,” Said, “my old mammy had ‘ligion like you got.” “‘Ligion like you got.” Said, “Her never told me lie all her life.” Said, “She’s been dead now for ten years.” Said, “I’s been blind for about eight years.” And said, “Last night,” said, “I never heard of you in my life.” And said, “Last night, about eight o’clock.” Said, “I live about a hundred and fifty miles from here.” Said, “My old mammy stood right by the side of my bed. And she said, ‘Honey child, you go down to Camden, Arkansas and ask for someone by the name of Parson Branham, and you’ll get your sight.’”[13]

Similar to the propaganda being published by Roy E. Davis, William Branham's derogatory statements were not limited to African Americans. Both the Ku Klux Klan and William Branham spoke negatively towards Jewish people. From 1950 to 1965 William Branham recorded statements with the racial slur "hook-nosed" to describe people of Jewish descent.

Them old long hook-nosed women come out there and take its little head and bust it against the wall.[14]

While other Christians would have been appalled at Branham's racially-charged statements, especially considering the fact Branham preached using a Bible describing the lineage of those he insulted with the term "hook-nosed", Branham was not. As Branham described the Apostles and other great men and women of the Bible, he used the same racial slurs for Bible heroes that he used for his peers of Jewish descent.

That was God’s choosing: a little, hook-nosed, sarcastic, high-tempered Jew. Not the Matthias, the D.D., you know, he—he was…It’s Paul. God chose Paul; the church choose, chose Matthias.[15]

Branham also used common racial slurs of the era.  "Black-named", for example, was used as a derogatory term for the names chosen by black families, as opposed to "white-approved" names.

Joseph, a carpenter, had lost his wife and—and was courting this little girl. And it was through there the Holy Spirit come to that. And then the world comes around and black-names it, like "holy-roller, pentecostal." See, black-named it. "Why, that, she...that child was born out of holy wedlock." See, they believed that, and it looked like it was. But God does that to blind the eyes of the wise and prudent, and reveal It to babes such as will learn.[16]

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