Understanding Racism of William Branham's Era

White supremacy today looks much different than it did during the lifespan of William Branham and changed dramatically during the years that formed his life and ministry.  There is a misconception today that white supremacists "hate blacks", largely due to the images used during race riots involving violence and response from the military.  Unfortunately, the misconception created by these images continues to fuel racist ideologies by giving white supremacists a focal point of distraction; leaders of white supremacy can clearly show a difference between their racism and the extremist version of racism.

A "racist" is simply a person who views people of a different race or ethnicity differently than themselves, usually inferior.  Because this distinction of race or ethnicity is not always evident, people of this mindset are most expressive about those having a larger difference in skin color.  Also, unfortunately, it is typically noticed by news media when racists target minority groups, and in the United States is most commonly reported when people with white skin discriminate against people with black skin.  As a result, the general public associates the word "racist" with people with white skin who make insulting or discriminatory statements against people with black skin.  People with black skin, however, can also be racist and view themselves differently and even superior to people with white skin, which would be called "black supremacy."

These misconceptions, combined with the history of white supremacy and civil rights in the United States, create a roadblock for educators who try to inform the general public about the harms of racism.  During the early years of William Branham's lifespan, racism and white supremacy were widespread and deeply rooted in Christianity.  White supremacy groups such as the Ku Klux Klan were founded with what was promoted as "Christian values" and an entire branch of leadership was devoted to marketing and advertising racist ideologies in the form of "Christian" doctrine.  The Klan's "Imperial Kludd", or supreme religious chaplain, Caleb Ridley, toured with William Branham and Roy E. Davis[1] to spread racism in the form of Christian revivals, healing revivals, debates, and sermons.  Once personal recording equipment was easily available, these speeches were recorded and more widely distributed in a format that the general public could take into their homes and indoctrinate children, friends, and family with the same ideologies.  As a result, another misconception formed: many Christians of William Branham's era were racist, and therefore, educators today should be lenient towards those who were racist in the past.  The simple truth, however, is that many of these same people would not have been racist had they not been targeted through religion.  The Ku Klux Klan used the Christian religion as a vehicle to spread racism and white supremacy.

There is also much history lost due to these misconceptions.  White supremacy of the past looks much differently than the extremist version of white supremacy that is reported in the news of today.  The Indiana Klan, for example, during the early years of William Branham's life, was the largest Klan organization.[2]  Yet there were very few people with black skin in Indiana.  If the Klan's agenda were to have been so heavily focused on people with black skin, Indiana would never have seen such growth in Klan membership.  This was not the case, however, and white supremacy included an all-encompassing blanket of discrimination.  Roman Catholicism, for example, was a target for white supremacists, and Catholicism was quickly spreading in Indiana during the early years of Branham's life.  The Klan also discriminated against Jews, largely because of the large migration of Jews into Atlanta when the Klan was rebirthed in 1915.  Asians, Hispanics, and other races were discriminated against as well, but in the state of Indiana, most of those targeted by the Klan's hate speech was almost non-existent.  Since there was a large presence of Catholics in Indiana, combined with the fact that most of the other targets were in such a minority, the Indiana Klan was almost entirely focused on eradicating the Klan by infiltrating Indiana Christianity.[3]  This is very evident in the propaganda recorded in William Branham's speeches, as well as the history documented in Klan and general news media publications.

Using Christianity as the vehicle for spreading white supremacy was a very delicate operation.  Many of the more extremist ideologies created in the southern part of the United States would never have been accepted in the North if presented in their pure form.  Many of the white supremacists of the era were forced to filter their extremism when speaking in public and spread the more extremist ideologies in private.  Slavery, for example, was viewed much differently in the South than in the North, and many Christian white supremacists in the South took no issue with considering Slavery "biblical".  Christians in the North — even Christians in white supremacy organizations —  were largely against slavery and viewed their southern counterparts who openly expressed their views on slavery as "racist".  This resulted in various factions within white supremacy, and those having the views considered to be extremist by their northern peers in the same white supremacy organizations continued to progress towards further extremism.  

A very clear example of this is the Christian Identity doctrines of Wesley A. Swift,[4] which were re-branded by William Branham and sold as "Serpent's Seed".  Swift made popular the notion that the Original Sin in the Garden of Eden was a sexual union between Eve and the Serpent, and his doctrines were used in the South very literally.  Christians in the South were indoctrinated to believe that the result of this union was the black race and the white race, the black being the offspring of the Serpent, which they taught was "Satan".  They openly stated that the other races were a result of a union of races by Noah's children and their wives during the Great Flood.  In the North, however, this doctrine could not be presented in its true form publicly.  Instead, ministers and evangelists spreading white supremacy were very vague as to what, exactly, was produced by Eve and the Serpent, and introduced other doctrines to subtly lead listeners to the white supremacy conclusion.  In the case of William Branham, this was the combination of his "Serpent's Seed" doctrine and his "Hybreeding" doctrine.  Branham taught that races should not mix because the mixture resulted in a "mongrel"[5] (a common racial slur of the era[6] ), and that "mongrel" was associated with the Christian Identity Doctrine as impure.[7]  

Swift and his doctrine are linked to several extremist groups.  His "Church of Jesus Christ Christian" was renamed by Richard Girnt Butler to "Church of Jesus Christ Christian - Aryan Nations", later shortened to "Aryan Nations" and bearing the Third Reich symbolism.[8] Through Butler Swift's sect would become hyper-militant terrorism.[9] Convicted bank robber Morris Gulett, also linked to Swift's sect, organized the "Skinheads", "Klan-connected 'Knights'", and outlaw-biker "SS-MC" splinter groups.[10]