Short Creek raid

Short Creek raid
A black-and-white newspaper photograph published in the August 12, 1954 edition of the Nome Nugget. A crowd of men, dressed in pants and shirts and belts, stand in a courtyard outside a single-story schoolhouse. A pole (possibly a flagpole?) appears to be in the middle. At the edges on the left appear to be men in hats (possibly law enforcement?) and on the edge at the right is what appears to be a woman in a dress.
Men from Short Creek gathered at local school
DateJuly 26, 1953 (1953-07-26)
LocationShort Creek Community

The Short Creek raid was an Arizona Department of Public Safety and Arizona National Guard action against Mormon fundamentalists that took place on the morning of July 26, 1953, at Short Creek, Arizona. The Short Creek raid was the "largest mass arrest of polygamists in American history".[1] Law enforcement arrested polygamist men and removed children from their families. Arizona governor John Howard Pyle had invited journalists to view the raid, and the resulting media coverage from multiple outlets was negative, criticizing the raid's tactics and the intrusion upon children.

  1. ^ Cosgrove, Ben (April 20, 2014). "Photos From a Notorious 1953 Raid on a Polygamist Arizona Town". Time.