'Racist' painted on Brigham Young statue at BYU campus near Smoot building

A bronze statue of Brigham Young on the religious university that bears his name, was vandalized with the word "racist" in red paint.

Campus police were called about the vandalism and discovered it has been painted with both red spray paint and latex base paint. The statue is on south side of the Abraham O. Smoot Administration Building, that also had a sign for the building marked with a red "X." Campus police was called to the statue and sent photos to media, along with a report with some information redacted.

According to police, paint on the statue "came off fairly well" but sand blasting would be required to take the pain off the granite sign.

Brigham Young was a prophet for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who led followers to Utah and led settlement efforts for religious followers around the mountain west. Young established Brigham Young Academy in 1875 in Provo, where BYU is currently established with campuses in Idaho and Hawaii. It was made a university in 1903.

Young prohibited black men from participating in church priesthood offices and rituals and also forbid them from participating in LDS temple rituations, that the faith believes is necessary to live with God eternally. Young also espoused racist teaching. Smoot owned at least one slave in Utah but previous to that, as a missionary, he tried to distribute abolitionist literature.

Statues nationwide have been damaged and destroyed including Confederate soldiers and generals, Christopher Columbus, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. A petition was started to convince BYU to change the name of the Smoot building.