Newell G Bringhurst - The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History

In June 1978, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the end of its long-standing ban on the ordination of black males to the Mormon priesthooda lay organization open to all worthy males over the age of twelve. The lifting of this ban, representing a drastic departure from past practice, raised two important questions: How did the ban originate? Why did it remain intact for some 126 years? These are crucial questions, given that blacks had been allowed ordination in the early church under the leadership of Mormon founder Joseph Smith. Following Smith's death in 1844, Brigham Young, as leader of the largest group of Mormons, prohibited the ordination of blacks.

Mormon attitudes and practices toward blacks evolved in a complex, contradictory manner. On the vexing issue of slavery, Joseph Smith went through a threefold change of position: (1) initial opposition during the early 1830s; (2) support for slavery by the mid-1830s, evident in a strong anti-abolitionist position; and (3) by the mid-1840s, a return to an antislavery position, most dramatized in his 1844 presidential platform.

While Mormon racial attitudes and related practices reflected similarly negative trends in American society at large, they were as much, if not more, the product of five characteristics unique to Mormonism itself. The first was Mormonism's emergence as a so-called new American religion during the Second Great

A third characteristic is the hierarchical structure of Mormonism, based on divinely endowed priesthood authority. This authority became paramount as church leaders implemented an increasingly esoteric set of doctrines and practices. The important role assigned to the Mormon priesthood is akin to the hierarchical structure within Catholicism. Mormonism's leadership structure functions like a pyramid, with the First Presidency constituting the highest governing body of the church, and below it the Council (or Quorum) of the Twelve Apostles. On a third level are the First and Second Quorums of Seventy. The all-male members of these top three levels, cumulatively known as general authorities, oversee a range of local lay leadersspecifically stake presidents and bishopswho in turn oversee local entities known as stakes, akin to Catholic dioceses, and wards, akin to parishes.

The importance of priesthood authority notwithstanding, Mormonism manifested a fourth, albeit seemingly contradictory characteristicits development of a lay priesthood organization, composed of virtually all worthy adult male members ordained into its ranks, including a handful black Mormon males ordained during Joseph Smith's lifetime.

A fifth characteristic of Mormonism was its evolving sense of ethnic self-identity, particularly manifest following the death of Joseph Smith. In particular, Latter-day Saints viewed themselves as literal descendants of chosen Old Testament peoples, specifically the tribes of Joseph and Ephraim. In assuming a quasi-ethnic identity, Mormons were akin to Jewish people, who likewise viewed themselves as both a religious and ethnic group. Conversely, Mormons viewed other ethnic groups as less favored, particularly black people, whom they considered as literal descendants of Cain, Ham, and other biblical counterfigures.