The Church of Jesus Christ and Black People 1979-1984
One iconic and representative baptismal service took place near Ikot Eyo, Nigeria, on March 4, 1979. Within a year of the Church's arrival in West Africa, there were more than 1,700 members in thirty-five branches, 149 of whom had been baptized within one twenty-four hour period.
The Church's growth accelerated in the United States as well, among both black and white people. Inevitably, however, just as the civil rights movement could not end racism in the United States altogether, difficulties from the priesthood ban and its associated folklore would refuse to disappear overnight.
Interracial Marriage
After returning from her mission, Mary Frances Sturlaugson began dating a white man named John Eyer. She recalled, "I knew I had to face the turmoil that was steadily building inside of me. I must eventually answer the pounding question of 'What if this relationship grows to a question of marriage?' I desperately wanted to feel that I was capable of an unconditional love that could extend beyond the boundaries of friendship, yet from all that I had heard from others, to feel this kind of love was wrong in the eyes of the Lord if the loved one was of a different race. Statements people made seemed especially geared toward love between whites and blacks. I felt lost. It was hard to understand how I could ever know the fullness of the Savior's love if I had to place a condition on my own. It was a contradiction that said, 'Okay, you may like this person, but you cannot love him in the eternal sense unless he's of your race.' It all seemed so contrary to the love of the Savior. If he was no respecter of persons, why must I be?
"I decided that instead of accepting what people told me I would look for information on the issue of interracial marriage. I didn't want to paralyze my thinking and growth by the 'hearsay' of others. Being unable to find any concrete information on the issue, I decided to go directly to those whom everyone declared as the source: the apostle [sic] and the Prophet. I made various appointments with different brethren in Salt Lake City. I decided it was best to talk to more than one to see if their answers correlated. I met first with Elder Hartman Rector, Jr., then with Elders Dean L. Larsen, LeGrand Richards, and finally with the Prophet. Their answers were the same. I don't know if President Kimball knew the turmoil I had suffered, but as I expressed to him my sincere desire to know the Lord's will on interracial marriage, tears slowly rolled down his face.
"Reaching out, he gently embraced me as one would a delicate and small child. Then he quietly but emphatically whispered, 'My child, it is not wrong. It is not wrong. The only reason we counsel against it is because of the problems the children could face. As far as its being incompatible with the Lord's gospel, or with your Father in Heaven, it is not.' He paused, still looking into my eyes. I felt that he saw into my soul. Then with another brief embrace he uttered, 'Be of good cheer; the Lord loves you dearly.' As I walked down the steps of the Church Administration Building that day, I felt as if the arms of the Prophet were still around me. Once I reached that last step I turned to look back at the building, the door, the Prophet still inside. No longer did I carry the burdens of frustration."
Interracial Marriage
After returning from her mission, Mary Frances Sturlaugson began dating a white man named John Eyer. She recalled, "I knew I had to face the turmoil that was steadily building inside of me. I must eventually answer the pounding question of 'What if this relationship grows to a question of marriage?' I desperately wanted to feel that I was capable of an unconditional love that could extend beyond the boundaries of friendship, yet from all that I had heard from others, to feel this kind of love was wrong in the eyes of the Lord if the loved one was of a different race. Statements people made seemed especially geared toward love between whites and blacks. I felt lost. It was hard to understand how I could ever know the fullness of the Savior's love if I had to place a condition on my own. It was a contradiction that said, 'Okay, you may like this person, but you cannot love him in the eternal sense unless he's of your race.' It all seemed so contrary to the love of the Savior. If he was no respecter of persons, why must I be?
"I decided that instead of accepting what people told me I would look for information on the issue of interracial marriage. I didn't want to paralyze my thinking and growth by the 'hearsay' of others. Being unable to find any concrete information on the issue, I decided to go directly to those whom everyone declared as the source: the apostle [sic] and the Prophet. I made various appointments with different brethren in Salt Lake City. I decided it was best to talk to more than one to see if their answers correlated. I met first with Elder Hartman Rector, Jr., then with Elders Dean L. Larsen, LeGrand Richards, and finally with the Prophet. Their answers were the same. I don't know if President Kimball knew the turmoil I had suffered, but as I expressed to him my sincere desire to know the Lord's will on interracial marriage, tears slowly rolled down his face.
"Reaching out, he gently embraced me as one would a delicate and small child. Then he quietly but emphatically whispered, 'My child, it is not wrong. It is not wrong. The only reason we counsel against it is because of the problems the children could face. As far as its being incompatible with the Lord's gospel, or with your Father in Heaven, it is not.' He paused, still looking into my eyes. I felt that he saw into my soul. Then with another brief embrace he uttered, 'Be of good cheer; the Lord loves you dearly.' As I walked down the steps of the Church Administration Building that day, I felt as if the arms of the Prophet were still around me. Once I reached that last step I turned to look back at the building, the door, the Prophet still inside. No longer did I carry the burdens of frustration."
Jane Manning James' Temple Work is Completed
In August 1979 the Ensign carried an article by Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery entitled "Jane Manning James: Black Saint, 1847 Pioneer". It noted parenthetically that "Temple work - endowments and sealings - has recently been done for Jane and her family." Newell later wrote to Margaret Blair Young, "I did do Jane's temple work - and that of her entire family. Jack, Ron Esplin and his wife Judy, Lowell Bennion, Ruffin Bridgeport [sic] and I believe a couple of others all helped. It was just before the Ensign article came out. Of course, I had to get 'special permission' at that time for doing work for someone whose name was not already the endowment pipeline or a member of my own family.
"I can't remember who I went to for permission - it was the highest-up guy I could get an appointment with, but someone below the General Authority level. What I do remember is that I told this guy about Jane, that the Ensign was publishing an article on her and that I did not want it to go to press without a footnote saying her much-desired temple work had been done. He listened without comment then smiled. 'If you had come to me last week, I would have told you no,' he said, 'but I just received word that members can now do temple work for 'special friends'. I would classify you as a 'special friend' of Jane's.' Ron Esplin confirmed, "I was, indeed, privileged to be involved in what I have always considered a historic temple session and remember it very clearly. I remember sitting in the temple next to Lowell Bennion and also speaking with Ruffin Bridgeforth, whom I also greatly respected."
"I can't remember who I went to for permission - it was the highest-up guy I could get an appointment with, but someone below the General Authority level. What I do remember is that I told this guy about Jane, that the Ensign was publishing an article on her and that I did not want it to go to press without a footnote saying her much-desired temple work had been done. He listened without comment then smiled. 'If you had come to me last week, I would have told you no,' he said, 'but I just received word that members can now do temple work for 'special friends'. I would classify you as a 'special friend' of Jane's.' Ron Esplin confirmed, "I was, indeed, privileged to be involved in what I have always considered a historic temple session and remember it very clearly. I remember sitting in the temple next to Lowell Bennion and also speaking with Ruffin Bridgeforth, whom I also greatly respected."
Missionary Work Among American Black People
Then-missionary Mary Frances Sturlaugson recalled, "In early January [1980], President Pratt called to tell me the Lord wanted me to labor in another area of Texas. He told me there was a large percentage of black people in that area. My heart leaped with joy... Sleep was impossible that night as I lay thinking about knocking on the doors of black families. The thought came to me to go to every black minister in my new area and ask if I could talk to them. Upon arriving in my new area, I shared this idea with my new companion. She then shared with me a dream she had had before her mission. In the dream she had been talking while standing before a large congregation of black people. She felt frightened at first, but then she looked down and saw a black girl. The black girl smiled and gave her a nod of confidence, and her fright vanished. In her dream she distinctly remembered the church as being a little white wooden building. We decided to put my thought with her dream and find that little white church, both feeling sure that once we found that church we would find a minister inside waiting to let us share our message with him and his congregation.
"This area was one of the greatest of my many different areas. Great joy came into my life and my service to Heavenly Father as I saw how the hearts of my race were open to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was grateful for the way they readily accepted my companion. I had to marvel at the black people's attitudes. Despite all the suffering and hardships many had gone through, they, like Mama, still held onto the belief in a God in heaven who loved and cared about them. It didn't seem to matter how busy they were or how little they had (many of their homes reminded me greatly of the area and house I'd grown up in); the minute we told them we had a message about the Savior and His gospel truths, their doors were opened to us. It took time for them to understand the principles we taught and the importance of those principles, but their hearts were pure with a desire to learn.
"I thought the issue of the priesthood would hold many back and, of course, with some it did. For others, the answer in essence was, 'Let the past bury itself, and let us strive for what tomorrow can be.' Ttruth is better served by silence than by a bad argument.he older people especially said that it didn't matter because they knew they were God's children, and whatever the Lord did was all right with them, because they knew He did things only out of love. Hearing many of the older people's answers made me think about Daddy and the attitude he had had as he took whatever work he could find in order to take care of his family. Many times as he was sweeping the floor in a store or picking up the trash outside, he would be called names or ordered around, but he accepted it and kept striving to make a better tomorrow for us. Though we found many blacks to teach, we still looked fervently each day for that little white wooden church. We knew it had to be there, but as each day went by and we saw many churches except the one we wanted, our hopes began to lessen...
"Suddenly my companion stopped talking and her mouth dropped open. Automatically I turned to look out the window in time to see that we were passing a little white church. She quickly turned the car around and parked in front of it. In the dark we walked up to it. 'This is it,' she kept repeating in amazement. 'This is it!' We searched to see if there was a meeting time. Nothing except the name of the church and the minister's name. We both stood for a few minutes just staring at the church, afraid to leave for fear morning would come and it would be gone. Each day we drove by that church just to assure ourselves that it did indeed exist. Finally Sunday came, and we could hardly restrain ourselves through our correlation meeting. We left early because we wanted to get to that church the same time as everyone else. When we arrived, cars were already parked and everyone was inside. As we walked in, we could tell that the meeting was well underway. Since my companion was white and very blonde, it was hard to ease in unnoticed. The minister invited us to come sit near the front. Toward the end of the meeting he asked if we would stand and tell them who we were. Immediately my companion looked at me, and I remembered her dream and nodded my head for her to do the talking.
"Very straight and tall, she walked up to the little stand, turned, and faced the congregation. My heart glowed with warmth and pride. She proceeded to tell them who we were, and then she said, 'My brothers and sisters,' she paused, 'we have been sent here with a very important message for each of you. You see, your minister here,' she pointed to the minister who was standing next to her, 'is a good man, but he doesn't teach you all the truth. He doesn't even know the truth.' Moans and groans could be heard throughout the congregation, and I sat in a cold sweat, wondering what she would say next and how in the world we would ever get out of there. She then looked at me. Again I remembered how in her dream she had looked at a black girl and the black girl had given her a look of confidence, so I gave my best shot of a look that said, 'Go on, you are doing great,' praying she would say something and say it fast. 'My companion will tell you more,' she said, as she came and sat down.
"It had taken courage to say what she had said, and because of her words many who came up to us as we were shown the door wanted to know why she had made such a statement. This opened the way for us to go to many of their homes and share the gospel with them. One woman from that congregation heard and accepted the gospel and was the instrument for a whole chain of baptisms as she shared it with her immediate family as well as her aunts, uncles, and cousins."
Africa West Mission
On July 1, 1980, the Africa West Mission was organized to cover Nigeria and Ghana, which had been under the International Mission until it was closed the previous year.
"This area was one of the greatest of my many different areas. Great joy came into my life and my service to Heavenly Father as I saw how the hearts of my race were open to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was grateful for the way they readily accepted my companion. I had to marvel at the black people's attitudes. Despite all the suffering and hardships many had gone through, they, like Mama, still held onto the belief in a God in heaven who loved and cared about them. It didn't seem to matter how busy they were or how little they had (many of their homes reminded me greatly of the area and house I'd grown up in); the minute we told them we had a message about the Savior and His gospel truths, their doors were opened to us. It took time for them to understand the principles we taught and the importance of those principles, but their hearts were pure with a desire to learn.
"I thought the issue of the priesthood would hold many back and, of course, with some it did. For others, the answer in essence was, 'Let the past bury itself, and let us strive for what tomorrow can be.' Ttruth is better served by silence than by a bad argument.he older people especially said that it didn't matter because they knew they were God's children, and whatever the Lord did was all right with them, because they knew He did things only out of love. Hearing many of the older people's answers made me think about Daddy and the attitude he had had as he took whatever work he could find in order to take care of his family. Many times as he was sweeping the floor in a store or picking up the trash outside, he would be called names or ordered around, but he accepted it and kept striving to make a better tomorrow for us. Though we found many blacks to teach, we still looked fervently each day for that little white wooden church. We knew it had to be there, but as each day went by and we saw many churches except the one we wanted, our hopes began to lessen...
"Suddenly my companion stopped talking and her mouth dropped open. Automatically I turned to look out the window in time to see that we were passing a little white church. She quickly turned the car around and parked in front of it. In the dark we walked up to it. 'This is it,' she kept repeating in amazement. 'This is it!' We searched to see if there was a meeting time. Nothing except the name of the church and the minister's name. We both stood for a few minutes just staring at the church, afraid to leave for fear morning would come and it would be gone. Each day we drove by that church just to assure ourselves that it did indeed exist. Finally Sunday came, and we could hardly restrain ourselves through our correlation meeting. We left early because we wanted to get to that church the same time as everyone else. When we arrived, cars were already parked and everyone was inside. As we walked in, we could tell that the meeting was well underway. Since my companion was white and very blonde, it was hard to ease in unnoticed. The minister invited us to come sit near the front. Toward the end of the meeting he asked if we would stand and tell them who we were. Immediately my companion looked at me, and I remembered her dream and nodded my head for her to do the talking.
"Very straight and tall, she walked up to the little stand, turned, and faced the congregation. My heart glowed with warmth and pride. She proceeded to tell them who we were, and then she said, 'My brothers and sisters,' she paused, 'we have been sent here with a very important message for each of you. You see, your minister here,' she pointed to the minister who was standing next to her, 'is a good man, but he doesn't teach you all the truth. He doesn't even know the truth.' Moans and groans could be heard throughout the congregation, and I sat in a cold sweat, wondering what she would say next and how in the world we would ever get out of there. She then looked at me. Again I remembered how in her dream she had looked at a black girl and the black girl had given her a look of confidence, so I gave my best shot of a look that said, 'Go on, you are doing great,' praying she would say something and say it fast. 'My companion will tell you more,' she said, as she came and sat down.
"It had taken courage to say what she had said, and because of her words many who came up to us as we were shown the door wanted to know why she had made such a statement. This opened the way for us to go to many of their homes and share the gospel with them. One woman from that congregation heard and accepted the gospel and was the instrument for a whole chain of baptisms as she shared it with her immediate family as well as her aunts, uncles, and cousins."
Africa West Mission
On July 1, 1980, the Africa West Mission was organized to cover Nigeria and Ghana, which had been under the International Mission until it was closed the previous year.
Black People in Mormon Folklore
In the November/December 1980 issue of Sunstone, William A. Wilson and Richard C. Poulsen reviewed some of the urban legend and jokes about black people that had circulated prior to and just after the 1978 revelation. They concluded, "The best thing we can say about these jokes is that they evidently no longer exist. We have heard almost none of them in well over a year. The point we have tried to make in this paper is that the record of Mormon racial attitudes, at least as those attitudes are revealed in folklore, is not a very distinguished one. Before 1978, the proportion of anti-black jokes turned in by Mormon students in our folklore classes was similar to those submitted by non-Mormon students at other universities.
"This fact supports the findings of sociologist Armand Mauss, who surveyed Mormon attitudes in 1966 and discovered that, in spite of the priesthood doctrine, Mormons were no more prejudiced than their fellow Americans. We find little comfort in this conclusion. To be no more guilty of racist sentiments than other Americans is little cause for rejoicing. Instead of asking if their priesthood doctrine had made them any worse than their fellowmen, Mauss might have asked if their commitment to a gospel preaching the literal brotherhood of man had made them any better. What of the prophet, Nephi's words: 'and he inviteth them all to come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female'?
"But perhaps the disappearance of these jokes indicates a change in old attitudes, a change made easier because it is based on revelation. Today there is a new cycle of legends testifying to the validity and supernatural nature of the revelation, e.g. the rush of air in the room as the apostles sat pondering President Kimball's words. Also there have been numerous stories telling of the witness of the Spirit to individuals concerning the revelation. Just as earlier legends justified priesthood denial to blacks, the new legends substantiate granting it to them. Perhaps as this conviction grows stronger our folklore, our 'own unselfconscious picture' of ourselves, will one day show that we have finally come to realize what the Apostle Peter learned so long ago: that God really is no respecter of persons."
"This fact supports the findings of sociologist Armand Mauss, who surveyed Mormon attitudes in 1966 and discovered that, in spite of the priesthood doctrine, Mormons were no more prejudiced than their fellow Americans. We find little comfort in this conclusion. To be no more guilty of racist sentiments than other Americans is little cause for rejoicing. Instead of asking if their priesthood doctrine had made them any worse than their fellowmen, Mauss might have asked if their commitment to a gospel preaching the literal brotherhood of man had made them any better. What of the prophet, Nephi's words: 'and he inviteth them all to come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female'?
"But perhaps the disappearance of these jokes indicates a change in old attitudes, a change made easier because it is based on revelation. Today there is a new cycle of legends testifying to the validity and supernatural nature of the revelation, e.g. the rush of air in the room as the apostles sat pondering President Kimball's words. Also there have been numerous stories telling of the witness of the Spirit to individuals concerning the revelation. Just as earlier legends justified priesthood denial to blacks, the new legends substantiate granting it to them. Perhaps as this conviction grows stronger our folklore, our 'own unselfconscious picture' of ourselves, will one day show that we have finally come to realize what the Apostle Peter learned so long ago: that God really is no respecter of persons."
"A Soul So Rebellious" and Fan Mail
Mary Frances Sturlaugson recalled, "With the constant requests to speak in church meetings, I found it somewhat impossible to accomplish all the things I wanted to accomplish as well as keep up with my schooling and work. Wanting to share the experiences I'd had on my mission with others, I began working on a book about it. I realized very early that something was wrong; each time I attempted to write about my mission, my mind would go totally blank. I tried using the journal approach (a book written through day-by-day happenings), but this would not fall into place either. One night after lying in bed for what seemed like hours wondering why I was having so much trouble getting started on the book, especially when the experiences were so fresh in my mind, I decided to give it another try. I concluded that if I didn't get anyplace with it this time, I would forget the whole idea.
"After I crawled out of bed and sat on the floor, I felt completely awake and alert, and the desire to write about my mission was very strong. I must have written for nearly an hour before I stopped to read what I had written. I honestly couldn't believe what I saw. Everything was about my childhood! I sat, dumbfounded, and stared at the words on the paper. This was not what I wanted to share in a book. All I wanted to do was to share about my mission, nothing else. Crumpling up the sheets of paper, I proceeded to throw them into the wastebasket near the bed. I took more paper to begin again. Nothing. Not two single thoughts would come together. After a few frustrating moments, I put the paper aside and sat staring at the floor. Before long I realized that my eyes were staring at the crumpled sheets of paper near the wastebasket. 'No!' I said aloud as the thought came to me to get them and continue with my childhood. 'No! That's not what I want to write about.' I then got back into my bed and turned my light off.
"At work the next day I told my boss, John Maestes, about my desire to write a book about my mission. I shared with him the struggles I was having getting started. He suggested that I first tape everything and then have it typed out. Before I knew it I had a tape recorder in my hand and had found an empty room so I could get started. I sat for a few minutes trying to get my thoughts together, but again, my every thought centered on my life before I joined the Church. This time I decided to follow the thoughts that were pounding away in my heart, though I wasn't sure why or how my childhood life would tie in with my mission. I had never shared my life with anyone; in fact, the only person who truly knew me was my Indian sister Sarah. As I did so now to a recorder, many times I had to stop, for the hurts of things that had happened before brought sobs that choked my words. The recorder became a friend in a matter of moments, and I shared with it my past pains and struggles to finally find the joy that filled my life now.
"Within a week I had the feelings of my life recorded, typed by various people (I'm not a typist), and edited by a dear friend. I still didn't understand why I'd shared my earlier life for others to read. As the book progressed toward completion, I simply placed all trust in the Lord, thinking maybe He knew why and in due time so would I. My only desire for the book was that maybe it would benefit someone's life, though I didn't see any way it could. Soon after the book was published, letters began to come to me from people in many areas concerning my talks and the deep appreciation they had for my sharing my life in the book I'd written – letters from people of all ages, such as the ones that follow.
"January 1, 1981
Dear Sister Sturlaugson,
"Today being a holiday, I decided to catch up on my reading. After considering several books, I picked up a copy of your A Soul So Rebellious and began to read. Several hours later, having finished the book, I set it down - filled with emotion. Yours is the most touching story I have ever encountered. It generated within me several emotions, and on three occasions brought me to tears. I am white, male, age forty, and I also grew up in the South (Wilmington, North Carolina). As I read your book, I was filled with sadness and regret for the way your people have been treated. Personally, I am ashamed for my part in the treatment of blacks in the South. You see, I never put others down because of race, I even felt that I was very accepting of others, whoever they may be, but I was blind to the problem. I would not accept the fact that poverty was real or that your people were really suffering from it or at the hands of the whites. Had I not been so blind to the terrible situation, I could possibly have helped. As has been said, 'None is so blind as he who will not see.'
"Please forgive me and the others like me who, perhaps, could have helped but didn't. Please forgive us who contributed to the problem, whether in ignorance or even through malice. I was not born into the Church; rather, I converted to it fourteen years ago. I still have to deal with many questions and problems in understanding and accepting the gospel. Your book has greatly strengthened my testimony, and my deepest thanks go to you. I have never met you, but I love you for what you have done and for what you are. I know the gospel is true, and I thank our Heavenly Father for sending such a choice spirit as you at this time.
"Joseph Chenworth
"December 28, 1980
Dear Mary,
"My name is Paul. Do you remember when you came up to Heber to give a talk at a morningside for Brother Blanchard's seminary students? I was there listening, and I want you to know now that your talk had a significant impact upon many of my emotions and attitudes. I'm glad that the Lord saw it fitting to give you a talent for speaking so that we could get at least a small idea of your experience. I run a lot, and the day after that morningside I was running on the roads above my home thinking about you and all you had said. I thought of what a wonderful person you were and of the undeniable spirit about you. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for you while you were my age and how confused and angry you must have felt, but I'm sure I could never really know or fully comprehend it all. I've been undeservingly lucky.
"A few days ago my little sister got your book as a Christmas present. I got bored with the day's routine and began reading it. It was so vivid and forceful that I couldn't put it down. I read it through without a pause. This may seem normal, but for me, a below-average reader with little discipline, it was a rare occurrence. At first I thought of what an injustice it was to give a special person like you all of those disadvantages and woes. I seem to have everything going for me, and this seems inordinate since I'm not an exceptional spirit. But you are something more than this. Why was the world's dope loaded up on you? Then I got to thinking about how happy we were when, before we were born, we learned that we would be tested and tried in 'the furnace.' I'll bet you were very happy, even though your tests were unusually long and tough (probably even brutal and cruel).
"You remind me of the tree that was forced by the dry ground to push its roots way down deep for its water. Then when the winds came, it was able to hold up and stand because of those deep roots. Or you are like the chick that has to scratch its way out of its shell to hatch, making it strong enough to live once it is out of its shell. Even though I can't really know the kind of pain you've been barreling through, I am glad that you could at least help me with my weaknesses through your example. I am glad for you and I admire you very much. I'm glad I could have a sister like Mary Sturlaugson.
"Your friend, Paul Rasband
"December 25, 1980
Dear Mary,
"My name is Sharla Kae Grover and I live in Kennewick, Washington, on an apple and cherry orchard farm. The reason I am writing is to thank you and somehow express some of the deep emotion I'm experiencing now after just having finished your book. When I first heard A Soul So Rebellious advertised on the radio down in Provo, I was taken with a strong desire to get your book and read it as soon as I could. That was crazy for me, because it was finals time at BYU. And today on Christmas, when everyone is supposed to be napping, I've finished your book and am writing to you - not really knowing what to say but unable to control this strong urge to do so.
"Your writing is powerful, as are the experiences you have had to go through. My heart rejoiced and ached simultaneously upon reading your hurt, your happiness, and peace in the gospel, and your strength of spirit. I've not been so deeply moved in a long time and cried to myself continuously as I read - starting with the first chapter. Please accept my thanks to you for sharing all that you are and have become so beautifully. You have deepened my breadth of experience and my capacity to feel. You have shared a world I've never known about and ached to see. You have enlarged my heart toward others whoever they may be. Thank you.
"By the way, I'm white and was raised in the West. It's hard for me to hear that people would be the way you described as you were growing up. I wish there was something I could do, but I realize it must start with me and the way I treat all of those around me. I also ached to serve a mission, and I realized that dream in 1977 to the Peru Arequipa Mission as a welfare service sister. I offer a sincere hand of love out to you who have so much within you. I'm amazed at the magnitude of your spirit. Thank you so much. The book and the story are timeless. But more importantly is the priceless worth of her who wrote and experienced it.
"Sharla Kae Grover
"January 5, 1981
Dear Sister Sturlaugson,
"My husband is blind and a professor at BYU. I have just finished reading your book to him. I started out not liking you, but we ended up loving you. I like to think that you have been with your father in the temple and that many of your family will join you in the gospel. Thank you for sharing yourself with us.
"Ken and Kathy Jones
"Letters of love and strength. I could have received no greater blessings! Despite the joy the compliments brought, I wanted the people to understand that I wasn't the one who deserved the credit - the Lord did. He was the one who inspired me to write about my life. He knew and understood the reason why, though I doubted Him throughout the whole experience. He had also guided my every word. There had been times when I wanted to share in more detail about a particular incident and my mind would go blank; the minute I continued, the words just flowed. Without Him, no way would it have all come together as it did. My joy seems never-ending, especially as I have received word that my book was being read by a family in Africa. I wanted to go there on my mission. In a sense, that desire has been accomplished. I have been truly grateful for the response of the people and the heart-warming love they have given in return."
Thoughts on the "Curse"
In 1981 LDS scholar Hugh Nibley published a work called Abraham in Egypt which disputed the notion that the book of Abraham had anything to do with the priesthood ban. He wrote, "Why was Pharaoh... denied that priesthood which he 'would fain claim from Noah, through Ham' (1:27)? Certainly not because of Ham, 'a just man (who) walked with God'... For Asenath, it will be recalled, was the daughter of the high priest of Heliopolis, and hence of the pure line of Ham (Gen. 41:45; 46:20); she was also the wife of Joseph and the mother of our own vaunted ancestor Ephraim (Gen. 41:50-52; 46:20)... In all of which there is no mention of race, though enemies of the Church have declared with shock and outrage that these passages are proof of Mormon discrimination against blacks."
That same year, in the book Priesthood, an expanded version of Elder Bruce R. McConkie's 1978 BYU speech "All are Alike Unto God" was printed. This version added the lines, "The ancient curse is no more. The seed of Cain and Ham and Egyptus and Pharaoh - all these now have power to rise up and bless Abraham as their father. All these, gentile in lineage, may now come and inherit by adoption all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." This seems to indicate that despite his admonition in the same speech to forget "all the darkness and all the views and all the thoughts of the past", he continued to believe in the curse of Cain.
Saints, Slaves, and Blacks
In 1981, scholar Newell G. Bringhurst published Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People within Mormonism. Though generally very pleased with the book, Armand Mauss wrote in a review, "I found two major flaws in the book that seemed to me to attenuate its main argument that Mormon racism was something special: (1) In quoting this or that Mormon spokesman, tract, etc., across the first generation of Mormonism, the author leaves the erroneous impression that there was some sort of unified 'Mormon' racial doctrine and policy emerging. In fact, prior to the Utah period, all of this was very much in flux, with most Mormon commentators speaking for no one but themselves, and usually, indeed, doing no more than venting racial ideas common to the general American scene.
"(2) More serious, in my opinion, was the failure of the author to develop an adequate comparative context within which to understand and assess the uniqueness of early Mormon racism. Of course, the author acknowledges (e.g. in the Introduction, on p. 8, on p. 90, and in many other places) that much of the racism among Mormons, as well as their ideas on slavery, abolitionism, etc., were widely shared in the America of the time, but he makes such an acknowledgement only in passing; thus a true picture of Mormon racism relative to the environment never really gets systematic treatment. Of course, it is not difficult to show that racism took some peculiar forms among the Mormons, but a major theme of the book is that Mormon racism was also especially pervasive and formative in Mormon thinking, quite a different proposition and one which, to my mind, remains undemonstrated in the book.
"Even a cursory reading of the many general works on racism cited in the excellent bibliography of this book (p. 241), such as those by Thomas F. Gossett, H. Shelton Smith, and George M. Fredrickson, leaves little for the Mormons to have invented that was not already deeply embedded in American culture. Thus, I find, when Bringhurst undertakes to 'explain' some 'Mormon' racial idea by reference to the historical and geographical setting, his argument has a certain non sequitur quality – as, for example, in Chapter 2, where he notes clearly that Mormons in the 1830s were no more anti-abolitionist than the rest of the country, but yet he somehow still manages to conclude (p. 26) that 'Mormon' anti-abolitionism 'helped to create a Mormon intellectual environment' that produced some uniquely 'Mormon' racial ideas."
Genesis Group Revisited
Of the decade old Genesis Group, LDS sociologist Armand Mauss reported "With a potential membership of perhaps 200, its participation levels have ranged between about twenty-five and fifty, consisting disproportionately of women, middle-aged and older people, and high school-educated skilled and semi-skilled workers. About half are partners in racially mixed marriages, and the most active members are (with a few important exceptions) blacks converted to Mormonism in adult life, rather than life-long members from the old black families of Utah." One reason for this was that converts had already understood and accepted the priesthood ban before joining, rather than being faced with its stigma throughout their lives.
"After I crawled out of bed and sat on the floor, I felt completely awake and alert, and the desire to write about my mission was very strong. I must have written for nearly an hour before I stopped to read what I had written. I honestly couldn't believe what I saw. Everything was about my childhood! I sat, dumbfounded, and stared at the words on the paper. This was not what I wanted to share in a book. All I wanted to do was to share about my mission, nothing else. Crumpling up the sheets of paper, I proceeded to throw them into the wastebasket near the bed. I took more paper to begin again. Nothing. Not two single thoughts would come together. After a few frustrating moments, I put the paper aside and sat staring at the floor. Before long I realized that my eyes were staring at the crumpled sheets of paper near the wastebasket. 'No!' I said aloud as the thought came to me to get them and continue with my childhood. 'No! That's not what I want to write about.' I then got back into my bed and turned my light off.
"At work the next day I told my boss, John Maestes, about my desire to write a book about my mission. I shared with him the struggles I was having getting started. He suggested that I first tape everything and then have it typed out. Before I knew it I had a tape recorder in my hand and had found an empty room so I could get started. I sat for a few minutes trying to get my thoughts together, but again, my every thought centered on my life before I joined the Church. This time I decided to follow the thoughts that were pounding away in my heart, though I wasn't sure why or how my childhood life would tie in with my mission. I had never shared my life with anyone; in fact, the only person who truly knew me was my Indian sister Sarah. As I did so now to a recorder, many times I had to stop, for the hurts of things that had happened before brought sobs that choked my words. The recorder became a friend in a matter of moments, and I shared with it my past pains and struggles to finally find the joy that filled my life now.
"Within a week I had the feelings of my life recorded, typed by various people (I'm not a typist), and edited by a dear friend. I still didn't understand why I'd shared my earlier life for others to read. As the book progressed toward completion, I simply placed all trust in the Lord, thinking maybe He knew why and in due time so would I. My only desire for the book was that maybe it would benefit someone's life, though I didn't see any way it could. Soon after the book was published, letters began to come to me from people in many areas concerning my talks and the deep appreciation they had for my sharing my life in the book I'd written – letters from people of all ages, such as the ones that follow.
"January 1, 1981
Dear Sister Sturlaugson,
"Today being a holiday, I decided to catch up on my reading. After considering several books, I picked up a copy of your A Soul So Rebellious and began to read. Several hours later, having finished the book, I set it down - filled with emotion. Yours is the most touching story I have ever encountered. It generated within me several emotions, and on three occasions brought me to tears. I am white, male, age forty, and I also grew up in the South (Wilmington, North Carolina). As I read your book, I was filled with sadness and regret for the way your people have been treated. Personally, I am ashamed for my part in the treatment of blacks in the South. You see, I never put others down because of race, I even felt that I was very accepting of others, whoever they may be, but I was blind to the problem. I would not accept the fact that poverty was real or that your people were really suffering from it or at the hands of the whites. Had I not been so blind to the terrible situation, I could possibly have helped. As has been said, 'None is so blind as he who will not see.'
"Please forgive me and the others like me who, perhaps, could have helped but didn't. Please forgive us who contributed to the problem, whether in ignorance or even through malice. I was not born into the Church; rather, I converted to it fourteen years ago. I still have to deal with many questions and problems in understanding and accepting the gospel. Your book has greatly strengthened my testimony, and my deepest thanks go to you. I have never met you, but I love you for what you have done and for what you are. I know the gospel is true, and I thank our Heavenly Father for sending such a choice spirit as you at this time.
"Joseph Chenworth
"December 28, 1980
Dear Mary,
"My name is Paul. Do you remember when you came up to Heber to give a talk at a morningside for Brother Blanchard's seminary students? I was there listening, and I want you to know now that your talk had a significant impact upon many of my emotions and attitudes. I'm glad that the Lord saw it fitting to give you a talent for speaking so that we could get at least a small idea of your experience. I run a lot, and the day after that morningside I was running on the roads above my home thinking about you and all you had said. I thought of what a wonderful person you were and of the undeniable spirit about you. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for you while you were my age and how confused and angry you must have felt, but I'm sure I could never really know or fully comprehend it all. I've been undeservingly lucky.
"A few days ago my little sister got your book as a Christmas present. I got bored with the day's routine and began reading it. It was so vivid and forceful that I couldn't put it down. I read it through without a pause. This may seem normal, but for me, a below-average reader with little discipline, it was a rare occurrence. At first I thought of what an injustice it was to give a special person like you all of those disadvantages and woes. I seem to have everything going for me, and this seems inordinate since I'm not an exceptional spirit. But you are something more than this. Why was the world's dope loaded up on you? Then I got to thinking about how happy we were when, before we were born, we learned that we would be tested and tried in 'the furnace.' I'll bet you were very happy, even though your tests were unusually long and tough (probably even brutal and cruel).
"You remind me of the tree that was forced by the dry ground to push its roots way down deep for its water. Then when the winds came, it was able to hold up and stand because of those deep roots. Or you are like the chick that has to scratch its way out of its shell to hatch, making it strong enough to live once it is out of its shell. Even though I can't really know the kind of pain you've been barreling through, I am glad that you could at least help me with my weaknesses through your example. I am glad for you and I admire you very much. I'm glad I could have a sister like Mary Sturlaugson.
"Your friend, Paul Rasband
"December 25, 1980
Dear Mary,
"My name is Sharla Kae Grover and I live in Kennewick, Washington, on an apple and cherry orchard farm. The reason I am writing is to thank you and somehow express some of the deep emotion I'm experiencing now after just having finished your book. When I first heard A Soul So Rebellious advertised on the radio down in Provo, I was taken with a strong desire to get your book and read it as soon as I could. That was crazy for me, because it was finals time at BYU. And today on Christmas, when everyone is supposed to be napping, I've finished your book and am writing to you - not really knowing what to say but unable to control this strong urge to do so.
"Your writing is powerful, as are the experiences you have had to go through. My heart rejoiced and ached simultaneously upon reading your hurt, your happiness, and peace in the gospel, and your strength of spirit. I've not been so deeply moved in a long time and cried to myself continuously as I read - starting with the first chapter. Please accept my thanks to you for sharing all that you are and have become so beautifully. You have deepened my breadth of experience and my capacity to feel. You have shared a world I've never known about and ached to see. You have enlarged my heart toward others whoever they may be. Thank you.
"By the way, I'm white and was raised in the West. It's hard for me to hear that people would be the way you described as you were growing up. I wish there was something I could do, but I realize it must start with me and the way I treat all of those around me. I also ached to serve a mission, and I realized that dream in 1977 to the Peru Arequipa Mission as a welfare service sister. I offer a sincere hand of love out to you who have so much within you. I'm amazed at the magnitude of your spirit. Thank you so much. The book and the story are timeless. But more importantly is the priceless worth of her who wrote and experienced it.
"Sharla Kae Grover
"January 5, 1981
Dear Sister Sturlaugson,
"My husband is blind and a professor at BYU. I have just finished reading your book to him. I started out not liking you, but we ended up loving you. I like to think that you have been with your father in the temple and that many of your family will join you in the gospel. Thank you for sharing yourself with us.
"Ken and Kathy Jones
"Letters of love and strength. I could have received no greater blessings! Despite the joy the compliments brought, I wanted the people to understand that I wasn't the one who deserved the credit - the Lord did. He was the one who inspired me to write about my life. He knew and understood the reason why, though I doubted Him throughout the whole experience. He had also guided my every word. There had been times when I wanted to share in more detail about a particular incident and my mind would go blank; the minute I continued, the words just flowed. Without Him, no way would it have all come together as it did. My joy seems never-ending, especially as I have received word that my book was being read by a family in Africa. I wanted to go there on my mission. In a sense, that desire has been accomplished. I have been truly grateful for the response of the people and the heart-warming love they have given in return."
Thoughts on the "Curse"
In 1981 LDS scholar Hugh Nibley published a work called Abraham in Egypt which disputed the notion that the book of Abraham had anything to do with the priesthood ban. He wrote, "Why was Pharaoh... denied that priesthood which he 'would fain claim from Noah, through Ham' (1:27)? Certainly not because of Ham, 'a just man (who) walked with God'... For Asenath, it will be recalled, was the daughter of the high priest of Heliopolis, and hence of the pure line of Ham (Gen. 41:45; 46:20); she was also the wife of Joseph and the mother of our own vaunted ancestor Ephraim (Gen. 41:50-52; 46:20)... In all of which there is no mention of race, though enemies of the Church have declared with shock and outrage that these passages are proof of Mormon discrimination against blacks."
That same year, in the book Priesthood, an expanded version of Elder Bruce R. McConkie's 1978 BYU speech "All are Alike Unto God" was printed. This version added the lines, "The ancient curse is no more. The seed of Cain and Ham and Egyptus and Pharaoh - all these now have power to rise up and bless Abraham as their father. All these, gentile in lineage, may now come and inherit by adoption all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." This seems to indicate that despite his admonition in the same speech to forget "all the darkness and all the views and all the thoughts of the past", he continued to believe in the curse of Cain.
Saints, Slaves, and Blacks
In 1981, scholar Newell G. Bringhurst published Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People within Mormonism. Though generally very pleased with the book, Armand Mauss wrote in a review, "I found two major flaws in the book that seemed to me to attenuate its main argument that Mormon racism was something special: (1) In quoting this or that Mormon spokesman, tract, etc., across the first generation of Mormonism, the author leaves the erroneous impression that there was some sort of unified 'Mormon' racial doctrine and policy emerging. In fact, prior to the Utah period, all of this was very much in flux, with most Mormon commentators speaking for no one but themselves, and usually, indeed, doing no more than venting racial ideas common to the general American scene.
"(2) More serious, in my opinion, was the failure of the author to develop an adequate comparative context within which to understand and assess the uniqueness of early Mormon racism. Of course, the author acknowledges (e.g. in the Introduction, on p. 8, on p. 90, and in many other places) that much of the racism among Mormons, as well as their ideas on slavery, abolitionism, etc., were widely shared in the America of the time, but he makes such an acknowledgement only in passing; thus a true picture of Mormon racism relative to the environment never really gets systematic treatment. Of course, it is not difficult to show that racism took some peculiar forms among the Mormons, but a major theme of the book is that Mormon racism was also especially pervasive and formative in Mormon thinking, quite a different proposition and one which, to my mind, remains undemonstrated in the book.
"Even a cursory reading of the many general works on racism cited in the excellent bibliography of this book (p. 241), such as those by Thomas F. Gossett, H. Shelton Smith, and George M. Fredrickson, leaves little for the Mormons to have invented that was not already deeply embedded in American culture. Thus, I find, when Bringhurst undertakes to 'explain' some 'Mormon' racial idea by reference to the historical and geographical setting, his argument has a certain non sequitur quality – as, for example, in Chapter 2, where he notes clearly that Mormons in the 1830s were no more anti-abolitionist than the rest of the country, but yet he somehow still manages to conclude (p. 26) that 'Mormon' anti-abolitionism 'helped to create a Mormon intellectual environment' that produced some uniquely 'Mormon' racial ideas."
Genesis Group Revisited
Of the decade old Genesis Group, LDS sociologist Armand Mauss reported "With a potential membership of perhaps 200, its participation levels have ranged between about twenty-five and fifty, consisting disproportionately of women, middle-aged and older people, and high school-educated skilled and semi-skilled workers. About half are partners in racially mixed marriages, and the most active members are (with a few important exceptions) blacks converted to Mormonism in adult life, rather than life-long members from the old black families of Utah." One reason for this was that converts had already understood and accepted the priesthood ban before joining, rather than being faced with its stigma throughout their lives.
Betty Stevenson is Converted
Betty Stevenson recalled, "Missionaries were tracting in Oakland in February of 1981 when they knocked on my door. It was just seventeen days since I’d gotten off parole. The first thing that jumped into my mind was that they were parole officers. So I kind of peeked out the door and I thought, 'No they must be Jehovah’s Witnesses, and I don’t want to hear from them neither.' So I went back down the hallway into the bathroom and was just standing there when I heard a thought that said to my mind, 'You've been praying for a long time. Why don’t you go open the door and see what they want?' So I let them in... I’m amazed more than anyone that I would be involved in this community. I didn’t want to have anything to do with the Church. I knew nothing nice about Mormons. The reputation of the Church among black people keeps a lot of people from listening. When I actually listened to the missionaries, at first I didn’t believe any of it. I thought, 'Oooo! These people ought to be ashamed of themselves going around telling people that.'
"I was sitting at home and the copy of the Book of Mormon the missionaries had brought me was on the coffee table. I picked it up and started to read. It was just amazing. It was as if the words were almost shimmering in my mind. When I read, “I Nephi, having been born of goodly parents,” the tears started to flow, and I realized that I wasn’t being a goodly parent. I didn’t feel like I had goodly parents. I had always known in my heart that God was almighty. I knew that even in my darkest hours. All my life I believed in God, but I just didn’t believe that He loved a black girl like me. Now, I was just amazed by the Book of Mormon. I had to try to figure out, do I believe it? Is it true? Did it happen? I think I must have worn out a couple of sets of missionaries. When they told me to investigate, that’s exactly what I did. My brother and sister were totally against my joining, and I was too, almost right up until I went down into the water.
"My eleven-year-old daughter got baptized before I did. I'd taught my kids, if you really want to do something, then you go do it. And that's what she did: she got baptized. I asked her, 'Why you want to join this church?' She said, 'Because I listened to the missionaries and what they said made sense.' Eleven years old and she told me that. Eleven years old going on 42! A week later [on July 5] I got baptized... When I started attending church, I became very militant. I wanted to know, 'Where are the black people?' I knew they had to have some. So I went looking in Church history for black Saints, and I found them. Elijah Abel was the first black man that Joseph Smith ordained to the priesthood. His posterity held offices in the Church. Hark Lay and Green Flake drove the first wagon into the Salt Lake Valley, and they were actually the first two on the ground. Then they turned that wagon around and went back and picked up more Saints. Jane Manning James. The stories of these black Saints are beginning to surface."
"I was sitting at home and the copy of the Book of Mormon the missionaries had brought me was on the coffee table. I picked it up and started to read. It was just amazing. It was as if the words were almost shimmering in my mind. When I read, “I Nephi, having been born of goodly parents,” the tears started to flow, and I realized that I wasn’t being a goodly parent. I didn’t feel like I had goodly parents. I had always known in my heart that God was almighty. I knew that even in my darkest hours. All my life I believed in God, but I just didn’t believe that He loved a black girl like me. Now, I was just amazed by the Book of Mormon. I had to try to figure out, do I believe it? Is it true? Did it happen? I think I must have worn out a couple of sets of missionaries. When they told me to investigate, that’s exactly what I did. My brother and sister were totally against my joining, and I was too, almost right up until I went down into the water.
"My eleven-year-old daughter got baptized before I did. I'd taught my kids, if you really want to do something, then you go do it. And that's what she did: she got baptized. I asked her, 'Why you want to join this church?' She said, 'Because I listened to the missionaries and what they said made sense.' Eleven years old and she told me that. Eleven years old going on 42! A week later [on July 5] I got baptized... When I started attending church, I became very militant. I wanted to know, 'Where are the black people?' I knew they had to have some. So I went looking in Church history for black Saints, and I found them. Elijah Abel was the first black man that Joseph Smith ordained to the priesthood. His posterity held offices in the Church. Hark Lay and Green Flake drove the first wagon into the Salt Lake Valley, and they were actually the first two on the ground. Then they turned that wagon around and went back and picked up more Saints. Jane Manning James. The stories of these black Saints are beginning to surface."
Death of Monroe Fleming
On August 4, 1982, the New York Times reported, "Monroe H. Fleming, one of the first blacks admitted to the Mormon Church's priesthood, died of cancer Saturday. He was 85 years old. He converted to the Mormon faith 30 years ago and was allowed into the priesthood in 1978, when the church's president, Spencer W. Kimball, said he had a revelation reversing the Mormons' century-old prohibition against baptizing blacks or admitting black men to the priesthood. The priesthood is held by all worthy male Mormons. Mr. Fleming was born Aug. 23, 1896, in Mississippi. He married Frances Leggroan in 1930 in Salt Lake City. In 1945 he joined the staff at the Hotel Utah, where he worked for nearly 30 years as a waiter, coat checker and busboy. He retired in 1974. From the 1940's to the late 1950's, he was a promoter for black musicians, bringing into Utah such figures as Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson."
Margaret Young later recounted, "Years ago, several of us from Genesis had lunch with a rather bitter descendant of Jane James. She said that there was only one LDS man she really respected: Thomas S. Monson. She trusted him. The story she told was this: Her father, Monroe Fleming, an African American Mormon, was aged and in poor health. Elder Monson gave instructions that regardless of where he was, if Brother Fleming were to pass, he (Elder Monson) would come home at once. Indeed, when Monroe Fleming neared death, Elder Monson was in some distant location, and was contacted. True to his word, he came home immediately. He spoke at Monroe Fleming’s funeral." In a letter to her on May 19, 1999, then-President Monson described Fleming as "a wonderful human being, a faithful member of the Church and a dear friend of mine."
Margaret Young later recounted, "Years ago, several of us from Genesis had lunch with a rather bitter descendant of Jane James. She said that there was only one LDS man she really respected: Thomas S. Monson. She trusted him. The story she told was this: Her father, Monroe Fleming, an African American Mormon, was aged and in poor health. Elder Monson gave instructions that regardless of where he was, if Brother Fleming were to pass, he (Elder Monson) would come home at once. Indeed, when Monroe Fleming neared death, Elder Monson was in some distant location, and was contacted. True to his word, he came home immediately. He spoke at Monroe Fleming’s funeral." In a letter to her on May 19, 1999, then-President Monson described Fleming as "a wonderful human being, a faithful member of the Church and a dear friend of mine."
Rex Lee Allegedly Recuses Himself
In 1982 a legal brief was filed against Bob Jones University, which had gone to the Supreme Court arguing against a 1976 decision by the IRS to revoke its tax-exempt status due to its policy against interracial dating and marriage. The University had successfully argued before all lower courts that the policy was based on a sincerely held religious belief that "God intended segregation of the races and that the Scriptures forbid interracial marriage." A book called The Tenth Justice: The Solicitor General and the Rule of Law, published five years later, claimed that "[Latter-day Saint] Rex Lee, who had been sworn in as Solicitor General seven months before, had once represented the Mormon church when it faced a problem like Bob Jones's and, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, he had taken himself off the case." A footnote attributed this claim to an interview with Brother Lee but offered no further details, and no other record of the alleged event or previous court case exists. Critics sometimes seize on this as their one item of evidence that the Church ended its priesthood ban to avoid losing its tax exemption, though of course more often they cite no evidence at all.
Peter Tabani Gillo's Perspective
Peter Tabani Gillo, a Ugandan immigrant, joined the Church in Chicago in 1983 and later shared his thoughts on the priesthood ban. "My personal understanding in that regard is in the first place the gospel was true for the Jews first. After the Jews it was for Gentiles. That's what Jesus Christ Himself said. Many people did not question that. But people question about the Mormon Church... Maybe God did not think that black people were ready to join the Church... When the Church was established... many white people had an attitude toward the black people. They did not accept them... Maybe the white people would have left and the Church would not have grown. Maybe it was right in the beginning to keep the blacks out and allow the Church to grow and become strong and then allow the blacks in. We never know what God had in His mind, what plans He has."
In 1982 a legal brief was filed against Bob Jones University, which had gone to the Supreme Court arguing against a 1976 decision by the IRS to revoke its tax-exempt status due to its policy against interracial dating and marriage. The University had successfully argued before all lower courts that the policy was based on a sincerely held religious belief that "God intended segregation of the races and that the Scriptures forbid interracial marriage." A book called The Tenth Justice: The Solicitor General and the Rule of Law, published five years later, claimed that "[Latter-day Saint] Rex Lee, who had been sworn in as Solicitor General seven months before, had once represented the Mormon church when it faced a problem like Bob Jones's and, to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, he had taken himself off the case." A footnote attributed this claim to an interview with Brother Lee but offered no further details, and no other record of the alleged event or previous court case exists. Critics sometimes seize on this as their one item of evidence that the Church ended its priesthood ban to avoid losing its tax exemption, though of course more often they cite no evidence at all.
Peter Tabani Gillo's Perspective
Peter Tabani Gillo, a Ugandan immigrant, joined the Church in Chicago in 1983 and later shared his thoughts on the priesthood ban. "My personal understanding in that regard is in the first place the gospel was true for the Jews first. After the Jews it was for Gentiles. That's what Jesus Christ Himself said. Many people did not question that. But people question about the Mormon Church... Maybe God did not think that black people were ready to join the Church... When the Church was established... many white people had an attitude toward the black people. They did not accept them... Maybe the white people would have left and the Church would not have grown. Maybe it was right in the beginning to keep the blacks out and allow the Church to grow and become strong and then allow the blacks in. We never know what God had in His mind, what plans He has."
The Conversion of Eldridge Cleaver
After a youth of petty crime and convictions for rape and assault with intent to murder, Eldridge Cleaver became Minister of Information for the Black Panthers after his release from prison in 1966. In 1967 he formed a political and cultural center in San Francisco called the Black House, and in 1968 he ran for President on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket despite not meeting the Constitutional age requirement of thirty-five years. Also that year he was wounded while leading a Black Panther ambush on police officers in Oakland, and was forced to flee into exile in Cuba, Algeria, and France. After a falling out with fellow Black Panther Huey Newton over differing views on armed resistance, in 1975 Cleaver returned to the United States, renounced his past, and became a conservative Republican and born-again Christian.
By the beginning of the next decade he had become disillusioned with mainstream evangelical Christianity's commercialized nature and began exploring alternatives such as the Unification Church and College Association for the Research of Principles. As early as 1981, when he gave a speech at BYU's Freedom Festival, the Church was also one of these alternatives. On December 11, 1983, he was baptized into the Church. and remained an active member in good standing for the rest of his life, sometimes sharing his story by invitation at LDS gatherings.
Neither White Nor Black
In 1984 Lester Bush and Armand Mauss published a book called Neither White Nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church. Along with new introductory notes it compiled five articles on LDS racial issues that had previously been published in Dialogue: "Mormonism and the Negro: Faith, Folklore, and Civil Rights" by Armand Mauss (Winter 1967), "A Commentary on Stephen G. Taggart's Mormonism's Negro Policy: Social and Historical Origins" by Lester Bush (Winter 1969), "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: A Historical Overview" by Lester Bush (Spring 1973), "Elijah Abel and the Changing Status of Blacks Within Mormonism" by Newell G. Bringhurst (Summer 1979), "The Fading of the Pharaoh's Curse: The Decline and Fall of the Priesthood Ban Against Blacks in the Mormon Church" by Armand Mauss (Autumn 1981). Additionally, it included a comprehensive summary and conclusion "Whence the Negro Doctrine? A Review of Ten Years of Answers" by Lester Bush, and an appendix of the First Presidency statements from 1949, 1969, and 1978. For many years the book remained a definitive source on the origins of the black priesthood ban and the folklore used to rationalize it.
Oral Histories
Having encountered many stereotypes about black Mormons, black Mormon Alan Cherry proposed in 1984 that the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at BYU conduct a series of oral history interviews to learn about the experiences of American black people within the Church. Securing grants from the BYU College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences and from the Silver Foundation, and collaborating with Jessie L. Embry, the Center's assistant director, over the next four years he interviewed 224 people in every region of the United States. 63.5 percent of those interviewed accepted the former priesthood ban as "the Lord's will", while 29.4 percent were "concerned" about it and 7.1 percent were "appalled".
Who Broke My Window?
Sometime during the early 1980s, the Church attempted to showcase its increasing diversity with the strategic placement in one of its television spots of a young black boy, Alfonso Ribeiro of later "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" fame, who ironically was not even a member.
Oral Histories
Having encountered many stereotypes about black Mormons, black Mormon Alan Cherry proposed in 1984 that the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at BYU conduct a series of oral history interviews to learn about the experiences of American black people within the Church. Securing grants from the BYU College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences and from the Silver Foundation, and collaborating with Jessie L. Embry, the Center's assistant director, over the next four years he interviewed 224 people in every region of the United States. 63.5 percent of those interviewed accepted the former priesthood ban as "the Lord's will", while 29.4 percent were "concerned" about it and 7.1 percent were "appalled".
Who Broke My Window?
Sometime during the early 1980s, the Church attempted to showcase its increasing diversity with the strategic placement in one of its television spots of a young black boy, Alfonso Ribeiro of later "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" fame, who ironically was not even a member.
