The priesthood and temple ban against individuals with Black African ancestry is a topic that is both fraught and crucial in understanding the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Matthew Harris’s recently-published Second Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality provides one of the most in-depth looks at that ban, with a special focus on the process by which it was challenged and lifted in the twentieth century by the 1978 priesthood revelation. It also discusses the ongoing effects of the ban and the anti-Black teachings in the Church that framed it after the revelation and the reluctance of Church leaders to come out against those teachings until 2013. Ultimately, however, the focus of the book is “on racism as it affected Black and biracial people in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (p. xiv).
The book discusses painful history and was uncomfortable to read at times as an active member of the Church. That’s not the fault of the book, it’s more the existence of a history of racism among Church leaders and the broader culture in which they lived. It was frustrating and somewhat sickening to see how hard-liners like Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, and Mark E. Peterson doubled down on the ban and anti-Black teachings, even when offered evidence and options to the contrary, especially knowing the ongoing damage to the Church and its mission in the world that the ban has had. It was also distressing to realize how deeply the ban was tied to avoiding interracial marriage and that some of the antiblack policies pursued by the Church and BYU were done with that particular point in mind. Harris acknowledged this pain and discomfort being part of the discussion up front, writing that “some readers might take offense at the book’s unvarnished account of the LDS church’s history with antiblack racism, but in my defense, I believe that readers will appreciate the story more if all the artificial preservatives and sweeteners are left out. Honesty is the only way to heal faith communities from the devastating effects of racism” (p. xv).
There were a couple details here and there that could have been checked more carefully. Most of these were very minor, though one that stood out was that Harris compressed narratives in the Book of Abraham. For example:
The Book of Abraham was the church’s most widely cited proof text in defending the priesthood and temple ban. A notable passage states that God had cursed Pharaoh’s descendants, who were thought to be the ancestors from the “loins of Ham.” This divine curse originated from a “war in heaven” before the creation of the earth, during which the followers of Jesus Christ clashed with the devil and his followers. The devil and his minions, the text states, sought to overthrow Jesus and were therefore thrust from heaven, causing God to curse them “as pertaining to the priesthood”.
Second Class Saints, p. 11.
He later refers to “Abraham chapter 2” as “the other proof text, which deals with Mormon conceptions of the preexistence” (p. 200). It’s possible that Harris was trying to reference how the Book of Abraham was interpreted more than its actual contents, but the part about premortal existence is in chapter 3 of the Book of Abraham and it does not make an explicit link to priesthood denial. The part about Pharaoh being denied the priesthood is in chapter 1 of the Book of Abraham and ties the fact that he was “of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood” to Noah, who “blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood” (Abraham 1:26–27). Not only are the two aspects (premortal existence and Pharaoh not being able to have the priesthood) in separate chapters and narratives, but they were recorded at different times. Joseph Smith recorded chapter 1 and part of chapter 2 of the Book of Abraham in 1835, then resumed the process and recorded the remainder of the book (including chapter 3) in 1842. Thus, the scripture itself doesn’t tie the ban to premortal existence in the ways that 19th and 20th century Church leaders did. Hence, Matthew Harris could have been a little more careful in referencing the Book of Abraham.
When he discussed the history of the ban in the twentieth century, however, Harris was solid. His work in that area builds on details discussed in works like Gregory A. Prince’s David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, Edward Kimball’s article, “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood,” and Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and The Problem of Racial Innocence by Joanna Brooks. What is significant is that he brings these all together in one place and expands them through access to never-before-seen private papers of apostles and church presidents, especially those related to Spencer W. Kimball.
The resources that stood out the most to me in that regard was the 1954 Bennion report. Early in that year, David O. McKay convened a special committee of apostles to look into the possibility of lifting the ban. Elder Adam S. Bennion headed the committee, which compiled a large collection of meeting minutes from the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve going back to the early days of the Church to understand prior rulings about the ban. The resulting report outlined in detail that the historical and scriptural basis of the ban were shaky at best and that the ban was harmful to the Church’s mission. It was in the days following the report being written that President David O. McKay told Sterling McMurrin that he believed the ban was a practice or policy and not eternal doctrine. Spencer W. Kimball was known to have had a copy of the report, which may have also influenced his efforts to lift the ban. In addition, the documents that they compiled would later form the basis of Lester Bush’s “Mormonism’s Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview,” the Dialogue article that raised awareness that Joseph Smith did not enact the ban two decades later. It is unfortunate that it was still over twenty years after the Bennion report was written that the ban was lifted, but fascinating to see its place in the history of the ban in Second Class Saints.At this point, I would put Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality by Matthew L. Harris up there with W. Paul Reeve’s Religion of a Different Color and Armand L. Mauss’s All Abraham’s Children as required reading related to the race and priesthood ban in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is an excellent, if painful, look into racism and its effects on the people in the Church that is worth reading.