Mormon Church and Blacks

Matthew L. Harris is an associate professor of history at Colorado State University-Pueblo. He is the coauthor of The Founding Fathers and the Debate over Religion in Revolutionary America. Newell G. Bringhurst is a professor emeritus of history and political science at College of the Sequoias. He is the author of Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Blacks within Mormonism.

"A great resource for the serious inquirer as it combines previously known data with new source information thereby adding to the scholarship on this much considered subject."--Darius A. Gray "Unique in its presentation of primary documents that are well explained and contextualized. Many are extremely important for our understanding of the historical trajectory of LDS thinking about African Americans and the priesthood."--Laurie Maffly-Kipp, author of Setting Down the Sacred Past: African-American Race Histories "A welcome addition to Mormon Studies."--Nova Religio "Harris and Bringhurst offer an informed view of behind-the-scenes Church politicking before and after the ban. The result is an essential resource for experts and laymen alike on a much-misunderstood aspect of Mormon history and belief." -- Reading Religion "The attitude and practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in regard to people of African descent… have fluctuated over the years of the church's history, varying from relative indifference in the earliest years, through many decades of exclusion and derogation, both by leaders and members, to today's nominal acceptance into full fellowship, activity, and equality. This volume is chronological documentary history of the entire saga… The authors/editors generally avoid stating their own opinions or conclusions, which allows readers to evaluate the material themselves. This is, in my opinion, a mark of a well-made documentary history."--Richard Packham, Association for Mormon Letters "The Mormon Church and Blacks is a valuable contribution to the study of race within Mormonism."--Journal of Mormon History "This volume is a chronological documentary history of the entire saga. . . . The authors/editors generally avoid stating their own opinions or conclusions, which allows readers to evaluate the material themselves. This is, in my opinion, a mark of a well-made documentary history."--Richard Packham, the Association for Mormon Letters "This volume represents a long overdue documentary history of Mormonism and black priesthood denial that includes the essential primary sources on the subject. The strength here is in the twentieth and twenty-first century chapters, previously underexplored eras in the changing status of blackness within Mormonism."--W. Paul Reeve, author of Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness