Ambiguous Decision: ementation of Mormon Priesthood Denial for the Black ManA Reexamination BY N E W E L L G.
BRINGHURST
JL H E BLACK MAN WAS NOT always barred from priesthood offices within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In recent years a number of writers and scholars have uncovered evidence showing that Black Mormon males (albeit few in number) were ordained and allowed to exercise priesthood authority. 1 The most famous Black Mormon priesthood holder was undoubtedly Elijah Abel, an early member of the church ordained an elder in 1836 during the Mormon sojourn in Kirtland, Ohio. 2 That same year Abel was promoted to the office of seventy and listed in the official church newspaper as a "Minister of the Gospel." 3 After the church moved its headquarters to Nauvoo, Illinois, Abel beDr. Bringhurst is assistant professor of history at Indiana University at Kokomo. 1 The most scholarly work attesting to this fact is Lester E. Bush, Jr., "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 8 (Spring 1973) : 11-68. Much less reliable, but of interest, is Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormons and Negroes (Salt Lake City: Modern Microfilm Company, 1970). A vitriolic anti-Mormon diatribe, it contains apparent copies of certain interesting documents showing that Black Mormons have been ordained to the priesthood. See pp. 11-12, 16. 2 Abel's status as a Mormon priesthood holder was so well known that it was even noted by Andrew Jenson, an assistant church historian, in his Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson History Company, 1901-36), 3:577. More recently a brief biographical sketch of Abel was included in the "They Had a Dream" series on prominent American Blacks written by Reasons and Patrick under the title "Elijah Abel Reached Top Mormon Ranks." This series ran in newspapers throughout the United States during the early 1970s. a Latter Day Saints Messenger and Advocate (Kirtland, O.) June 1836; Bush, "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine," p. 17.
