Joseph Fielding Smith's Evolving Views on Race

In 1963, Joseph Henderson, a non-Mormon from New York, wrote a pointed letter to LDS Church apostle Joseph Fielding Smith asking him about the racial teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.2 The letter triggered a sharp response from Smith, who informed his interrogator that he was “getting a little fed up on the idea that so many people think I am responsible for the Negro not holding the priesthood.”3 It is easy to see why Henderson held Smith responsible for the Mormon priesthood ban, which also restricted Black people from temple access. The apostle had authored several books defending the ban and he was the Church's most aggressive leader condemning Mormon intellectuals who criticized it. Smith saw himself as the guardian of Mormon orthodoxy, not just on matters of race and lineage but also on issues like evolution and doctrinal exegesis.4 Yet over the course of Smith's long ministry, and especially during the last decade of his life, he began to envision a more inclusive LDS Church for persons of African ancestry. He took dramatic steps to both convert and retain Black Latter-day Saints. It was less a change in how Smith read scripture and more about the turbulent times in which he lived. The civil rights movement—and more critically Smith's own awareness of how the priesthood and temple ban affected Black members—convinced him to reimagine a place for them within the Church. Born in 1876 in what was then the Utah Territory, Joseph Fielding Smith came from royal Mormon stock. He was the grandnephew of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, grandson of high-ranking Church leader Hyrum Smith, son of apostle and Church president Joseph F. Smith, and cousin, brother, or relative to several other apostles, including leaders in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (today the Community of Christ). He was unique in that he spent virtually all of his adult life in the highest councils of the LDS Church. Though he lacked formal training in higher education, Joseph Fielding Smith was one of the Church's most prolific writers in the twentieth century, authoring scores of books and articles that, as two recent writers explained, “helped educate generations of Latter-day Saints about the history and doctrine of the Church.”5Called as an apostle in 1910 at the age of thirty-four, Smith served in a number of capacities in the Church, including Assistant Church Historian, Church Historian, president of the Genealogical Society, president of the Salt Lake Temple, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, First Presidency counselor, and Church president.6 Like many Latter-day Saints, Smith received a patriarchal blessing—a special bestowment by an LDS Church patriarch—that guided his life and shaped his ministry.7 He received the blessing in 1913 at the age of thirty-seven, three years after he was ordained to the Council of the Twelve Apostles, the second-highest governing body in the LDS Church next to the First Presidency. The patriarch promised him that he would “always be in possession of the spirit of revelation” and that his “counsels will be considered conservative and wise.”8 The blessing proved prophetic, for Smith's vigorous defense of the priesthood and temple ban during his sixty-two years as a Church officer marked both his commitment to conservative Mormon teachings and his willingness to defend the ban as revelatory and divine.Although Smith first discussed the ban in a 1924 article published in the Church's magazine, the Improvement Era, his most spirited defense of it occurred in 1931 when he published The Way to Perfection.9 It was one of his most successful publishing ventures, second only to his Essentials in Church History (1922) and perhaps the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith (1938).10The Way to Perfection went through eighteen reprint editions and sold tens of thousands of copies, amassing royalties even after his death in 1972. Published in English, German, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Danish, Finish, and Japanese, it did not go out of print until Church authorities removed the hard copy from publication in 1990 and the Amazon Kindle edition in 2018.11 The book served as the manual for a Sunday School course in genealogy, reflective of Smith's close association with the Genealogical Society of Utah. The First Presidency approved it, and the book quickly became an authoritative statement on LDS racial teachings.12Smith published The Way to Perfection at a time when Mormon racial teachings were unsettled and when Americans in general struggled to define race.13 Although Smith and early Church leaders had taught for years that Black people bore the mark of a divine curse—that they merited a black skin for their sinful conduct in a premortal life—these teachings raised more questions than answers. Since the Church's founding in 1830, leaders offered a variety of conflicting statements about Black people, undoubtedly influenced by the culture of slavery in which they lived. As recent scholarship attests, early LDS leaders could not determine to what degree Black people should be able to participate in the Church's rituals.14 Mormon founder Joseph Smith produced three books of scripture that, along with the Bible, later became canonized as the standard works, yet these scriptures were largely silent on the spiritual destiny of African descendants. Correspondingly, the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants—two essential books of Mormon scripture (the other the Pearl of Great Price)—had much to say about Lamanites or American Indians, privileging them for “redemption and whiteness.”15 By contrast, the Bible—specifically Genesis chapter 4—discussed a “mark” God had placed on Cain, which LDS apostles equated with dark skin, designating Black people unfit to hold the priesthood. The other proof text was Abraham chapter 3 from the Pearl of Great Price, which the Church hierarchy interpreted to mean that Black members were disqualified from the Church's sacred rituals because they had committed some alleged misdeed or sin before they were born.16Church leaders arrived at these conclusions gradually over the course of the nineteenth century. There is that Joseph Smith restricted Black people from the priesthood or disqualified them from the Church's temple In early that at a of Black had ordained to the LDS priesthood during Smith's as founding even received their patriarchal which their lineage and a to their and some in temple served and over Black Latter-day special received patriarchal and in some temple the of Black Latter-day Saints after Joseph Smith's death in In the Smith's a of race that Black In apostle was the first Mormon leader to black skin with that Black people had in a premortal in which God to place them the lineage of and the or African In apostle the that their lineage had disqualified them from the In after Latter-day Saints to the Great and Mormon Black priesthood and a ban Black people from to temple a to determine African but he on how to in a for he how Church leaders could one of African the were to or to and people with African were the most to for LDS Church leaders as they with the of not who had Black for It years of and American in had the for of and which racial and it all but that one had a the of these and on the American racial in and other a lineage was to because were in early the to racial LDS Church leaders like Joseph Fielding Smith struggled to define Black and Latter-day Saints the Church's of In as the Assistant Church Historian, Smith the of the ban and of he the of Church president who in that he did not the of with Joseph Smith or He could not determine was the of or his own of what had to him by the Prophet in Church president Joseph F. Smith and his and that they did not of or the that were in which was at with apostle teachings some years the first two of the twentieth century, Church leaders to over how the Church had teachings about In apostle F. wrote that which the not be but even it he would the of the of a race for an committed by one of In contrast, the Church's teachings about the premortal apostle in that is alleged that the Prophet Joseph I to it is because of some committed by them before they came Joseph Fielding Smith's Mormon racial teachings of leaders was to Latter-day Saints who about why Black members were from the priesthood and he published The Way to Perfection in he that Mormon racial teachings were in more as than as the Smith also that the Church lacked a the ban, which apostle to that is that it began with Joseph Joseph Fielding Smith's in his as Church was even more in that is revelation” to why the to hold the he that it began with Prophet Joseph about the Joseph Fielding Smith his ministry, questions with the of and In a letter to a Latter-day Smith that was but to the doctrine of the Church, he will in because he is of all the Smith that he the of from holding the the interrogator about Smith's the apostle that to as a In a Church Smith to the a black skin and why he hold the priesthood. I many but I would like to I the Smith could not the and in the letter that the the Negro is were questions Smith when he LDS Church a in him is the the to the of Smith He the because he his had questions a for other Church In on a to the and a with a wrote Church president asking he could the to the but the Church president I am as as but until the a the to the of the apostles as did Mormon In the early a Latter-day an on Mormon racial which of from LDS leaders in which they the First Presidency doctrinal questions about Black and the priesthood and temple of them to the and as the Church in the and and Smith to The Way to He to about the of the ban more he to a for Black priesthood Smith's most of and of the There the apostle a hierarchy of race on his of Mormon his of the racial of early LDS Church and his of two and during his the first of the twentieth century, Mormon leaders were in that as Latter-day Saints, these of had they were more to convert to the LDS Church than or of the of Mormon Sunday School and other Church these by Joseph Smith and a Church informed Latter-day Saints of their persons of African who were and from the people their from and were considered the that many Latter-day Saints that because of their they had to and their their and his apostles these but they also to to of In the early twentieth century, Latter-day Saints, like many idea that could the race by and is of in Mormon leaders that Latter-day Saints were to the As and would their as people through and them to and and with Latter-day teachings about Latter-day Saints in sacred Joseph Fielding Smith the would be by of then the the American The of the to would to and their out of of these in The Way to which Smith's that God racial He that because God had placed a they were a which them from the he that because of their in a premortal life, the of the of did not to them like it did the of and other from a of could the of the Church's Smith did not He that Black people were an as to dramatic but less Smith that the priesthood began with Joseph Smith, the of a and the that Black had ordained to the priesthood during his as founding Way to Perfection proved a It was the first time that an LDS leader had Mormon racial of Smith's by his and and of The Way to Perfection when Latter-day Saints about the priesthood Smith himself the when he In the book was in LDS Church in the of Mormon and apostles, and in at the general in Salt Lake the essential teachings of The Way to Perfection were an adult Sunday School manual in the manual was a which a questions to a number of about Black the is from through leaders race most the of the statement in the that the of an most The Way to Perfection became the for a First Presidency statement in in which the Church hierarchy doctrine the divine and the premortal The First Presidency up about the of the ban when they that it was a from the on which is the doctrine of the Church from the of The First the that Black Mormon were ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith's as founding and that at one of them in temple rituals and over a Mormon up The Way to Perfection with books that and Mormon racial teachings as essential Church with The Way to Smith's of and to him as the Church's on the priesthood and temple of these works, his Church leaders to him to questions race and In for and Smith's in the Church to Smith could determine of the and were of of the in the of Smith he did not president to Smith for on a with could at the is to to him from to as when LDS Church had questions about how to lineage for Black and Latter-day Saints, they to Smith for He informed them that they had to the lineage of Smith's on race the Church, some within the LDS Church a Mormon at the of Utah of criticized as did within the Church one in Smith's racial teachings at a training by of Church and at Smith took at that was not and had to In and his of the ban, were in a at the of Utah of Smith, who had with Church and Mormon intellectuals over the the in his received a number of of because of the of and who at the for a number of I also some who were taught by them and the that the change and was in Mormon intellectuals Smith's a Mormon at the of as Smith's most The two had the in Church president to from Smith, who to the Smith's an in a to the Salt Lake chapter of the in which he LDS racial teachings as and to the He LDS leaders like Smith for a and that the Church did not the ban, members would The received the for the Church, for the priesthood and temple an Smith to him He because of from within the Mormon only was he a of in the F. the grandson of high-ranking LDS Church leader Joseph and of two critically books on Mormon but he was close with president and his Smith's defense of the priesthood and temple ban affected his with who the of as of The two had for years over the only did Smith out of the Quorum of the Twelve when Church president first his for in but he to the The first occurred in just after as a in the First Presidency. affected by Church the ban, the when Church leaders a in the early Smith and other the that Black to the priesthood would them to the the the Church in Black within the Quorum of the Twelve about Black to the In to a Church that the priesthood ban and by the First Presidency and the Twelve than at I in the history of that informed that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve had the to a explained, the apostles that change would to a change but he that the was the the had the himself and Smith when he an by out to the to the apostles had about the priesthood in the of a the of to New The to that of the Mormon is the of of apostles, by with an he had but a Church who the the of as did who that the that in the were the by by the New Smith In a published in 1963, just a after with the the apostle that Negro the in the Mormon was with Smith's of the when he that is to the doctrine of the Church to him to that as Smith with First Presidency over the priesthood and temple ban, Smith also from some of his apostles in the Quorum of the The years racial with the of the of and the of and his civil rights issues in the a Smith's racial which were within the Mormon in the and were of in in the and as more including Latter-day Saints, became to the of In the for the First Presidency and from The Way to Perfection when they published the edition of the the they for to the First Presidency statement on race and priesthood in a edition of The of the First and they to print a with race and lineage by Church patriarch Smith of the over the Negro they Church leaders to from about Black people as or less in to the teachings about the First Presidency in be and was not to the the Church, or the American the turbulent civil rights he began to the of Black people and their place within the Church. of Latter-day Saints him asking the scriptures Black people civil Smith a change of to about The Way to the apostle in the LDS Church and in to that he taught that Black people were an he began to a of racial for persons of African and other apostles civil rights at the In to Smith that Black people should and the of that they be in the of and that they be to of to go in they and to their as it is from or from other Smith did not to statement in the LDS Church general when he that is in Church or that is to the of civil rights by of or racial had for Smith, as it did for many of his in Church He the of in the of the and he to Black people as the of in his and and even them during a as he did not civil rights he civil rights as a general along with two of the and most Church in the and the and for in and Smith the he was of how and to racial could the Church's He that Black and people and it could to and an Church the apostle that would be a for a to a for the Smith's issues with Black people Black He president not to the at that which a of and would the of the He also from on LDS racial He a for asking two a of questions about LDS the Church for not the priesthood to the Smith about persons of African who had was a and especially as the Church the in like and for Smith and his apostles because could not determine who had Smith that they should persons of African of the which on questions Black priesthood as a Latter-day him about an early Black Latter-day priesthood Smith that the that Joseph Smith ordained a Negro and him on a is not he informed a Church that were two in in the Black and one The held the he Assistant Church the when he published a book Latter-day in which he that early Church leaders had priesthood on Smith that was and the apostle that had Church a that out to and Church Smith even that more than one was ordained during the early of the Church. he quickly that it came to the of the Prophet Joseph Smith, he it was did Smith conflicting of he could not Black priesthood with the he in The Way to Smith that Black people had a place in the Church. In The Way to he that could be the Church but that was the of their In of and to he offered more the of the Church in which Black members could could be their participate in the their patriarchal and even for the they and to the teachings of the In that Smith that Church and more for the Negro to his than other Church in at about the time that Church leaders began to The Way to Smith of himself as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he a to the First Presidency to the of Black Latter-day Saints in the Salt Lake He that the Negro members in the be a and a of one of the of He that it would as which would the as the or the the in Smith explained, of them undoubtedly because the not their The he apostle to hold in Negro for the of out why so to the Mormon from Smith, his promised Black Latter-day Saints that the Church them a of their own they could they to the did not to at the The First Presidency the because they that a within the Church would especially during the turbulent civil rights years when civil rights for their The in other would that the Church to Black and when was not Smith's He to Black Latter-day Saints, a for and a place for them to his in the founding of the Genesis the LDS Church's first Black the later years of his ministry, Smith also for Latter-day Saints who over Mormon racial he was president of the Quorum of the he with a Church who over the that Black people were in a premortal As the two the scriptures during one Smith the Latter-day that he did not to in the Church's racial teachings to in As the years Smith went through the with the Pearl of Great Price, and then he not to that the priesthood because of the Smith his interrogator that he had not received a on the The Church a was at Smith's and his willingness to himself on a that so and so in his and In to for civil rights and for Black people, Smith began to the of the priesthood and temple ban when Latter-day Saints they had a He was for of the that Latter-day for he had of Latter-day Saints of African He of in the Church when and their African only to be from their and He also of in Mormon when members to after that the many of were Latter-day Saints, had about these and over Smith became more to Mormon racial teachings the of his In the early for when Smith was the at a Church priesthood a in the LDS Church informed him about a with a The had in the Church, served a and was to be in an LDS was also had served in several within the an served as a as a and the other in a the and the that he was had to the and a who was Negro and Smith to the he was at first to the he the that he should the to his about his which of that would be temple doctrine is on Smith as he the Smith had a change of the close of the he to the to see him in the Mormon who that Black people were dramatic and for and He the to the to the to Smith that the his it would himself and his of these in the temple and in Church Smith their Smith the to the not to his to his or his is him and the and the the in the Temple, who to the that LDS Church leaders in racial the that the could as even his Church leaders had him Black after of his African ancestry. LDS apostles, of that it was to determine who Negro and who Smith's were to or to Smith and his that they were and priesthood on persons of African yet they to it because racial had much as it did Americans in general the twentieth about the of with members who Negro or of that Smith's just with them as they is to determine how many Latter-day Saints of African lineage the Church's racial and the only to the to which these as as questions of race and lineage the Church Smith's that the Church should more to of African was his as Church Smith his and to the Genesis the Church's first Black in a after Smith became the Church the First Presidency the Genesis to hold for Society for and for Smith's to the First Presidency in Genesis members were with some Black members in the Salt Lake who had from the the Mormon leader to a spiritual for Black Latter-day Saints they could with as Genesis the Genesis in a in the of of Black Latter-day Saints who in a variety of within the Smith's is silent on of his Church ministry, yet it an in his persons of African Joseph Fielding Smith, most of race in the twentieth century, in after taught for that Black people were as his for the and as he became more to the racial by Black people, of him that was on the Church about Black people had He was the as he in The Way to had Smith had he the priesthood and temple ban as but he also that persons of African lineage had because of Smith's teachings on race and lineage became when LDS Church president the priesthood and temple ban, some years after Smith's the of the ban to racial for it Mormon apostles to Smith's most in The Way to other than Smith's apostle himself a within the Mormon a in his own teachings in his book Mormon an to just before the priesthood the for Black priesthood when he that Black people could be the of by of their priesthood He that would be from their when they to them of the the priesthood to his He that God all and so in a that God had on Black people, their in a premortal life both and the Church authorities to at Smith's racial In less than two after the priesthood the apostles not to that Black people lacked in a premortal did he them to on the of which the Church from Smith's just what the for the priesthood and temple ban, the Mormon hierarchy the last of Smith's racial teachings when it In an and the on the LDS Church Church leaders that black skin is a of divine or and the that the priesthood and temple the Black in a premortal the the that Black held the priesthood during Joseph Smith's as founding just as that had the the Church hierarchy the idea that Black people people of other race or in to Smith's most In these the Church hierarchy just how it was to go to and Smith's racial is most is that the and the Latter-day Saints the of the Latter-day Saints had and in for their

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