Bush argues that contemporary evidence does not establish a racial priesthood restriction under Joseph Smith and that the restriction developed under Brigham Young. He traces how later leaders attributed it to Smith and built increasingly elaborate scriptural and premortal explanations around it.
- Lester E. Bush Jr., “Mormonism’s Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 8, no. 1 (1973): 11–68.
There is no contemporary evidence that the Prophet limited priesthood eligibility because of race or biblical lineage