Harris argues that the restriction began under Brigham Young and that its removal involved decades of contested decisions by church leaders and efforts by Black members and their allies. He interprets 1978 through both the participants’ understanding of revelation and human agency, emphasizing the restriction’s conflict with worldwide missionary growth and its continuing consequences.
- Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality (Oxford University Press, 2024).
the inclusion of Black people in the church was as much the product of human agency as it was divine revelation.