Remembering June 1978 - Greg Prince

Gregory A. Prince is an American pathology researcher, businessman, author, and historian of the Latter Day Saint movement. He is co-author of David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2005). The following is his personal journal entry from June 9, 1978.


Fri., 9 Jun.: A bombshell exploded this afternoon. Yvonne Bush called me at the lab, and said she had just heard, on good authority, that President Kimball had received a revelation stating that all males could now hold the priesthood. I couldn’t believe it. JaLynn called me soon thereafter from the radio station, not having heard anything yet. I told her to go check the wire service. A few minutes later she called back and read the report which had come over the wire. Unbelievable! I think it’s tremendous, but I just can’t really believe that it has happened.

Spent the evening with the Bushes. Lester was floating. He has had such an intense interest in the Church policy on blacks that the shock and delight of this announcement is nearly overwhelming. He received phone calls all evening, from all over the country. We can’t help but think that his monumental paper on the “black policy” had something to do with the turn of events.

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Prince refers to Lester E. Bush, Jr., who wrote "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 8 no. 1 (Spring 1973), 11–68. [.pdf] See also Lester E. Bush, Jr., and Armand L. Mauss, eds., Neither White nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church (Midvale: Signature Books, 1984) [html] and Gregory A. Prince, "The Long-Awaited Day," bycommonconsent.com, 8 June 2010.