Matthew Harris
TUESDAY, JULY 1, 2025 | 7:30-9:00 pm MDT
WHERE:
Home of Ed and Kristen Iversen
3582 Oak Rim Way
Salt Lake City, UT 84109
Thanks to Kristen and Ed for hosting this gathering in their home.
Or join us via the large Zoom link below in blue. But the experience is better in person so come join us!
THE CONVERSATION:
The book, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality by Matthew L. Harris (Oxford University Press, 2024) is a deeply researched historical account that investigates the LDS Church’s long-standing priesthood and temple ban on Black members—and the forces that led to its reversal in 1978. Harris draws extensively from newly accessible archival sources, including private papers of apostles and first presidency meeting minutes, bringing fresh clarity to how civil rights pressures, internal debates, and a globalizing church shaped President Spencer W. Kimball’s landmark “revelation.”
Harris will talk, briefly, about why he wrote Second-Class Saints, how he obtained access to so many behind-the-scenes sources (e.g., First Presidency/Quorum of the Twelve Meeting Minutes, General Authority diaries and letters, etc.), and how his research sheds light on how prophetic proclamations occur. As always, come with questions to ask.
ABOUT MATT: 
Matthew L. Harris is Professor of History and Director of Legal Studies at Colorado State University-Pueblo. His many books include Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Watchman on the Tower: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right, The LDS Gospel Topics Series: A Scholarly Engagement, Thunder from the Right: Ezra Taft Benson in Mormonism and Politics, The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History, Zebulon Pike, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, and The Founding Fathers and the Debate over Religion in Revolutionary America.
“I grew up in central Maine in the 1980s during Ezra Taft Benson’s church presidency. Early on, before our fledging branch grew to become a ward, we met in an old Masonic Hall over a pizza shop. It was quite difficult to fast as a young boy when we could all smell the sweet aroma of pizza wafting in the air. On one Sabbath day during fast Sunday, one of my Sunday School classmates decided to sneak down and buy a pizza. I was tempted to join him, but I was a pretty good straight arrow so I demurred. Plus, my father would have scolded me!
I served a church mission to Idaho from 1989-1991. One of my mission presidents was next-door neighbor’s with Ezra Taft Benson in Midway, Utah, so we heard a lot of stories about President Benson.
Following my mission, I earned BA and MA degrees in history from BYU. I was in graduate school when I first became acquainted with Dialogue and Sunstone—two seminal publications that would deepen my study of LDS church history. Following BYU, I earned MPhil and PhD degrees in history at Syracuse University. My major focus in graduate school was early American history. Later in my career I turned to Mormon history where I’ve been ever since.”
I’m delighted those who can’t attend in person can join virtually. I’m sorry I can’t give you the same care and attention given to those in person. Please contact me if you have suggestions for improvement.
- Click on the Zoom link above for either last month’s recorded conversation (if the event date has passed) or the live conversation now. If you are participating in the live conversation keep reading.
- When you are connected you will either be waiting in a lobby and will let be in shortly or you will immediately be able to see other participants. Please make sure that you are muted and that your video is on if you choose to have it on. (Love to see and hear you live, but we’ll take curious lurkers also.)
- If you can’t hear the host, me, or others, find your settings and make sure you have a working microphone and speaker selected. OR maybe the problem is on my end so please let me know if it is.
ZOOM ETIQUETTE:
- Please mute your microphone before entering and when you are not speaking so noises are not heard by everyone else.
- If you are going to multitask—not recommended—or wander around a lot, please turn off your video and make sure you are muted. No one wants to be distracted by you eating or using the loo.
