Did Mormon policy and beliefs toward Blacks originate in Missouri? If not in Missouri, when, where, and how were they established? What were Mormons obliged to believe about Blacks, and what were the implications for civil rights? How did the policy affect black Mormon families and individuals? How was the policy eventually changed,and what have we learned since then?

And he inviteth them all to come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God.—2 Nephi 26:33

Lester E. Bush, Jr., is a physician with the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, D. C., area, and the author of several articles in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and papers presented at Sunstone symposia, particularly on issues of health as they relate to the LDS church's Word of Wisdom.

Armand L. Mauss (Ph.D., Sociology, UC-Berkeley) is a professor of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University, former editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and an early president of the Mormon History Association. He is the co-author (with Lester E. Bush) of The Angel and the Beehive: The Mormon Struggle with Assimilation and has published often in Dialogue, Sunstone, and more general academic journals.

L. Jackson Newell, former dean of Liberal Education, University of Utah, is the president of Deep Springs College in western Nevada. He co-authored Creating Distinctiveness, Matters of Conscience, and A Study of Professors of Educational Administration, and is a contributor to Religion, Feminism, and Freedom of Conscience and The Wilderness of Faith. He is a past editor of the journal, Dialogue, and recipient of the Joseph Katz Award for distinguished leadership in American education and the CASE Professor of the Year award.