Until very recently, black Latter-day Saints were excluded from priesthood office in the church. In this revealing study, Embry culls answers from both oral history interviews and mailed surveys to determine how the age-old stereotypes and differences are disappearing as African-Americans are being assimilated into the church.

Jessie L. Embry is director of the Oral History Program at the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies and an instructor of history at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. She is author of Mormon Polygamous Families: Life in the Principle.