Lee’s third trip abroad, in October 1958,
took him to South Africa. His assignment involved assessing LDS progress in
that country since McKay’s own visit some four years earlier. In the wake of
McKay’s 1954 visit, the church had eased somewhat on its policy requiring that
any LDS male seeking priesthood ordination provide genealogical evidence that
he had no black African ancestry. After 1954, any LDS male who did not
physically exhibit black African ancestry could be ordained to the priesthood.
(The racist LDS policy regarding blacks and the priesthood and temple
participation was abandoned in 1978.) South African church membership more than
doubled during this period, from 1,372 in 1950 to 2,901 by 1960.
Despite this, as Lee discovered, South African
Latter-day Saints continued to grapple with race—exacerbated by the apartheid
policies imposed by that nations’ white minority on its black majority. Black
were “becoming more and more vocal and sometimes violent in their opposition to
Apartheid” (Gibbons, Harold Be Lee: Man of Vision, Prophet of God, 364).
Church members in Durham expressed fears that the black population, which far
outnumbered whites, would one day unite under Communism to take control of the
country. Alarmed church members discussed with Lee the possibility of
emigrating, en masse, to the United States and/or Canada (Goates, Harold
B. Lee: Prophet and Seer, 266).
Lee confronted a different racial problem
upon visiting port Elizabeth where he presided over the dedication of a new
meetinghouse. He was approached by three young Latter-day Saint women with “mixed
blood” who asked him “what the Lord would have them do about marriage and
having children.” After giving the three members priesthood blessings, Lee
wrote in his journal, “The Spirit seemed to indicate that they [the young
women] should seek for a husband who likewise has mixed blood.” He further
added, “I gave them assurances of their eternal blessings if they would live up
to all they are permitted to do in their present state.” The visiting apostle,
in fact, talked with “many members of mixed blood who came to discuss this
problem” with him (as stated by Lee, in Goates, 269). Thus, Lee returned to the
United States with a greater awareness of the consequences of Mormonism’s
racist policy. (Newell G. Bringhurst, Harold B. Lee: Life and Thought [Salt
Lake City: Signature Books, 2021], 81-82)
Standing in stark contradiction to Mormonism’s expansion
as a world re[li]gion was the church’s ban on black priesthood ordination and
temple participation, which Lee continued to defend.
In a September 1972 newspaper interview, however,
Lee appeared to soften his resistance, albeit ever so slightly, proclaiming
that it was “only a matter of time before the Negro gets full status in the
Church” (Daily Heald [Provo, Utah], Sept. 26, 1972, 10). (Ibid., 134)
. . . the majority of LDS Church members accepted
the ban’s legitimacy. A 1972 Louis Harris Poll found that 70 percent of Utah-based
Saints opposed granting blacks the priesthood. This same poll found that a
significant percentage of church members believed opposition to the ban
represented a “black conspiracy” to destroy the church (one third of Utah-based
church members affirmed this to be the case. See New York Times, Apr. 6,
1972). (Ibid., 135)
. . .Lee found himself confronting the ban on a personal
level. A young LDS woman, Rula Jorgensen Sargent, had recently married Carols
Sargent, an African-American non-member. The young woman’s mother, Margaret
Jorgensen, the daughter of Hugh B. Brown, whose family Lee knew on a first-name
basis, sough Lee’s counsel in a September 1973 letter.
In her letter, Jorgensen acknowledged her family’s
dismay upon first learning of Rula’s involvement with Sargent, urging her to
end the relationship. But Rula persisted. As Margaret and the rest of the
family got to know Sargent, they were soon won over by his demeanor and moral
character. Rula’s grandfather Hugh Brown upon learning of their engagement,
asked Margaret, “Can he [Carlos] make her [Rula] happy?” when his daughter
replied yes, Brown simply stated, “Give Rula my love, tell her as long as they love
each other they will work things out.” Thus, the young couple married with the
approval of the family (Margaret Brown Jorgensen to Harold B. Lee, Sept. 12,
1973, courtesy of Reid Moon).
However, Jorgensen was perplexed by their son-in-law’s
reluctance to become a Latter-day Saint. Informing Lee of this, she stated: “Carlos
is eager to join the Church but he is deeply disturbed, bewildered, and
depressed because as he tells his wife, ‘I’m cursed—I’m one of the seed of Cain—I
have the Devil in me, Therefore I am not worthy to be a member of the Church of
Jesus Christ.’” She further informed Lee that her son-in-law was “not
rationalizing” and added, “He has no bad habits to give up—he is simply
overcome by a feeling of inferiority. To him, he has been dealt with the ultimate
blow—being rejected by the Lord, himself!” (Jorgensen to Lee).
Lee, in responding to this “very serious problem,”
asked, “I am not sure just what you had in mind in writing me.” He ignored the
anguish and instead lectured Jorgensen about the ban itself: “Now, Margaret,
this is something that the Lord has not made known to anyone. The early Brethren
have said that if those who were presently denied the Priesthood were to be
true and faithful as Church members, the time would come when they would
receive the blessings of the Priesthood. Until that time comes, we have no
answer. But . . .The Priesthood is not given to those who are restricted for
reasons that are known only to the Lord” (Lee to Margaret Brown Jorgensen, Oct.
1, 1973, courtesy of Reid Moon).
Lee’s response is revealing for what it said and
what it omitted. Clearly stated was Lee’s affirmation of the ban. The letter
also affirmed Lee’s long-standing opposition to interracial marriage. Finally,
Lee’s letter showed that he had no intention of lifting the ban. (Ibid.,
137-38)
