Lester E. Bush Jr.

Lester Earl Bush Jr. (November 22, 1942-November 23, 2023 ) was a historian and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church) who published influential research into the origins of the "Negro doctrine," a now-abandoned church policy which excluded African-Americans from membership in the church's priesthood and from participation in a number of other church practices. He also published historical research into other topics, including a medical history of Brigham Young and reviews of LDS health and medical practices.

Bush was born on November 22, 1942, in Atlanta, Georgia. He married Yvonne DeCarroll Snow on August 24, 1967. He was a physician with undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Virginia, a master's in public health from Johns Hopkins University, and a long-standing interest in Mormon history.

Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview
In 1973, Bush's article "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview" was published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, receiving the best article award from The Mormon History Association in the same year. His research found that the priesthood ban was originally established by Brigham Young, the successor to church founder Joseph Smith and that there was no evidence of a prophetic revelation or doctrine which had caused the policy to be adopted. The end of the ban was announced on June 8, 1978 as a "revelation" received by Spencer W. Kimball, the president of the church, and canonized as Official Declaration 2. According to his son, Edward L. Kimball, LDS apostle Mark E. Peterson "almost surely" recommended to Spencer Kimball on May 25 that he should consider Bush's article while Kimball was deliberating whether to change the church policy.

The end of the "Negro doctrine" was the "most exciting single event of the years I was church historian," recalled official LDS historian Leonard J. Arrington. "I was thrilled and electrified. ... For many days I talked with a host of friends and relatives on the telephone and in person. Everyone was elated -- and sobered." However, neither Arrington nor any other official church historians had researched or written about the background of the ban prior to the revelation. According to Chad L. Nielsen, Bush's article in Dialogue was "the single most important article on the history of the priesthood ban. ... Bush demonstrated the ability scholars have to create a paradigm shift among the Mormon community. ... Bush radically revised what was understood about the origins of the priesthood ban."

According to the Juvenile Instructor, an academically leaning blog focused on the history of the Latter-day Saints, "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine" was "a master work of scholarship that not only revolutionized how historians, sociologists, and other academics view the church’s history of race relations, but was also a significant factor leading to Official Declaration 2," which ended the Negro priesthood ban.

Other works

 * Lester E. Bush Jr. and Armand L. Mauss, eds., Neither White nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church, Signature Books, 1984.