BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Peter M. Johnson took a winding path to become the first black Mormon regional leader in Alabama.

Johnson grew up in New York, was recruited to play college basketball for a Mormon university in Hawaii, later moved to Utah and worked as an accountant in Salt Lake City, before eventually taking a job at the University of Alabama.

Being chosen as the first black Mormon to serve as a stake president in Alabama caught Johnson somewhat by surprise.

“I realize it’s significant now,” said Johnson, president of the Bessemer, Alabama stake, who serves as a regional leader for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for an area that covers central-west Alabama from the Mississippi line to Birmingham.

“I had no knowledge that I would be the first black stake president in Alabama. My goal is to invite all to come into Christ.”

He’d never served as a bishop of a congregation, or a branch president, which is often considered a stepping stone to regional leadership.

“I was awed, overwhelmed,” said Johnson. “It was definitely unexpected.”

Two members of the Quorum of the Seventy, the leadership hierarchy based in Salt Lake City, Utah, came to visit and interview him.

“They came to my home,” he said. “They look at how well are you providing for your family, because it’s a volunteer position and it requires a lot of time. Are you worthy? I’m not a perfect person. But you need to have a clean heart. We spend a lot of time on our knees praying for guidance.”

Before 1978, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a policy prohibiting black men from being ordained in the church's lay priesthood, which precluded them from taking part in some rites, call ordinances, in the temple. It also essentially excluded them from holding significant leadership positions in the church.

The ban was lifted in 1978 after the church's prophet had a revelation that it should be discontinued. Non-white leaders are now common in the 14-million-member worldwide church.

Johnson said he doesn’t understand the reason the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints previously prevented African-American men from serving as members of the priesthood.

“I don’t understand the whys,” he said. “After 1978, every worthy man can have the opportunity to receive the priesthood of God.”

For him, the past is no longer an issue.

“Everything just comes in time,” he said. “The church has no borders. We get everyone we can to accept Christ. God will work out all the race relations when we get up there.”

Johnson joined the Latter-day Saints in 1986, at age 19, after converting from the Nation of Islam.

“I was recruited to play basketball at the BYU Hawaii campus,” he said. “A lot of people I started to meet were Latter-day Saints. Prior to that I was a practicing Muslim.”

After a year in Hawaii, he followed one of his coaches to another school in Utah. He became an accountant for a firm in Salt Lake City, then returned to BYU in Hawaii as a member of the accounting faculty at his old school, then took a job as assistant professor at Brigham Young University campus in Provo, Utah, where he worked for eight years before taking a job at the University of Alabama in 2011.

Johnson is an Ernst and Young Fellow and assistant professor of accounting at the Culverhouse School of Accountancy at the University of Alabama. He received his Ph.D. in Accounting from Arizona State University and has a Master’s Degree of Accountancy from Southern Utah University.

“I grew up in New York City,” he said. “When I was 12 or 13, I joined the Nation of Islam and began reading the Quran. Both Islam and the Latter-day Saints are about peace and brotherhood. That prepared me for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Johnson and his wife, Stephanie Lyn Chadwick, who also played college basketball, have been married 23 years and have four children.

The Latter-day Saints have no paid clergy. All administrative positions are handled by volunteers.

Johnson and his family recently moved to Alabama from Utah. From 1987-89, he was a missionary in the Alabama Birmingham Mission.

The Bessemer Stake includes Alabaster, Hoover, Inverness, Cullman and Demopolis. It has 12 congregations, larger ones called wards and smaller ones called branches, that have a combined membership of 3,716.