In 1836, Elijah Ables, a man of mixed-race, was ordained to the priesthood of the Mormon Church. He was a committed friend of Joseph Smith, and Ables dedicated himself to the faith. But in his lifetime, he'd see the Church ban blacks from full membership and his adopted home of Utah become a slave-holding territory. Historian Russell Stevenson has written a new biography of Elijah Ables, and Wednesday, he joins Doug to talk about Ables' life and Mormonism's racial history.

Russell Stevenson is an independent historian. He's worked for the LDS Church Archives and as an instructor at Salt Lake Community College. His book is called Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables