Bridgeforth was asked if he would like to be a Mormon priest.

"I wouldn't minimize it in any way," he said. "Certainly, I'd like it. Quite a responsibility goes with this, and I'm not going to demand something if it could destroy me. So I'll live with the commandments of the Lord."

BRIDGEFORTH and Hinckley said there are perhaps 200 black Mormons in the Salt lake Valley, and of these about 70 to 80 take part in Genesis group meetings, which white Mormons also attend sometimes.

The Mormons believe that their president is a seer and revelatory who passes on to them instructions he receives in revelations from God. The Mormon president was Joseph Fielding Smith who was born July 19, 1876, and who died last week. He had been one of the 12 apostles of his church since 1910.

Until the president or one of his successors receives a revelation that directs a change, no black man will be a priest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day [sic] Saints.