If the brethren knew of such [patriarchal] blessings given prior to 1978, I'm sure they would have officially disapproved and instructed the patriarch not to do it any more. . . .

It is easier to accept the possibility of references to a black receiving the priesthood or being married in the temple; doing missionary work, since these, the patriarch knew, could be interpreted to mean in the next life—or at a time sufficiently distant that he would not be held accountable for predicting something inconsistent with the status quo. There was a general feeling among most members of the Church prior to 1978 that there would come a time when blacks would receive the priesthood. . . .

As to my father’s feelings on the subject, I think your quote is pretty accurate. He believed as did Joseph Fielding Smith that blacks would never receive the priesthood. At some point he did conclude that when receiving patriarchal blessings they should be assigned to the tribe of Manassa. It should be kept in mind that Eldred has never believed that a patriarchal blessing pronounced a literal lineage. First, he maintains we are all a mixture and so it would be impossible as a literal proposition. Second, he emphasized that the tribal designation was for purposes of assigning particular blessings within the House of Israel, which can be accomplished without any necessary connection to actual lineage at all.

I can assure you that Eldred was not involved in predicting or promising priesthood blessings to blacks before the revelation. He got into enough trouble without doing that. I can only imagine what would have happened had he done that as well.