Joseph Smith portrait at Morehouse sparks debate over slavery, polygamy and Black history

Joseph Smith portrait at Morehouse sparks debate over slavery, polygamy and Black history

(RNS) — Several Black clergymen who are alumni of Morehouse College, a historically Black men’s college, have written an open letter to their alma mater objecting to a new portrait of Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith hung in the campus chapel. The chapel, named after famous civil rights activist the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., should not feature a portrait of a man who once sought to appease slave owners and who practiced polygamy, the men a…