Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem by Kevin McGruder (review)

has mastered. One can see this in part by his use of the Smith presidential narrative to identify and adjudicate the ongoing problem of religious inequality in American society. Many historians have been interested in this story, but few could have found the balance and relevance McBride offers in Joseph Smith for President. Nonetheless, I am left hoping for a second volume, in which the protection of religious minorities fostering atypical non-Protestant religious practices (secret rites, polygamy, hierarchy, new scripture, etc.) inform the divide and factor into American politics. It would be interesting to understand how and which religious differences evoke political unrest, not just that differences led to the suppression of religious minorities. The problem of hierarchy is clear in the presidential candidacy of John F. Kennedy and, more recently, Mit Romney, and it is not far-reaching to wonder how marriage practices work for and against religious minorities today. Smith’s story still has more to offer.