Pioneer benefactor’s ties to slavery raise questions for BYU, where a building bears his name

Abraham O. Smoot was hailed in a 2015 Brigham Young University magazine article as being “undaunted, powerful, and immovable … [having] a dignity to his presence, a rugged grandeur.”

The 19th-century pioneer and benefactor was lauded for being a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and for financing the forerunner to the faith’s flagship school. The administration building on the Provo campus even bears his name.

Nowhere in these accolades, however, does it mention that Smoot owned at least one slave — and, historians say, likely more.

While doing research this week for his groundbreaking database, Century of Black Mormons, scholar W.