Military Chain of Command Priesthood Lines of Authority
You judge your own worth by how many people are "under" you.
Kimball frequently used military metaphors to describe what everyone else was supposed to do. However, he acted and spoke as if he himself had no superior.
Seeing him there just makes me wonder HOW IN THE WORLD he was able to get past the fact that the LDS Church is traditionally very racist.
The LDS Church claims to act by direct REVELATION FROM GOD and to be led by a PROPHET OF GOD. And yet, was still racist up to the late 70's. How can you overlook that?
They could have arranged it in any number of ways, but they wanted to put it in an order that the general membership would understand. And ain't nobody nowhere understands no pyramid scheme like a damned mormon!
That is quite a visual, a sea of old white guys, with one lone African, and a small sprinkling of old Asian and Hispanic guys at the bottom, but they are still above the six lovely ladies of the Relief Society and Young Womens (who do not look all that young....when does one cease to be a Young Woman?)