Black people and Mormonism

From the mid-1800s until 1978, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) had a policy which prevented most men of black African descent from being ordained to the church's lay priesthood. Black members were also not permitted to participate in most temple ordinances. These beliefs influenced views on civil rights. The priesthood of other Mormon denominations, such as the Community of Christ, Bickertonite and Strangite, have always been open to persons of all races.

After Joseph Smith's death, Brigham Young taught that black suffrage went against church doctrine, that God had taken away the rights for blacks to hold public office, and that God would curse whites who married blacks. These views were criticized by abolitionists of the day. Though the church had an open membership policy for all races, relatively few black people who joined the church retained active membership. Young did teach that the ban on blacks would one day be lifted. He also stated that that black church members would one day receive the priesthood and its blessings, but only after this life when the other saints would receive similar blessings. He was instrumental in officially legalizing slavery in Utah territory, teaching that the doctrine of slavery was connected to the priesthood ban.

In the 1960s, Mormon attitudes about race were generally close to those of other Americans. Accordingly, before the civil rights movement, the LDS Church's doctrine-based policy went largely unnoticed and unchallenged with the First Presidency stating in 1947 that the doctrine of the Church which banned interracial marriage and black people from entering the temple or receiving the priesthood was never questioned by any of the Church leaders. Beginning in the 1960s, however, the church was criticized by civil rights advocates and religious groups, and in 1969 several church leaders voted to rescind the policy, but the vote was not unanimous among the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, so the policy stood. In 1978, the First Presidency and the Twelve, led by Spencer W. Kimball, declared they had received a revelation instructing them to reverse the racial restriction policy. The change seems to have been prompted at least in part by problems facing mixed race converts in Brazil. Today, the church opposes racism in any form and has no racial discrimination policy.

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