Several readers wrote me to ask why I did not address issues of race and Mormonism. It's a topic I had proposed to cover, but one that did not make the final cut for the article.
Racism continues to be a crucial issue in American life, so I'd like to start by talking a little bit about race in Mormonism. Many people are aware that until 1978, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not ordain worthy men of African descent to the lay priesthood. But this policy (enforced primarily in the twentieth century) does not represent the whole history of African-Americans in Mormonism. In the earliest years of the Church, under the leadership of Joseph Smith, many African-Americans (see, for example, Elijah Abel and abolitionist Walker Lewis did join and Black men like Abel and Lewis were ordained to the priesthood. After Smith's death, with the leadership of Brigham Young, and as the Mormons moved further west, the practice of ordaining African-Americans to the priesthood gradually ended. Some historians trace this to controversies and social conflicts that took place while the Mormons were living in Nauvoo, Illinois, in the 1840s. Whatever the reasons it began, denial of priesthood took hold and solidified in Mormon society.
Through the influence of their own upbrinings in a widely racist American society, Brigham Young and other Church members began to articulate "reasons" for the denial of the priesthood. They drew largely from American Christian folk theology that often connected racial difference to the curses placed upon Cain or Noah's son Ham in the Old Testament. These stories took hold among LDS people, especially in their isolation in Mormon settlements in the intermountain West.
During the twentieth-century, some Church leaders generated new stories about the roots of the priesthood ban, tying it to an alleged lack of "valiance" by the souls of African-Americans in the pre-earthly life. These stories were (and are) offensive. They have no source in scripture. But these too were absorbed and circulated by Mormon people. They continue to circulate today in some communities.
The worldwide growth of the Church from the 1950s onward spurred new reasons for Church members and leaders to question the validity of the priesthood ban. The ban rested heavily on the hearts of many Mormons, black and white, and many members and some leaders also prayed for the Church to find greater light on this issue. The issue became especially acute with the rapid growth of the Church in Brazil. In 1978, President Spencer W. Kimball announced that in answer to prayer he had come to understand that the priesthood should be made available to all worthy male members of the Church regardless of race or ancestry. This announcement has been canonized as scripture.
Still, racism remains in Mormon communities, and there are many African-American Mormons and their allies who work hard to address it. For more information, please see this documentary or visit this website.
