INTO THE 20TH CENTURY: 
COUNTDOWN TO 1978

Upon discovering two “Negroes” that had been given the Priesthood, local leaders inquired of Salt Lake about it, and George Q. Cannon reasoned with the Prophet. The minutes summarize the discussion:

"President Young held to the doctrine that no man tainted with negro blood was eligible to the priesthood; that President Taylor held to the same doctrine, claiming to have been taught it by the Prophet Joseph Smith… that as he regarded it the subject was really beyond the pale of discussion, unless he, President Snow, had light to throw upon it beyond what had already been imparted" (Council minutes, 18 Aug. 1900, Bennion [or GAS] papers).

In need of new light on the subject and faced with problems stemming from the ordination of men with mixed blood, it was said that Joseph F. Smith:

“…did not know that we could do anything more in such cases than refer to the rulings of Presidents Young, Taylor, Woodruff and other Presidencies ...” (Council minutes, 26 Aug. 1908, in Bennion [or GAS] papers).

Apostle John Henry Smith reported on the confusion after corresponding with President Smith:

“President Smith ... referred to the doctrine taught by President Brigham Young which he (the speaker) said he believed in himself, to the effect that the children of Gentile parents, in whose veins may exist a single drop of the blood of Ephraim, might extract all the blood of Ephraim from his parents' veins, and be actually a full-blooded Ephraimite… assuming, therefore, this doctrine to be sound, while the children of a man in whose veins may exist a single drop of negro blood, might be entirely white, yet one of his descendants might turn out to be a pronounced negro. And the question in President Smith's mind was, when shall we get light enough to determine each case on its merits? He gave it as his opinion that in all cases where the blood of Cain showed itself, however slight, the line should be drawn there; but where children of tainted people were found to be pure Ephraimites, they might be admitted to the temple. This was only an opinion, however; the subject would no doubt be considered later” (Council minutes, 2 Jan. 1902, in Bennion [or GAS] papers).

It was considered later, but apparently the First Presidency and the Twelve decided the issue in council, not through revelation given directly to the Prophet:

"…No one known to have in his veins negro blood, (it matters not how remote a degree) can either have the priesthood in any degree or the blessings of the temple of God; no matter how otherwise worthy he may be” ("Extract from George F. Richards' Record of Decisions by the Council of the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles," in the GAS papers).

Looking to the past, Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith stated:

"But we all know it was due to his (Joseph Smith’s) teachings that the Negro today is barred from the Priesthood” (Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way to Perfection [1931; reprinted ed., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1970], pp. 103, 111).

After World War II, the First Presidency was asked if members of the church should join the growing tide of civil rights and reach out to share the gospel with and fellowship the Black Race. They replied:

“... No special effort has ever been made to proselyte among the Negro race, and social intercourse between the Whites and the Negroes should certainly not be encouraged because of leading to intermarriage, which the Lord has forbidden… This move which has now received some popular approval of trying to break down social barriers between the Whites and the Blacks is one that should not be encouraged because inevitably it means the mixing of the races if carried to its logical conclusion” (Letter from the First Presidency [Smith, Clark, McKay], 5 May 1947, to Virgil H. Sponberg, in Bennion papers).

When White Relief Society sisters in a Washington D.C. ward complained about having to sit near Black sisters, the First Presidency replied:

"It seems to us that it ought to be possible to work this situation out without causing any feelings on the part of anybody. If the white sisters feel that they may not sit with them or near them, we feel sure that if the colored sisters were discretely approached, they would be happy to sit at one side in the rear or somewhere where they would not wound the sensibilities of the complaining sisters” (First Presidency letter [from Presidents Smith, Clark, and McKay] to Ezra T. Benson, 23 June 1942, in Bennion papers).

On August 17, 1949, the First Presidency issued an official statement declaring the Church’s position on Blacks and the Priesthood:

“The attitude of the Church with reference to Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the priesthood at the present time. The prophets of the Lord have made several statements as to the operation of the principle. President Brigham Young said: ‘Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a skin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the holy priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the holy priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood...”

“...President Wilford Woodruff made the following statement: ‘The day will come when all that race will be redeemed and possess all the blessings which we now have…’”

“…The position of the Church regarding the Negro may be understood when another doctrine of the Church is kept in mind, namely, that the conduct of spirits in the premortal existence has some determining effect upon the conditions and circumstances under which these spirits take on mortality and that while the details of this principle have not been made known, the mortality is a privilege that is given to those who maintain their first estate; and that the worth of the privilege is so great that spirits are willing to come to earth and take on bodies no matter what the handicap may be as to the kind of bodies they are to secure; and that among the handicaps, failure of the right to enjoy in mortality the blessings of the priesthood is a handicap which spirits are willing to assume in order that they might come to earth. Under this principle there is no injustice whatsoever involved in this deprivation as to the holding of the priesthood by the Negroes.”

The First Presidency

Later in the 1960’s, with the Civil Rights Movement building steam and Utah’s chapter of the NAACP applying pressure on the Church, Hugh B. Brown read the following official statement:

“During recent months, both in Salt Lake City and across the nation, considerable interest has been expressed on the matter of civil rights. We would like it to be known that there is in this Church no doctrine, belief, or practice, that is intended to deny the enjoyment of full civil rights by any person regardless of race, color, or creed… We say again, as we have said many times before, that we believe that all men are the children of the same God, and that it is a moral evil for any person or group of persons to deny any human being the right to gainful employment, to full education opportunity, and to every privilege of citizenship, just as it is a moral evil to deny him the right to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience… We call upon all men, everywhere, both within and outside the Church, to commit themselves to the establishment of full civil equality for all of God's children” (Conference address reported in the Deseret News, 6 Oct. 1963).

President David O. McKay replied to questions about the origins of the doctrine. He admitted that he could find no answer in:

“…abstract reasoning… no scriptural basis ... other than one verse in the book of Abraham (1:26)… I believe ... that the real reason dates back to our preexistent life… (the) answer to your question (and it is the only one that has ever given me satisfaction) has its foundation in faith ... in a God of Justice ... [and] in the existence of an eternal plan of salvation” (Letter of 3 Nov. 1947, published in Llewelyn R. McKay, Home Memories of President David O. McKay [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1956], pp. 226-31; or Berrett, in Stewart, Mormonism and the Negro, 18)

Finally, in spite of all that was so boldly declared before in previous proclamations, discourses, church publications, and personal letters, the Church under President David O. McKay in 1969 declared its new, official position. The Black race could not hold the Priesthood…

“…for reasons which we believe are known to God, but which He has not made fully known to man… Sometime in God's eternal plan, the Negro will be given the right to hold the priesthood.” (First Presidency statement, 15 Dec. 1969).