The institution

Race and the Priesthood

126 years, defended in First Presidency letters, disavowed in 2013.

The point in one sentence

For 126 years the Church denied Black members the priesthood and the temple, prophets defended it as revealed doctrine in official First Presidency letters, and in 2013 the Church disavowed those justifications as "theories" without ever saying the ban itself was a mistake.

126 years, then a reversal, then a disavowal

Note when the change arrives relative to the culture around it.

1852

The priesthood and temple ban begins under Brigham Young.

1863

Brigham Young, in the Salt Lake Tabernacle: "If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot."

1949

A First Presidency statement, the highest governing body of the Church, teaches that "the conduct of spirits in the premortal existence has some determining effect" and that "there is no injustice whatsoever involved in this deprivation."

1969

The First Presidency issues another statement defending the ban.

1964-68

The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act pass. Public pressure on the Church intensifies.

1978

The ban is lifted by revelation, announced as Official Declaration 2.

2013

The Church publishes "Race and the Priesthood," disavowing the theories it taught for over a century. It does not say instituting the ban was wrong.

Sources: Church Gospel Topics Essay, "Race and the Priesthood"; Journal of Discourses 10:110; 1949 First Presidency statement

The exhibits

Exhibit A

Gospel Topics essay, "Race and the Priesthood," the disavowal in full

Published 2013

"Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects unrighteous actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else."

What it establishes: The Church disavows the justifications. It does not say instituting the ban was wrong, or that it was anything other than God’s will at the time.

The essay

Exhibit B

The same essay, on the ban’s origin

Published 2013

"During the first two decades of the Church’s existence, a few black men were ordained to the priesthood."

What it establishes: Elijah Abel was ordained an elder in 1836 under Joseph Smith. The ban was not original doctrine; it was introduced later, under Brigham Young in 1852.

The essay

Exhibit C

First Presidency statement, the highest governing body of the Church, reproduced from Church Archives

August 17, 1949

"The attitude of the Church... is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord... that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the priesthood at the present time."

What it establishes: This is the answer to "it was only folklore." The First Presidency called the ban a direct commandment from God. If that is folklore, the word has no meaning.

The 1949 statement

Exhibit D

Elder Bruce R. McConkie, "All Are Alike unto God," address to CES religious educators

August 18, 1978

"Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation... We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world."

What it establishes: An apostle instructing teachers to discard a century of prophetic teaching on race. It is candid, and it quietly concedes that prophets taught error as doctrine for 126 years.

The address, BYU Speeches

Exhibit E

Official Declaration 2, First Presidency letter, canonized scripture

June 8, 1978

The ban was lifted by a First Presidency letter dated June 8, 1978, sustained and canonized at general conference that September, fourteen years after the Civil Rights Act.

What it establishes: The reversal is scripture. So, for 126 years, was its absence. Both cannot have been God’s unchanging will.

Read Official Declaration 2

When they say

"That was folklore, not official doctrine." If a First Presidency statement is folklore, the word has no meaning. Ask what official doctrine would look like, if not that.

"Prophets are not infallible." Agreed. But hold that next to the teaching that a living prophet cannot lead the Church astray. A racial exclusion policy lasting 126 years, spanning roughly a dozen prophets, is not a small mistake.

Why this should make you question

This is the sharpest available test of the Church's central authority claim. The people who lived under it were told by prophets that it was God's will. They were wrong.

This page is part of a 76-topic library. Every claim links to its source, most of them the Church’s own. Read it on the full site or browse every topic.