Old Testament, Genesis 17:12-13

“And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.”

Old Testament, Exodus 21:1-8

“Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.

If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.

If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.

And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him for ever.

And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.”

Old Testament, Exodus 21:20-21

“And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.

Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money.”

Old Testament, Leviticus 25:44-46

“Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.

Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.”

Old Testament, Deuteronomy 20:10-14

“When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.

And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.

And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:

And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:

But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.”

New Testament, Ephesians 6:5-8

“Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;

Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;

With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:

Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.”

New Testament, 1 Peter 2:18-20

“Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.”

Doctrine and Covenants 134:12

“We do not believe it right to interfere with bond-servants, neither preach the gospel to, nor baptize them contrary to the will and wish of their masters, nor to meddle with or influence them in the least to cause them to be dissatisfied with their situations in this life, thereby jeopardizing the lives of men; such interference we believe to be unlawful and unjust, and dangerous to the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in servitude.”

Old Testament, Genesis 12:1-3

“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 2:9-11

“And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee above measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations;

And I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father;

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal.”

Old Testament, Genesis 17:7-8

“And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

Old Testament, Genesis 18:18

“Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.”

Old Testament, Exodus 19:5-6

“Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”

Old Testament, Genesis 24:3

“And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell.”

Old Testament, Leviticus 25:39-42

“And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:

But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee:

And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.

For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.”

Old Testament, Deuteronomy 7:1-8

“When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;

And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:

But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

Old Testament, Deuteronomy 10:15

“Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day.”

Old Testament, Deuteronomy 14:2

“For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.”

Old Testament, Deuteronomy 20:13-17

“And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:

But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.

Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.

But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee:”

Old Testament, Deuteronomy 23:2-3

“A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord.

An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever.”

Old Testament, Deuteronomy 26:18

“And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee.”

Old Testament, Joshua 23:11-13

“Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God.

Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you:

Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you.”

Old Testament, Ezra 4:2-3

“Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.

But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.”

Old Testament, Ezra 9:2-6

“For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath been chief in this trespass.

And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied.

Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonied until the evening sacrifice.

And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God,

And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.”

Old Testament, Ezra 10:10-12

“And Ezra the priest stood up, and said unto them, Ye have transgressed, and have taken strange wives, to increase the trespass of Israel.

Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.

Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, As thou hast said, so must we do.”

Old Testament, Nehemiah 10:28-30

“And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding;

They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;

And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons.”

Old Testament, Nehemiah 13:23-30

“In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:

And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people.

And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.

Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.

Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives?

And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me.

Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.

Thus cleansed I them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business.”

Old Testament, Psalm 135:4-12

“For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.

For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.

Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.

He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.

Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast.

Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants.

Who smote great nations, and slew mighty kings;

Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan:

And gave their land for an heritage, an heritage unto Israel his people.”

Old Testament, Isaiah 14:1

“For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.”

Old Testament, Isaiah 60:1-5

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.

Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.”

New Testament, 1 Peter 2:9

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”

Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 15:14

“And at that day shall the remnant of our seed know that they are of the house of Israel, and that they are the covenant people of the Lord; and then shall they know and come to the knowledge of their forefathers, and also to the knowledge of the gospel of their Redeemer, which was ministered unto their fathers by him; wherefore, they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer and the very points of his doctrine, that they may know how to come unto him and be saved.”

Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 10:19

“Wherefore, I will consecrate this land unto thy seed, and them who shall be numbered among thy seed, forever, for the land of their inheritance; for it is a choice land, saith God unto me, above all other lands, wherefore I will have all men that dwell thereon that they shall worship me, saith God.”

Book of Mormon, Jacob 5:25-26

“And he said unto the servant: Look hither and behold the last. Behold, this have I planted in a good spot of ground; and I have nourished it this long time, and only a part of the tree hath brought forth tame fruit, and the other part of the tree hath brought forth wild fruit; behold, I have nourished this tree like unto the others.

And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: Pluck off the branches that have not brought forth good fruit, and cast them into the fire.”

Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 20:25-27

“And behold, ye are the children of the prophets; and ye are of the house of Israel; and ye are of the covenant which the Father made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham: And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

The Father having raised me up unto you first, and sent me to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities; and this because ye are the children of the covenant—

And after that ye were blessed then fulfilleth the Father the covenant which he made with Abraham, saying: In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed—unto the pouring out of the Holy Ghost through me upon the Gentiles, which blessing upon the Gentiles shall make them mighty above all, unto the scattering of my people, O house of Israel.”

Doctrine and Covenants 68:18-21

“No man has a legal right to this office, to hold the keys of this priesthood, except he be a literal descendant and the firstborn of Aaron.

But, as a high priest of the Melchizedek Priesthood has authority to officiate in all the lesser offices he may officiate in the office of bishop when no literal descendant of Aaron can be found, provided he is called and set apart and ordained unto this power, under the hands of the First Presidency of the Melchizedek Priesthood.

And a literal descendant of Aaron, also, must be designated by this Presidency, and found worthy, and anointed, and ordained under the hands of this Presidency, otherwise they are not legally authorized to officiate in their priesthood.

But, by virtue of the decree concerning their right of the priesthood descending from father to son, they may claim their anointing if at any time they can prove their lineage, or do ascertain it by revelation from the Lord under the hands of the above named Presidency.”

Doctrine and Covenants 84:14-19

“Which Abraham received the priesthood from Melchizedek, who received it through the lineage of his fathers, even till Noah;

And from Noah till Enoch, through the lineage of their fathers;

And from Enoch to Abel, who was slain by the conspiracy of his brother, who received the priesthood by the commandments of God, by the hand of his father Adam, who was the first man—

Which priesthood continueth in the church of God in all generations, and is without beginning of days or end of years.

And the Lord confirmed a priesthood also upon Aaron and his seed, throughout all their generations, which priesthood also continueth and abideth forever with the priesthood which is after the holiest order of God.

And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God.”

Doctrine and Covenants 86:8-11

“Therefore, thus saith the Lord unto you, with whom the priesthood hath continued through the lineage of your fathers—

For ye are lawful heirs, according to the flesh, and have been hid from the world with Christ in God—

Therefore your life and the priesthood have remained, and must needs remain through you and your lineage until the restoration of all things spoken by the mouths of all the holy prophets since the world began.

Therefore, blessed are ye if ye continue in my goodness, a light unto the Gentiles, and through this priesthood, a savior unto my people Israel. The Lord hath said it. Amen.”

Doctrine and Covenants 107:40-41

“The order of this priesthood was confirmed to be handed down from father to son, and rightly belongs to the literal descendants of the chosen seed, to whom the promises were made.

This order was instituted in the days of Adam, and came down by lineage.”

Doctrine and Covenants 113:5-8

“What is the root of Jesse spoken of in the 10th verse of the 11th chapter?

Behold, thus saith the Lord, it is a descendant of Jesse, as well as of Joseph, unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days.

Questions by Elias Higbee: What is meant by the command in Isaiah, 52d chapter, 1st verse, which saith: Put on thy strength, O Zion—and what people had Isaiah reference to?

He had reference to those whom God should call in the last days, who should hold the power of priesthood to bring again Zion, and the redemption of Israel; and to put on her strength is to put on the authority of the priesthood, which she, Zion, has a right to by lineage; also to return to that power which she had lost.”

Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 1:27

“Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from Noah, through Ham, therefore my father was led away by their idolatry.”

Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 5:20-23

“Wherefore, the word of the Lord was fulfilled which he spake unto me, saying that: Inasmuch as they will not hearken unto thy words they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And behold, they were cut off from his presence.

And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.

And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities.

And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done.”

Book of Mormon, Alma 3:6-11

“And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men.

And their brethren sought to destroy them, therefore they were cursed; and the Lord God set a mark upon them, yea, upon Laman and Lemuel, and also the sons of Ishmael, and Ishmaelitish women.

And this was done that their seed might be distinguished from the seed of their brethren, that thereby the Lord God might preserve his people, that they might not mix and believe in incorrect traditions which would prove their destruction.

And it came to pass that whosoever did mingle his seed with that of the Lamanites did bring the same curse upon his seed.

Therefore, whosoever suffered himself to be led away by the Lamanites was called under that head, and there was a mark set upon him.

And it came to pass that whosoever would not believe in the tradition of the Lamanites, but believed those records which were brought out of the land of Jerusalem, and also in the tradition of their fathers, which were correct, who believed in the commandments of God and kept them, were called the Nephites, or the people of Nephi, from that time forth.”

Book of Mormon, Alma 3:14-17

“Thus the word of God is fulfilled, for these are the words which he said to Nephi: Behold, the Lamanites have I cursed, and I will set a mark on them that they and their seed may be separated from thee and thy seed, from this time henceforth and forever, except they repent of their wickedness and turn to me that I may have mercy upon them.

And again: I will set a mark upon him that mingleth his seed with thy brethren, that they may be cursed also.

And again: I will set a mark upon him that fighteth against thee and thy seed.

And again, I say he that departeth from thee shall no more be called thy seed; and I will bless thee, and whomsoever shall be called thy seed, henceforth and forever; and these were the promises of the Lord unto Nephi and to his seed.”

Book of Mormon, Alma 3:19

“Now I would that ye should see that they brought upon themselves the curse; and even so doth every man that is cursed bring upon himself his own condemnation.”

Book of Mormon, Jacob 3:3-8

“But, wo, wo, unto you that are not pure in heart, that are filthy this day before God; for except ye repent the land is cursed for your sakes; and the Lamanites, which are not filthy like unto you, nevertheless they are cursed with a sore cursing, shall scourge you even unto destruction.

And the time speedily cometh, that except ye repent they shall possess the land of your inheritance, and the Lord God will lead away the righteous out from among you.

Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandment of the Lord, which was given unto our father—that they should have save it were one wife, and concubines they should have none, and there should not be whoredoms committed among them.

And now, this commandment they observe to keep; wherefore, because of this observance, in keeping this commandment, the Lord God will not destroy them, but will be merciful unto them; and one day they shall become a blessed people.

Behold, their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands; and their husbands and their wives love their children; and their unbelief and their hatred towards you is because of the iniquity of their fathers; wherefore, how much better are you than they, in the sight of your great Creator?

O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God.”

Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 2:14-16

“And it came to pass that those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites;

And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites;

And their young men and their daughters became exceedingly fair, and they were numbered among the Nephites, and were called Nephites. And thus ended the thirteenth year.”

Pearl of Great Price, Moses 5:25, 36, 40

“And it shall be said in time to come—That these abominations were had from Cain; for he rejected the greater counsel which was had from God; and this is a cursing which I will put upon thee, except thou repent.”

“And now thou shalt be cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand.

”And I the Lord said unto him: Whosoever slayeth thee, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And I the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.”

Pearl of Great Price, Moses 7:8, 22

“For behold, the Lord shall curse the land with much heat, and the barrenness thereof shall go forth forever; and there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people.”

“And Enoch also beheld the residue of the people which were the sons of Adam; and they were a mixture of all the seed of Adam save it was the seed of Cain, for the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among them.”

Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 1:21-27

“Now this king of Egypt was a descendant from the loins of Ham, and was a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites by birth.

From this descent sprang all the Egyptians, and thus the blood of the Canaanites was preserved in the land.

The land of Egypt being first discovered by a woman, who was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus, which in the Chaldean signifies Egypt, which signifies that which is forbidden;

When this woman discovered the land it was under water, who afterward settled her sons in it; and thus, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse in the land.

Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was patriarchal.

Pharaoh, being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood.

Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from Noah, through Ham, therefore my father was led away by their idolatry.”

Old Testament, Genesis 9:22-26

“And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.

And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.”

Old Testament, Psalm 78:50-51

“He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.”

Old Testament, Psalm 105:23

“Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.”

Old Testament, Psalm 106:20-22

“Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.

They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt;

Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.”

Old Testament, Isaiah 18:1-2

“Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:

That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!”

Old Testament, Jeremiah 13:23

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.”

Gospel Topics Essays, “Race and the Priesthood,” Church History, Gospel Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“Toward the end of his life, Church founder Joseph Smith openly opposed slavery.”

Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

“An essay against abolitionism published over his name in 1836 (a year when fear of abolitionism was at its peak) exhibited the conventional prejudices of his day in asserting that blacks were cursed with servitude by a “decree of Jehovah.” Ch. 15

“Blacks “come into the world slaves, mentally and physically,” he once said in private conversation. “Change their situation with the white and they would be like them.” He favored a policy of “national Equalization,” though he retained the common prejudice against intermarriage and blending of the races. When he ran for U.S. president in 1844, he made compensated emancipation a plank in his platform. He urged the nation to “ameliorate the condition of all: black or white, bond or free; for the best of books says, “God hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” Ch. 15

“Mormon opposition to slavery had come up earlier in a Jackson County manifesto claiming that Mormons planned to introduce free blacks into the county. The Church had tried to neutralize the charge in a letter to the editor in the April 1836 Messenger and Advocate that responded to an abolitionist lecture in Kirtland, which Church leaders feared would be interpreted as a sign of friendship for the abolitionist cause. Writing in Joseph Smith’s name, the author denied that there was any local sympathy for the speaker. “All except a very few, attended to their own avocations and left the gentleman to hold forth his own arguments to nearly naked walls.” The letter echoed the antiabolitionist feeling that was peaking in the United States in 1836. Andrew Jackson had proposed that “incendiary publications” be barred from the mails. Southern congressmen successfully sponsored legislation to block petitions for ending the slave trade in Washington, D.C. Abolitionists were being mobbed everywhere. Caught up in this wave of antiabolitionist enthusiasm, the letter repeated all the familiar biblical arguments in support of slavery and warned traveling elders against preaching to slaves without their masters’ permission.” Ch. 18

“But he proposed to eliminate slavery in Texas once it was admitted, defeating the slaveholders’ purpose. To further repel them, he was for ending slavery everywhere: “Break off the shackles from the poor black man, and hire them to labor like other human beings.” Joseph blithely believed emancipation could be accomplished peacefully. He envisioned happy compliance, not war. “The southern people are hospitable and noble: they will help to rid so free a country of every vestige of slavery”—if they were compensated for their losses. He proposed to pay owners with revenues from the sale of public lands.

Joseph’s antislavery policy was not devised just for the campaign. When asked about slavery during his Springfield trial in December 1842, he had come out for manumission. Orson Hyde wanted to know “what would you advi[s]e a man to do who come in the [Church] having a hundred slaves?” “I have always advised such to bring their slaves into a free country,” was Joseph’s reply; “set them free, Educate them and give them their equal rights.” A few days later, Hyde pressed the question again: “What is the situation of the Negro?” he wanted to know. Joseph had a ready answer: 

They come into the world slaves, mentally and physically. Change their situation with the white and they would be like them. They have souls and are subjects of salvation. Go into Cincinati and find one educated [black man who] rid[e]s in his carriage. He has risen by the power of his mind to his exalted state of respectability. Slaves in Washington [are] more refined than the president.” Ch. 28 

“At that point Joseph’s sympathy for the blacks began to waver. “Had I any thing to do with the Negro,” he said, voicing the view of many antislavery partisans, “I would confine them by strict Laws to their own Species [and] put them on a national Equalization.” Probably by “confinement to their own species” he meant no intermarriage. Joseph Smith was proud of his Views.” Ch. 28

Brigham Young, “Speech by Governor Young in Joint Session of the Legislature, giving counsel on a Bill in relation to African Slavery,” 23 January 1852, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, Reported by George D. Watt, in The Teachings of President Brigham Young, Volume 3, 1852-1854, Collier’s Publishing Co. October 1987

“I will remark with regard to Slavery, inasmuch as we believe in the Bible, inasmuch as we believe in the Ordinances of God, in the Priesthood and order and decrees of God, we must believe in Slavery. This colored race have been subjected to severe curses which they have in their families and their classes an in their various capacities brought upon themselves. And until the curse is removed by Him who placed it upon them, they must suffer under its consequences; I am not authorized to remove it. I am a firm believer in Slavery.”

“Inasmuch as they cannot bear any share in the Priesthood, they cannot bear rule, they cannot bear rule in any place until the curse is removed from them, they are a “servant of servants.” We are servants, as Counselor George Smith has stated, he says he is a slave, he has been driven from his home, and his rights - we are all servants; now suppose that we should have a servant, and he should be a Negro, it is all right, it is perfectly reasonable, and strictly according to the Holy Priesthood.”

“There are a many brethren in the South, a great amount of whose means is vested in slaves. Those servants want to come here with their masters; when they come here the Devil is raised. This one is talking, and that one is wondering. A strong abolitionist feeling has power over them, and they commence to whisper round their views upon the subject, saying, “Do you think it’s right? I am afraid it is not right.” I know it is right, and there should be a law made to have the slaves serve their masters, because they are not capable of ruling themselves.”

“I am firm in the belief that they ought to dwell in servitude.”

“When a master has a Negro, and uses him well, he is much better off than if he was free.”

Brigham Young, “Governor Brigham Young’s Address before the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah upon Slavery,” 5 February 1852, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, Reported by George D. Watt and Wilford Woodruff, in The Teachings of President Brigham Young, Volume 3, 1852-1854, Collier’s Publishing Co. October 1987

“I am as much opposed to the principle of slavery as any man in the present acceptation or usage of the term - it is abused. I am opposed to abusing that which God has decreed, to take a blessing, and make a curse of it. It is a great blessing to the seed of Adam to have the seed of Cain for servants, but those they serve should use them with all the heart and feeling, as they would use their own children and their compassion should reach over them, and round about them, and treat them as kindly, and with that human feeling necessary to be shown to mortal beings of the human species.”

Brigham Young, “Message of Governor Brigham Young,” 2 July 1853, The Latter-day Saints Millennial Star, Volume 15, Number 27, p. 422

“But not until the subject of servitude and the relation existing between master and servant shall be understood, and acted upon, and carried out, by all parties, on a righteous principle, may we expect quiet in our nation’s councils.”

“And northern fanaticism learn to know that “Canaan” shall be servant of servants unto his brethren, and that there is but little merit in subverting the decrees of Providence, or substituting their own kindred spirit and flesh to perform the offices allotted by superior wisdom to the descendants of Cain.”

Brigham Young, “Interesting From the Mormons,”4 May 1855, The New York Herald, New York, p. 8, Library of Congress

“You must not think, from what I say, that I am opposed to slavery. No! The negro is damned, and is to serve his master till God choose to remove the curse of Ham. But, let me tell you, slavery as it exists in the United States will carry both master and slave to hell. The vile practices and abominations of the Southern planters destroy their own souls and the souls and bodies of their slaves. These are my views - and consequently, the views of all the saints - on abolitionism. I saw the views of the saints and my views, for I am the head of the church, although I am also a Governor by the appointment of the President.”

Brigham Young to Horace Greeley, in “An Overland Journey from New York to San Francisco,” 1860, C.M. Saxton, Barker, and Co., p. 11-12

“H.G. - What is the position of your church with respect to slavery? 

B.Y. - We consider it of divine institution, and not to be abolished until the curse pronounced on Ham shall have been removed from his descendants. 

H.G. - Are any slaves now held in this territory? 

B.Y. - There are. 

H.G. - Do your territorial laws uphold slavery?  

B.Y. - Those laws are printed—you can read for yourself. If slaves are brought here by those who owned them in the states, we do not favor their escape from the service of those owners.”

Brigham Young, “The Persecutions of the Saints, Their Loyalty to the Constitution, The Mormon Battalion, The Laws of God Relative to the African Race, Remarks by President Brigham Young, Made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City,” March 8, 1863. Journal of Discourses, Volume 10, p. 110

“The rank, rabid abolitionists, whom I call black-hearted Republicans, have set the whole national fabric on fire. Do you know this, Democrats? They have kindled the fire that is raging now from the north to the south, and from the south to the north. I am no abolitionist.”

Gospel Topics Essays, “Race and the Priesthood,” Church History, Gospel Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“For much of its history—from the mid-1800s until 1978—the Church did not ordain men of black African descent to its priesthood or allow black men or women to participate in temple endowment or sealing ordinances.”

“In 1852, President Brigham Young publicly announced that men of black African descent could no longer be ordained to the priesthood, though thereafter blacks continued to join the Church through baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Following the death of Brigham Young, subsequent Church presidents restricted blacks from receiving the temple endowment or being married in the temple.”

Edward L. Kimball, “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood,” 2008, BYU Studies, Volume 47, Number 2, Article 1, Brigham Young University

“The Church in which Spencer W. Kimball grew up in the early twentieth century accepted without question that “colored” or “Negro” members of the Church could not receive the priesthood. They were ineligible for missionary service and all priesthood leadership positions. Neither men nor women of African descent could receive the temple endowment, although they could be baptized vicariously for their ancestors. They could receive patriarchal blessings, serve as secretaries (though not as ward clerks), teach classes, and participate in the music program. African American women could be visiting teachers, but men could not be home teachers because it was a priesthood assignment. Skin color was not the issue—blacks from Polynesia or Australia faced no such limitations. “Lineage,” or presumed genealogy, was the problem.”

Brigham Young, “Governor Brigham Young’s Address before the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah upon Slavery,” 5 February 1852, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, Reported by George D. Watt and Wilford Woodruff, in The Teachings of President Brigham Young, Volume 3, 1852-1854, Collier’s Publishing Co. October 1987

“Now then, in the Kingdom of God on the Earth, a man who has the African blood in him cannot hold one jot nor tittle of Priesthood.”

“Any man having one drop of the seed of Cain in him cannot hold the Priesthood.”

George Q. Cannon, “The Journal of George Q. Cannon,” 22 August 1895, Church Historian’s Press

“The case of a woman named [blank] Smith was brought up for consideration. She had been refused a recommend to the Temple by the President of the Salt Lake Stake on the ground that she had married a negro and borne him children. She afterwards married a white man, by whom she had one child--a boy. She wanted this son and herself to have the privilege of going into the Temple to officiate in the ordinances of the Temple, he to act for his father, who was never in the Church, in having his mother sealed to him for eternity. The Bishop of the Ward in which she lives had expressed his willingness to give her a recommend, but had been requested not to do so by the President of the Stake. There was some discussion about this, and it was finally decided that to avoid complications and the future quoting of this case as a justification for other cases that might arise it would be better for her to be refused this privilege, and whatever ordinances she wished to perform might be done by others of her kindred, she having two sisters in the Church in good standing. Fear was expressed that if she were permitted to go into the Temple, her children borne to the colored man might wish to have ordinances performed for themselves, which might be difficult to refuse if their mother were permitted to officiate.”

Evan Pettit Wright, “A History of the South African Mission,” Period 3, 1944-1970, p. 419-420

“Because Africa is the historic and traditional home of the seed of Cain, there have been many problems relating to priesthood ordinations and authority on that continent.

According to written instructions from the First Presidency, and in line with the counsel from Church presidents over a one-hundred year period, President Wright was instructed that men with Negroid blood were not eligible to be ordained to the priesthood. In times past, some mission presidents had not always followed that counsel and a few individuals in Africa had been thoughtlessly ordained. As a result, some difficulties arose although relatively few people with mixed blood were ordained or even baptized. The color bar in South Africa was tightly drawn and any relaxing on the part of the Church would breed discontent on the part of Europeans members and friends.”

“On Friday, October 8th, 1948, President and Sister Wright were set apart for their assignment in the South African Mission by the First Presidency: Presidents George Albert Smith, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., and David O. McKay.”

“In addition to their blessing, they had long interviews with Church authorities in which they discussed the priesthood problem in Africa and were told: 

1. The problem is very complex, and the Lord himself must clarify it.

2. Individuals with Negroid blood are entitled to all of the blessings except the priesthood. No man was to be ordained to or advanced in the priesthood until he had traced his genealogy out of Africa.”

Evan Pettit Wright, “Address Delivered by President Evan P. Wright at the Cape District Conference, Mowbray, C.P. South Africa,” 24 October 1952, in “A History of the South African Mission,” Period 3, 1944-1970, p. 421

“As of today the Church does not take the gospel to Africans. It will later. But first the gospel must be preached to other races of the earth.”

“Because of obvious abuses there is special need for genealogical work, and as you all know, we have a very active genealogical department in this Mission to assist individuals who require their help. Every single person must clear his own lines. It is possible that a father’s lines are cleared but not his sons. Ham, the son of Noah, is such an example.”

“I have been specifically advised that a patriarchal blessing may not be used in lieu of genealogical research, to establish lines for Priesthood purposes.”

Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press, quoting Howells, oral history interview with Irving, 62; and Elder Marvin, oral history interview with Mark L. Grover, April 28, 1988, Box 44, Folder 11, ALM

“Missionaries in Brazil also employed “lineage lessons,” refined and developed from techniques used in South Africa. They were instructed that if they discovered someone with African ancestry when they tracked door to door, they were to apologize and state that they must have found the wrong home to “avoid teaching the gospel to them.” When missionaries encountered someone of uncertain ancestry, they would ask to enter the person’s house and discreetly evaluate their nose, hair, face, and other physical features for clues to whether they had “negro blood.” They might also ask to review the family’s photo album for further clues of African ties.”

Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Before 1978, LDS leaders prohibited Black people from performing or receiving important rituals in the church. This included blessing and naming their babies, receiving their salvific ordinances in Mormon temples, and being sealed to their families in sacred proxy rituals. In addition, Black people couldn’t serve church missions, occupy positions of leadership in their wards and branches, teach lessons in youth or adult Sunday School, or give “talks” in LDS worship services. Most egregious, though, Black people were told that they could go to heaven only as servants to White people.”

Brigham Young, “Governor Brigham Young’s Address before the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah upon Slavery,” 5 February 1852, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, Reported by George D. Watt and Wilford Woodruff, in The Teachings of President Brigham Young, Volume 3, 1852-1854, Collier’s Publishing Co. October 1987

“Now then, in the Kingdom of God on the Earth, a man who has the African blood in him cannot hold one jot nor tittle of Priesthood. Why? Because they are the true eternal principles the Lord Almighty has ordained, and who can help it - men cannot, the angels cannot, and all the powers of Earth and Hell cannot take it off, but thus saith the Eternal, “I Am, what I Am, I take it off at My pleasure,” and not one particle of power can that posterity of Cain have, until the time comes the Lord says He will have it taken away.”

“Inasmuch as it is the Lord’s will they should receive the spirit of God by Baptism, and that is the end of their privilege; and there is not power on Earth to give them any more power.”

“Perhaps I have said enough upon this subject, I have given you the true principles and doctrine.”

“Any man having one drop of the seed of Cain in him cannot hold the Priesthood and if no other Prophet ever spake it before, I will say it now - in the name of Jesus Christ, I know it is true, and others know it! The Negro cannot hold one particle of government.”

First Presidency, “First Presidency Statement,” 17 August 1949

“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.”

Evan Pettit Wright, “Address Delivered by President Evan P. Wright at the Cape District Conference, Mowbray, C.P. South Africa,” 24 October 1952, in “A History of the South African Mission,” Period 3, 1944-1970, p. 421

“For some time past I have wanted to discuss the unique problems pertaining to Priesthood ordinations and authority in the South African Mission.”

“We must remember that the Priesthood is the authority of God entrusted to man. It is sacred and must not be trifled with. The Lord has counselled us to remember, “That the rights of Priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.”

Spencer W. Kimball, “Letter to Edward L. Kimball,” June 1963.

“The conferring of priesthood, and declining to give the priesthood is not a matter of my choice nor of President McKay’s. It is the Lord’s program.”

“I am so completely convinced that the prophets know what they are doing and the Lord knows what he is doing, that I am willing to rest it there.”

Glenn L. Pearson, “Book of Mormon: Key to Conversion,” 1963, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, p. 6

“When a man raises the Negro issue, he really means that he does not believe we have prophets and are guided by God through divine communication. If he were truly convinced that Joseph Smith and his successors were and are prophets, he would have to agree that they are following the right program and teaching the right way of life, or else he would have to be guilty of pitting his own wisdom against that of God.”

Joseph Fielding Smith, quoted in “Racist Practice,” 31 January 1970, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

“Young man, Joseph Smith did not decide that the Negro should not have the priesthood. Brigham Young did not decide it. David O. McKay did not decide it. . . . God did.”

First Presidency, “Letter of the First Presidency Clarifies Church’s Position on the Negro,” 15 December 1969, Improvement Era, February 1970

“From the beginning of this dispensation, Joseph Smith and all succeeding presidents of the Church have taught that Negroes, while spirit children of a common Father, and the progeny of our earthly parents Adam and Eve, were not yet to receive the priesthood, for reasons which we believe are known to God, but which He has not made fully known to man.

Our living prophet, President David O. McKay, has said, "The seeming discrimination by the Church toward the Negro is not something which originated with man; but goes back into the beginning with God.

Revelation assures us that this plan antedates man’s mortal existence, extending back to man’s pre-existent state.”

“Were we the leaders of an enterprise created by ourselves and operated only according to our own earthly wisdom, it would be a simple thing to act according to popular will. But we believe that this work is directed by God and that the conferring of the priesthood must await His revelation. To do otherwise would be to deny the very premise on which the Church is established.” 

Bruce R. McConkie, “Be Valiant in the Fight of Faith,” General Conference, October 1974

“To be valiant in the testimony of Jesus is to take the Lord’s side on every issue. It is to vote as he would vote. It is to think what he thinks, to believe what he believes, to say what he would say and do what he would do in the same situation. It is to have the mind of Christ and be one with him as he is one with his Father.

Our doctrine is clear; its application sometimes seems to be more difficult. Perhaps some personal introspection might be helpful. For instance:”

“Am I valiant if I am deeply concerned about the Church’s stand on who can or who cannot receive the priesthood and think it is time for a new revelation on this doctrine?”

Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 1:27

“Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from Noah, through Ham, therefore my father was led away by their idolatry.”

Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

“At this point, the narrative detours into Egyptian history. Pharaoh, we are told, is descended from Ham, the son of Noah. Ham’s daughter Egyptus discovered the land of Egypt, and her oldest son was the first Pharaoh, who ruled “after the manner of the government of Ham, which was Patriarchal.” The lineage of Ham, we learn, comes through the Canaanites, who are cursed. Pharaoh is “of that lineage, by which he could not have the right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaoh’s would fain claim it from Noah, through Ham.” Like Abraham, Pharaoh yearns for the priesthood, but is denied it because of his lineage.” Ch. 15

“These verses have had a troubled history. Later they were used as a justification for refusing black people the priesthood. The Abraham verses say nothing of skin color, but the 1830 revelation of Moses had spoken of a blackness coming upon “all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people,” and Abraham said Pharaoh “was a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites, by birth.” Joining the verses in Abraham and Moses, some concluded that black people had descended from the Canaanites, the lineage cursed “as pertaining to the Priesthood.” Ch. 15

“In coming to this conclusion, later Mormons borrowed from the common nineteenth-century belief that Africans descended from Ham and bore a curse. In the Bible, Noah’s son Ham mocked his father’s drunkenness and nakedness, and in revenge Noah cursed Ham’s son Canaan. “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.” Over the centuries, biblical interpreters, including Jews and Arabs, identified “Canaan” with people they wished to enslave, and the cursed people, whoever they happened to be at the time, were then thought of as innately inferior— dishonest, lazy, irresponsible, intemperate. Around 1000 CE, the curse was assigned to black Africans.” Ch. 15

“By associating the cursed descendants of Ham with Egypt, the Book of Abraham ran at cross-purposes with the usual arguments for black cultural inferiority and black slavery. The book exhibited an idiosyncratic type of racial thinking. Neither inferiority nor servitude was at issue, only priesthood.” Ch. 15

Joseph Smith, “History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 Addenda,” p. 20, The Joseph Smith Papers

“I referred to the curse of Ham for laughing at Noah, while in his wine but doing no harm. Noah was a righteous man, and yet he drank wine, and became intoxicated the Lord did not forsake him in consequence thereof; for he retained all the power of his Priesthood and when he was accused by Cainaan, he cursed him by the Priesthood which he held, and the Lord had respect to his word and the Priesthood which he held, notwithstanding he was drunk; and the curse remains upon the posterity of Cainaan until the present day.”

Brigham Young, “Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City,” 9 October 1859, Journal of Discourses, Volume 7, p. 282-291

“The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race - that they should be the “servant of servants;” and they will be, until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, not in the least alter that decree.”

Brigham Young, Reported by Wilford Woodruff, in The Teachings of President Brigham Young, Volume 3, 1852-1854, Collier’s Publishing Co. October 1987

“Through the faith and obedience of Abel to his Heavenly Father, Cain became jealous of him and he laid a plan to obtain all his flocks; for through his perfect obedience to Father, he obtained more blessings than Cain, consequently he took it into his heart to put Abel out of this mortal existence. After the deed was done, the Lord enquired for Abel, and made Cain own what he had done with him. Now, says the Grandfather, I will not destroy the seed of Michael and his wife, and Cain I will not kill you, nor suffer anyone else to kill you but I will put a mark upon you. What is that mark? You will see it on the countenance of every African you ever did see upon the face of the Earth, or ever will see. Now I tell you what I know: when the mark was put upon Cain, Abel’s children was in all probability young; the Lord told Cain that he should not receive the blessings of the Priesthood nor his seed, until the last of the posterity of Abel had received the Priesthood, until the redemption of the Earth.”

“If there never was a Prophet or Apostle of Jesus Christ that spoke it before, I tell you, this people, that are commonly called Negroes are the children of old Cain. I know they are. I know that they cannot bear rule in the Priesthood, for the curse on them was to remain upon them, until the residue of the posterity of Michael and his wife receive the blessings which the seed of Cain would have received had they not been cursed.”

“Again to the subject before us; as to the Negro men bearing rule; not one of the children of old Cain have one particle of right to bear rule in government affairs from first to last; they have no business there, this privilege was taken from them by their own transgressions, and I cannot help it; and should you or I bear rule we ought to do it with dignity and honour before God.”

B. H. Roberts, “To the Youth of Israel,” 1885, The Contributor, Volume 6, Number 8, p. 297

“Negroes were not valiant in the great rebellion in heaven.”

“Race is the one through which it is ordained those spirits that were not valiant in the great rebellion in heaven should come; who, through their indifference or lack of integrity to righteousness rendered themselves unworthy of the Priesthood and its powers and hence it is withheld from them to this day.”

Wilford Woodruff, “Eternal Variety of God’s Creations,” 14 July 1889, The Deseret Weekly, Volume 39, 20 July 1889, p. 114

“This eternal variety on earth is no greater than that among the spirits who have dwelt in the presence of God in the eternal worlds and who have taken and will take tabernacles on this earth. This variety has also been manifest in all the revelations that have been given to us concerning the children of men or the creations of God. So great has this variety been that it seems Lucifer, the son of the morning, a personage who was great in the presence of God, rebelled against God and drew away with him one-third of the whole host of heaven. They deserted the Lord and followed Lucifer. And I do not know how many were “astride the fence” and did not know which way to go; but I presume there were a good many of them. This variety has remained with the spirits in heaven and on the earth. The Lord revealed this principle to Father Abraham. He showed unto him the spirits that dwelt with Him and told Abraham that many of those spirits were more noble than others, and said unto him: “These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good.” He also said unto Abraham, “Thou are one of them, thou wast chosen before thou wast born.”

“I now say to the Latter-day Saints, you are of the house of Israel. Nearly all of you are of the tribe of Ephraim.”

“The Lord chose Joseph Smith to establish this Church and kingdom. He brought forth the blessings of the Gospel. He received the holy Priesthood from the angels of God. That Priesthood has been given to you. Why? You are the descendents of Israel, and God has called you and placed upon you this work to warn the generation in which you live, and if you do not do it, you will be under condemnation.”

George Q. Cannon, “The Journal of George Q. Cannon,” 22 August 1895, Church Historian’s Press

“After I came to the office, the case of “Black Jane”, a negress, was brought before us. She is extremely solicitous to have the privilege of going into the Temple and receiving her endowments. After considering the question, we decided it would not be advisable to grant her request, as she belongs to a race concerning whom there has been much said, but nothing of a character to warrant us in administering the ordinances of the Temple to her. She has been a faithful, good woman, and we feel in our hearts to bless her.

At 11 o’clock the First Presidency met in the Temple with Brothers Lorenzo Snow, Franklin D. Richards, John Henry Smith, & Heber J. Grant, and this question concerning Jane was brought up, and we had a very full conversation concerning the colored race and their rights under the Gospel. I related what I had heard in my boyhood as coming direct from the Prophet Joseph. It was related to me by President Taylor, and it was this: that Abel having been slain by his brother Cain before he had posterity, the fiat of the Lord had been that Cain’s descendants should not receive the blessings of the Priesthood until Abel’s posterity should come forward and receive tabernacles and the Priesthood. If it were otherwise, the murdered man would be behind the murderer, and for this reason, as I had always understood, the negro race have been debarred from the Priesthood. Of course, it may seem like a hard thing; but if we knew all connected with the matter and the causes which produced the blackness of their skin, and all that had taken place in the spirit world, we would see that the Lord in this case as in all others is just.”

Joseph Fielding Smith, “The Way to Perfection, Short Discourses on Gospel Themes,” 1931, Genealogical Society of Utah

“We have learned through the word of the Lord to Abraham that spirits in the pre-existence were graded. That is, some were more intelligent than others, some more faithful, while some actually rebelled and lost their standing and the privilege of receiving the second estate.”

“How many were almost persuaded, were indifferent, and who sympathized with Lucifer, but did not follow him, we do not know. The scriptures are silent on this point. It is a reasonable conclusion however, that there were many who did not stand valiantly with Michael in the great battle for the protection of the free agency and the plan for the merited exaltation of mankind, although they may not have openly rebelled. We may justify ourselves in this conclusion by several passages of scripture which seem to have a bearing on this thought. Man had his agency and because of it one-third of the hosts rebelled. We naturally conclude that others among the two-thirds did not show the loyalty to their Redeemer that they should. Their sin was not one that merited the extreme punishment which was inflicted on the devil and his angels. They were not denied the privilege of receiving the second estate, but were permitted to come to the earth-life with some restrictions placed upon them. ‘That the negro race, for instance, have been placed under restrictions because of their attitude in the world of spirits, few will doubt. It cannot be looked upon as just that they should be deprived of the power of the Priesthood without it being a punishment for some act, or acts, performed before they were born.”

“Now why is it that the seed of Ham was cursed as pertaining to the Priesthood? Why is it that his seed “could not have right to the Priesthood?” Ham’s wife was named “Egyptus, which in the Chaldaic signifies Egypt, which signifies that which is forbidden; * * * and thus from Ham sprang the race which preserved the curse in the land.” Was the wife of Ham, as her name signifies, of a race with which those who held the Priesthood were forbidden to intermarry? Was she a descendant of Cain, who was cursed for murdering his brother? And was it by Ham marrying her, and she being saved from the flood: in the ark, that “the race which preserved the curse in the land” was perpetuated? If so, then I believe that race is the one through which it is ordained those spirits that were not valiant in the great rebellion in heaven should come; who, through their indifference or lack of integrity to righteousness, rendered themselves unworthy of the Priesthood and its powers, and hence it is withheld from them to this day.”

“President Young also gave this explanation: ‘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 laws of God. They will go down to their 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.’ — J. D. 11:272. 

It was well understood by the early elders of the Church that the mark which was placed on Cain and which his posterity inherited was the black skin. The Book of Moses informs us that Cain and his descendants were black.”

“The Canaanites before the flood preserved the curse in the land; the Gospel was not taken to them, and no other people would associate with them. The Canaanites after the flood also preserved the curse in the land and were denied the rights of Priesthood.”

First Presidency, “First Presidency to Evan P. Wright,” March 1949, Box 64, Folder 6, SWK, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Every person whose veins are but slightly tainted with the blood of Cain, as well as to the full-blooded negro.”

“People whose veins are but slightly tainted with the blood of Cain must be classed as negroes, for the reason that while they may distribute the taint in their blood among the white races by intercourse with them, it never can be eliminated while the curse placed on Cain stands unsatisfied.”

First Presidency, “First Presidency Statement,” 17 August 1949

“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, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to.”

Evan Pettit Wright, “Address Delivered by President Evan P. Wright at the Cape District Conference, Mowbray, C.P. South Africa,” 24 October 1952, in “A History of the South African Mission,” Period 3, 1944-1970, p. 421

“The Lord cursed Cain and set a mark upon him as we read in the Pearl of Great Price. (Moses 5:40) Cain was cursed with a black skin and became the father of an inferior race which was then denied the privilege of the Priesthood and the fullness and blessings of the gospel. That curse was perpetuated after the Flood through Ham, the son of Noah.”

Mark E. Peterson, “Race problems - As They Affect the Church: at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level,” 27 August 1954, Brigham Young University

“The Lord segregated the people both as to blood and place of residence, at least in the cases of the Lamanites and the Negroes, we have the definite word of the Lord himself that He placed a dark skin upon them as a curse - as a sign to all others.”

“He certainly segregated the descendents of Cain when He cursed the Negro as to the Priesthood, and drew an absolute line. You may even say He dropped an iron curtain there. The Negro was cursed as to the Priesthood, and therefore, was cursed as to the blessings of the Priesthood. Certainly God made a segregation there.”

“Think of the Negro, cursed as to the Priesthood. Are we prejudiced against him? Unjustly, sometimes we’re accused of having such a prejudice. But what does the mercy of God have for him? This Negro, who in the pre-existence lived the type of life which justified the Lord in sending him to the earth in the lineage of Cain with a black skin, and possibly being born in darkest Africa - if that negro is willing when he hears the gospel to accept it, he may have many of the blessings of the gospell. In spite of all he did in the pre-existent life, the Lord is willing, if the Negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Bruce R. McConkie, “Mormon Doctrine,” 1958, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City

“Cain. Though he was a rebel and an associate of Lucifer in preexistence, and though he was a liar from the beginning whose name was Perdition, Cain managed to attain the privilege of mortal birth.”

“As a result of his rebellion, Cain was cursed with a dark skin; he became the father of the Negroes, and those spirits who are not worthy to receive the priesthood are born through his lineage.”

“The race and nation in which men are born in this world is a direct result of their pre-existent life. All the spirit hosts of heaven deemed worthy to receive mortal bodies were foreordained to pass through this earthly probation in the particular race and nation suited to their needs, circumstances, and talents.”

“Of the two-thirds who followed Christ, however, some were more valiant than others. Adam and all the prophets so distinguished themselves by diligence and obedience as to be foreordained to their high earthly missions. (Abra. 3:20-24.) The whole house of Israel was chosen in pre-existence to come to mortality as children of Jacob. (Deut. 32:7-8.) Those who were less valiant in preexistence and who thereby had certain spiritual restrictions imposed upon them during mortality are known to us as the negroes. Such spirits are sent to earth through the lineage of Cain, the mark put upon him for his rebellion against God.”

Alvin R. Dyer, “For What Purpose?” Missionary Conference in Oslo, Norway, 30 October 1961

“I suppose you often may have heard missionaries say it, or have asked the question: Why is a Negro a Negro?”

“The reason that spirits are born into Negro bodies is because those spirits rejected the Priesthood of God in the pre-existence. This is the reason why you have Negros upon the earth.”

“Cain rejected the counsel of God. He rejected again the Priesthood as his forebearers had done in the preexistence. Therefore, the curse of the pre-existence was made institute through the loins of Cain. Consequently you have then, the beginning of the race of men and women into which would be born those in the pre-existence who had rejected the Priesthood of God.”

“Ham reinstated the curse of the pre-existence when he rejected the Priesthood of Noah, and in consequence of that, he preserves the curse of the earth. Therefore, the Negros to be born thereafter or those who were to become Negros were to be born through the loins of Ham.

All of this is according to a well worked out plan, that these millions and billions of spirits awaiting in the pre-existence would be born through a channel of race of people. Consequently the cursed were to be born through Ham.”

“The cursed people are the descendants of Ham. The chosen people are the descendants of Shem the second of the three sons of Noah. Through these lineages the spirits that compare with their station are born in this life. This is why you have colored people, why you have dark people and why you have white people.”

Edward L. Kimball, “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood,” 2008, BYU Studies, Volume 47, Number 2, Article 1, Brigham Young University

“Most Mormons felt satisfied that it had a scriptural basis, even though the cited passages were at best ambiguous. Spencer knew that the restriction did not come from explicit scriptures but rather from interpretations by various Church leaders. The reasoning, as often constructed, ran this way: If (as attributed to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young) God disapproved of blacks holding the priesthood, and if (in God’s justice) individuals are accountable only for their own shortcomings, the withholding of priesthood from blacks who have lived worthily in mortality must reflect some kind of failure on their part before they were born.”

“Looking for scriptural support, Church leaders found statements in the Bible and the Pearl of Great Price that allowed the conclusion that after the Flood the Pharaoh of Egypt was both black and cursed as to the priesthood, inviting the inference that Pharaoh was cursed as to the priesthood because he was black. The gaps in logic were bridged with supposition.

God cursed Cain for killing Abel and placed a mark on him.

Cain’s descendants were black. (The mark, therefore, is assumed to be blackness.)

Blackness came upon the Canaanites. (They are assumed to be descendants of Cain.)

Pharaoh, descended from Ham and his wife, Egyptus, had Canaanite blood. (Thus Cain’s bloodline survived the Flood.)

Pharaoh, although blessed by Noah for righteousness, was cursed as pertaining to the priesthood. (Thus denial of priesthood is independent of righteousness in mortality and must derive from a premortal cause.)

Some premortal spirits were noble and great (Abr. 3:22). (Thus some premortal spirits were less than noble and great. Without any injustice, these lesser spirits were sent to earth through the lineage of Cain to experience mortality, but without priesthood.)”

“For Brigham Young, the matter was uncomplicated. It was simply a matter of lineage, a hierarchy of races.”

“He saw the enslaved condition of blacks in the United States as proof that they were under a curse.”

Gospel Topics Essays, “Race and the Priesthood,” Church History, Gospel Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“The curse of Cain was often put forward as justification for the priesthood and temple restrictions. Around the turn of the century, another explanation gained currency: blacks were said to have been less than fully valiant in the premortal battle against Lucifer and, as a consequence, were restricted from priesthood and temple blessings.”

Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“The Pearl of Great Price was even more explicit in depicting racial curses. The Pearl of Great Price contains two parts: the Book of Moses and the Book of Abraham. The Book of Moses links the “seed of Cain” with blackness and Cain’s progeny with the devil. Its most suggestive passage warns that mixing the “seed of Cain” with “the seed of Adam” will incur God’s wrath, providing fodder for twentieth-century Mormon leaders to oppose civil rights. The Book of Abraham was the church’s most widely cited proof text in defending the priesthood and temple ban.”

Brigham Young, “Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City,” 9 October 1859, Journal of Discourses, Volume 7, p. 289

“I told you  that the doctrine of election and reprobation is a true doctrine. It was decreed in the counsels of eternity, long before the foundations of the earth were laid.”

First Presidency, “First Presidency to Lowry Nelson,” 17 July 1947, Box 20, Folder 1, LN, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

““Some of God’s children were assigned to superior positions before the world was formed. We are aware that some Higher Critics do not accept this, but the Church does.”

“We feel very sure that you understand well the doctrines of the Church. They are either true or not true. Our testimony is that they are true.”

First Presidency, “First Presidency Statement,” 17 August 1949

“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.”

Marion G. Romney, in “Conference Report,” p. 90, General Conference, April 1945

“Today the Lord is revealing his will to all the inhabitants of the earth, and to members of the Church in particular, on the issues of this our day through the living prophets, with the First Presidency at the head. What they say as a presidency is what the Lord would say if he were here in person. This is the rock foundation of Mormonism.”

“So I repeat again, what the presidency say as a presidency is what the Lord would say if he were here, and it is scripture. It should be studied, understood, and followed, even as the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants and other scriptures. Those who follow this course will not interpret what they say as being inspired by political bias or selfishness; neither will they say that the brethren are uninformed as to the circumstances of those affected by their counsel; or that their counsels cannot be accepted because they are not prefaced by the quotation, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’”

Marion G. Romney, in “Conference Report,” p. 126-127, General Conference, October 1950

“It is our high privilege to hear, through these men, what the Lord would say if he were here. If we do not agree with what they say, it is because we are out of harmony with the Spirit of the Lord.”

Evan Pettit Wright, “Address Delivered by President Evan P. Wright at the Cape District Conference, Mowbray, C.P. South Africa,” 24 October 1952, in “A History of the South African Mission,” Period 3, 1944-1970, p. 421

“The scriptures tell of a righteous God of justice, mercy, and judgment. If we have faith in a God of justice, we realize the denial of the blessings of the Priesthood will not deprive anyone of merited rights. Our father will not withhold needful blessings if we obey laws upon which those blessings are predicated.”

“When the Lord told Abraham and others, “You I will make my rulers,” others couldn’t feel envy/jealousy because the good and great were receiving their just rewards. A person must qualify to become a university graduate or to fill other advanced positions.”

Mark E. Peterson, “Race problems - As They Affect the Church: at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level,” 27 August 1954, Brigham Young University

“For I the Lord God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” I draw your attention to the fact that many people in reading this scripture stop before the sentence stops. They think in terms of visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation - period, and they forget that the Lord goes on and says, “of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.” This scripture clearly indicates that He shows mercy to those who love him and keep His commandments, but visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of them “that hate me.” In other words, we reap what we sow. The soul that sinneth shall die. We will be punished for our own sins, but not for anybody’s else. We must accept that as a policy together with the thought that God is just to everybody, and that the gospel is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

Since the gospel is eternal and God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and since He is dealing with the same group of Spirits, meaning you and me and the rest of us on earth, both in the pre-existent state as well as here, is there any reason why the Lord’s method of dealing with sinners and saints in the pre-existence should be different from his method of dealing with them here?

For sins we commit here, we will be given places in the eternal world, in the celestial, terrestrial, and the telestial kingdoms, and as one star differeth from another in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead. There will be wide variations of classifications in the hereafter, all based on our performance here in this life. 

Is there any reason to think that the same principle of rewards and punishments did not apply to us and our deeds in the pre-existent world as will apply hereafter? Is there reason then why the type of birth we receive in this life is not a reflection of our worthiness or lack of it in the pre-existent life? We must accept the justice of God. He is fair to all. He is not a respecter of persons. He will meet to us according to what we deserve. 

With that in mind, we can account in no other way for the birth of some of the children of God in darkest Africa, or in floodridden China, or among the starving hordes of India, while some of the rest of us are born in the United States. We cannot escape the conclusion that because of performance in our pre-existence some of us are born as Chinese, some as Japanese, some as Indians, some as Negroes, some as Americans, some as Latter-day Saints. There are rewards and punishments, fully in harmony with His established policy in dealing with sinners and saints, regarding all according to their deeds.”

“Why was Jeremiah chosen before he was born? Because along with all of the rest of us, in the pre-existent life, he had his free agency. He had the right to go with Lucifer if he wanted to. He had the right to be lazy or industrious or he had the right to study the gospel and come with full allegiance to the banner of the Savior. Because he came with full allegiance to the banner of the Savior and was loyal, and because he developed himself both in faith and otherwise in the pre-existent life, he came to a point of development where the Lord was glad to have him as one of His leaders, and so He chose him for one of His prophets even before he came into the world. 

You remember the vision of Abraham when he was shown the spirits of certain great ones, and the Lord told him, “Abraham, thou art one of them.” Why were those spirits chosen above anybody else? Is there Lord a respecter of persons? Again it was a reward based upon performance in the pre-existent life, and people who came in the lineage of Abraham received their blessing because of their performance in the pre-existent life, and because of their performance in the pre-existent life others obviously were given some other birth.”

N. Eldon Tanner, quoted in “The Swarming Mormons,” December 1967, Seattle Magazine, p. 60

“The church has no intention of changing its doctrine on the Negro.”

Brigham Young, “Message of Governor Brigham Young,” 2 July 1853, The Latter-day Saints Millennial Star, Volume 15, Number 27, p. 422

“Canaan” shall be servant of servants unto his brethren, and that there is but little merit in subverting the decrees of Providence, or substituting their own kindred spirit and flesh to perform the offices allotted by superior wisdom to the descendants of Cain.”

Brigham Young, “Interesting From the Mormons,” 4 May 1855, The New York Herald, New York, p. 8, Library of Congress

“Our aim is virtue. We want to raise up a pure race in these valleys. We want noble spirits for noble tabernacles; and to do this, we must keep out all the abominations of Babylon, and will do it, despite of all the powers of the Gentiles, and of hell.”

Brigham Young, “Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City,” 9 October 1859, Journal of Discourses, Volume 7, p. 282-291

“You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind.”

Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 670

“We are now gathering the children of Abraham who have come through the loins of Joseph and his sons, more especially through Ephraim, whose children are mixed among all the nations of the earth. The sons of Ephraim are wild and uncultivated, unruly, ungovernable. The spirit in them is turbulent and resolute; they are the Anglo-Saxon race, and they are upon the face of the whole earth, bearing the spirit of rule and dictation, to go forth from conquering to conquer. They search wide creation and scan every nook and corner of this earth to find out what is upon and within it. I see a congregation of them before me today. No hardship will discourage these men; they will penetrate the deepest wilds and overcome almost insurmountable difficulties to develop the treasures of the earth, to further their indomitable spirit of adventure.”

Joseph Fielding Smith, “The Way to Perfection, Short Discourses on Gospel Themes,” 1931, Genealogical Society of Utah

“Is it not a reasonable belief, that the Lord would select the choice spirits to come through the better grades of nations? Moreover, is it not reasonable to believe that less worthy spirits would come through less favored lineage? Does this not account, in very large part, for the various grades of color and degrees of intelligence we find in the earth?”

“However, we must not be unmindful of the fact, that these world conditions have also been brought about in large degree by rebellion and disregard of the laws of God in this life. Retrogression has come upon mankind because they have rejected the counsels and commandments of the Almighty. Advancement has come largely because men have been willing to walk, in part at least, in the light of divine inspiration.”

“Without doubt, these characteristics were born with us. In other words, we developed certain traits of character in the world of spirits before this earth-life began. In that life some were more diligent in the performance of duty. Some were more obedient and faithful in keeping the commandments. Some were more intellectual, and others manifested stronger traits of leadership than others. Some showed greater faith and willingness to serve the Lord, and from among these the leaders were chosen.”

“Not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his wickedness he became the father of an inferior race. A curse was placed upon him and that curse has been continued through his lineage and must do so while time endures. Millions of souls have come into this world cursed with a black skin and have been denied the privilege of Priesthood and the fulness of the blessings of the Gospel. These are the descendants of Cain. Moreover, they have been made to feel their inferiority and have been separated from the rest of mankind from the beginning.”

“Ephraim has a wonderful mission to perform in this day. For one hundred years he has faithfully been performing his mission. It is proper that he stand in his place at the head, exercising the birthright in Israel. The Gospel is being preached by Ephraim to the nations. It was essential, therefore, that Ephraim be the first gathered, for he it is who is to prepare the way for the other tribes of Israel.”

“It is Ephraim, today, who holds the Priesthood. It is with Ephraim that the Lord has made covenant and has revealed the fulness of the everlasting Gospel.”

“The Negro may be baptized and enter the church; and some of these unfortunate people have been baptized.”

Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Recognizing its value, the First Presidency commissioned The Way of Perfection for study in the church’s adult Sunday School programs. In 1936, for example, the church devoted an entire year to Smith’s magnus opus, calling it “an advanced course in Gospel doctrines.” The manual carefully dissected each chapter, offering “study thoughts” or questions at the end of each section. As one might expect, the study questions for Smith’s teachings on race were the most controversial. After telling students that Cain was the “father of an inferior race,” a “servant of servants,” the manual asked members, “What portion of Cain’s curse was inherited by his posterity?”

Another question, just as pointed, asked, “How do we know the negro is descended from Cain through Ham?” Yet another asked readers to “[n]ame any great leaders this race has produced.” Perhaps the most dramatic directed, “Discuss the truth of the statement in the text, p. 101 that Cain ‘became the father of an inferior race.’” Ch. 1

Evan Pettit Wright, “Address Delivered by President Evan P. Wright at the Cape District Conference, Mowbray, C.P. South Africa,” 24 October 1952, in “A History of the South African Mission,” Period 3, 1944-1970, p. 421

“Individuals with Negroid blood have been born with social and other disabilities.”

Bruce R. McConkie, “Mormon Doctrine,” 1958, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City

“Racial degeneration, resulting in differences in appearance and spiritual aptitude, has arisen since the fall. We know the circumstances under which the posterity of Cain (and later of Ham) were cursed with what we call negroid racial characteristics.”

“The Book of Mormon explains why the Lamanites received dark skins and a degenerate status.”

“All these changes from the physical and spiritual perfections of our common parents have been brought about by apostasy from the gospel truths.”

“Voodooism is a barbaric negro religion consisting largely of sorcery. Originating in Africa, it is now found chiefly among Haitian negroes.”

Alvin R. Dyer, “For What Purpose?” Missionary Conference in Oslo, Norway, 30 October 1961

“You may not fully know that now but you were a person of nobility in the preexistence. If you were not, you would have been born into one of these other channels.”

Harold B. Lee, “Youth of a Noble Birthright,” 1970, in Youth & The Church, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City 

“Now perhaps you will have a partial answer to some of your questions as to why, if God is a just Father, that some of his children are born of an enlightened race and in a time when the Gospel is upon the earth, while others are born of a heathen parentage in a benighted, backward country; and still others are born to parents who have the mark of a black sin with which the seed of Cain were cursed and whose descendants were to be denied the rights of the priesthood of God.

The privilege of obtaining a mortal body on this earth is seemingly so priceless that those in the spirit world, even though unfaithful or not valiant, were undoubtedly permitted to take mortal bodies although under penalty of racial or physical or nationalistic limitations.”

“Who know but that many of those with seeming inequalities in this life, if they do everything possible with their limited opportunities, may not receive greater blessings than some of those rewarded by having been born to a noble lineage and to superior social and spiritual opportunities who fail to live up to their great privileges!”

“You our youth of today are among the most illustrious spirits to be born into mortality in any age of the World. Yours is a noble heritage and a wonderful opportunity.”

William Grant Bangerter, International Mission President, in “Beitler Diary,” 22 June 1978, MLH

“Don’t go baptize a lot of [Negroes]—we will turn into the Assembly of God Church. We want leaders; we want the church to be a white Church.”

William Grant Bangerter, International Mission President, "Bangerter Diary,” 28 September 1978, excerpts in “The History of the South American East Area Office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, July 9, 1975, to December 27, 1978, Sao Paulo, Brazil”

“[Spencer W. Kimball] hoped that we would not fill up the Church with Black People.”

Brigham Young, “Historian's Office General Church Minutes,” 2 December 1847, Church History Catalog, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“Wm. Smith ordained a black man Elder at Lowell & he has married a white girl & they have a child. 

Pres Young: If they were far away from the gentiles they would all have to be killed - when they mingle seed it is death to all. If a black man & white woman come to you & demand baptism can you deny them? The law is their seed shall not be amalgamated. Mulattoes r like mules they can’t have children, but if they will be eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake they may have a place in the Temple”

Brigham Young, “Governor Brigham Young’s Address before the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah upon Slavery,” 5 February 1852, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, Reported by George D. Watt and Wilford Woodruff, in The Teachings of President Brigham Young, Volume 3, 1852-1854, Collier’s Publishing Co. October 1987

“But let me tell you further. Let my seed mingle with the seed of Cain, and that brings the curse upon me, and upon my generations after me - should we do this we will reap the same rewards with Cain.

In the Priesthood I will tell you what it will do. Were the children of God to mingle their seed with the seed of Cain it would not only bring the curse of being deprived of the power of the Priesthood upon themselves but they entail it upon their children after them, and they cannot get rid of it. If a man in an unguarded moment should commit such a transgression, if he would walk up and say cut off my head, and kill man, woman and child, it would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin. Would this be to curse them? No, it would be a blessing to them—it would do them good, that they might be saved with their brethren. A many would shudder should they hear us talk about killing folk, but it is one of the greatest blessings to some to kill them.”

“Let this Church which is called the Kingdom of God on the Earth; we will summons the First Presidency, the Twelve, the High Council, the Bishopric, and all the Elders of Israel, suppose we summons them to appear here, and here declare that it is right to mingle our seed with the black race of Cain, that they shall come in with us and be partakers with us of all the blessings God has given to us. On that very day and hour we should do so, the Priesthood is taken from this Church and Kingdom and God leaves us to our fate. The moment we consent to mingle with the seed of Cain, the Church must go to destruction - we should receive the curse which has been placed upon the seed of Cain, and never more be numbered with the children of Adam who are heirs to the Priesthood until that curse be removed.”

“Let me consent today to mingle my seed with the seed of Cain - it would bring the same curse upon me and it would upon any man. And if any man mingle his seed with the seed of Cain the only way he could get rid of it or have Salvation would be to come forward and have his head cut off and spill his blood upon the ground - it would also take the life of his children.”

Brigham Young, “The Persecutions of the Saints, Their Loyalty to the Constitution, The Mormon Battalion, The Laws of God Relative to the African Race, Remarks by President Brigham Young, Made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City,” March 8, 1863. Journal of Discourses, Volume 10, p. 110

“Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? 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. This will always be so.”

Harold B. Lee, “Youth of a Noble Birthright,” 1945, CHL

“The seed of Cain ha[s] been separated from the rest of mankind.” 

“Surely no one of you who is an heir to a body of the more favored lineage would knowingly intermarry with a race that would condemn your posterity to penalties that have been placed upon the seed of Cain by the judgments of God.”

First Presidency, “First Presidency to Lowry Nelson,” 17 July 1947, Box 20, Folder 1, LN, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Furthermore, your ideas, as we understand them, appear to contemplate the intermarriage of the Negro and White races, a concept which has heretofore been most repugnant to most normal-minded people from the ancient patriarchs till now.”

“We are not unmindful of the fact that there is a growing tendency, particularly among some educators, as it manifests itself in this area, toward the breaking down of race barriers in the matter of intermarriage between whites and blacks, but it does not have the sanction of the Church and is contrary to Church doctrine.”

Evan Pettit Wright, “Address Delivered by President Evan P. Wright at the Cape District Conference, Mowbray, C.P. South Africa,” 24 October 1952, in “A History of the South African Mission,” Period 3, 1944-1970, p. 421

“Ham’s posterity was cursed. That of Shem and Japheth was blessed. We have much scriptural evidence that shows it is a grievous sin to intermarry and was prohibited by commandment from God to Moses.”

Bruce R. McConkie, “Mormon Doctrine,” 1958, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City

“Egyptus. Two women of note, a mother and her daughter, both carried the name Egyptus. The mother, a descendant of Cain, was the wife of Ham; the daughter was the mother of Pharaoh, the first ruler of Egypt.”

“Abraham says that in the Chaldean tongue Egyptus "signifies that which is forbidden,” meaning apparently that Ham married outside the approved lineage.”

“Through Ham (a name meaning black) “the blood of the Canannites was preserved” through the flood, he having married Egyptus, a descendant of Cain. (Abra. 1:20-27.) Negroes are thus descendants of Ham, who himself also was cursed, apparently for marrying into the forbidden lineage. “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren” (Gen. 9:25), said Noah of Ham’s descendants. These descendants cannot hold the priesthood.”

J. Reuben Clark, “Meeting Minutes of J. Reuben Clark’s Remarks to Mission Presidents,” 30 March 1960, 7, Box 169, April 1960 conference folder, JRC, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“[I am] unalterably opposed to the amalgamation of the negroes, both on religious and biological grounds.”

Missionary Manual, “Lesson 9: Intermarriage between the Descendants of Cain and Israelites,” 7-8, Priesthood Lineage, 1908-1969, Box 9, Folder 1, FLT, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“By marrying a descendent of Cain, we would not only curse ourselves, but all of our posterity which follows us. Anyone who married into the cursed race must take the curse upon himself, therefore the children of such a marriage would be cursed, and they would not be able to hold the priesthood. Any man had better think twice before he takes a step that will rob him of the greatest blessings of the Lord.”

Missionary Manual, “Lineage Lesson,” Brazil North Mission, 1970, CHL

“Do you know if any of your ancestors were Negro or descendants of Negroes?” 

“If in the future you discover that one of your ancestors was Negro, will you tell your Branch President?”

Mark E. Peterson, “Race problems - As They Affect the Church: at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level,” 27 August 1954, Brigham Young University

“Let us now go into the matter of intermarriage with the Negroes.”

“I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after. He is not just seeking the opportunity of sitting down in a cafe where white people sit. He isn’t just trying to ride on the same streetcar or the same Pullman car with white people. From this and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage. That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that they used to say about sin, “First we pity, then endure, then embrace.” 

“What should be our attitude as Latter-day Saints toward Negro and other dark races? Does the Lord give us any guidance? Is there any Church policy in this matter? Is segregation in and of itself a wrong principle? Just where should we stand?”

“You remember when the Israelites were about to come into Palestine and there were evil nations there, the Lord was anxious to preserve his people by an act of segregation. He commanded His people Israel: “Neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.” It was a law for the preservation of Israel and it certainly was an act of segregation.”

“He forbade intermarriage with them under threat of extension of the curse.”

“Now what is our policy in regard to intermarriage? As to the Negro, of course, there is only one possible answer. We must not intermarry with the Negro. Why? If I were to marry a Negro woman and have children by her, my children would all be cursed as to the priesthood. Do I want my children cursed as to the priesthood? If there is one drop of Negro blood in my children, as I have read to you, they receive the curse. There isn't any argument, therefore, as to inter-marriage with the Negro, is there?”

Harold B. Lee, “Youth of a Noble Birthright,” 1970, in Youth & The Church, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City 

“There are other forces sweeping this and other countries that would break down all social barriers as between races and that would nullify existing laws prohibiting legal marriage between certain races. There are still others who place apparently erroneous interpretations on the declaration to be found in the opening paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence to the effect that “All men are created equal.” It is well that you as the youth of our land have from the fountain of unfailing truth, the Church of Jesus Christ, the truths of the scriptures concerning these important problems that involve the relationship of human beings to each other.”

“There are other factors that affect the question of race and equality that only those who have faith in the revealed word of God may take into account.”

“Surely no one of you who is an heir to a body of more favored lineage would knowingly intermarry with a race that would condemn your posterity to penalties that have been placed upon the seed of Cain by the judgments of God. It might not be amiss likewise to urge upon you the most serious consideration of any question of your possible intermarriage with individuals of any other race than your own. No one of you with safety can defy the laws of heredity and the centuries of training that have developed strong racial characteristics and tendencies among the distinctive peoples of the earth and then expect to find a happy, congenial family relationship from such a union. The wisdom of experience fully demonstrates the importance of your marrying those of your own race and those of a similar background of customs and manners.”

Brigham Young, “Governor Brigham Young’s Address before the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah upon Slavery,” 5 February 1852, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, Reported by George D. Watt and Wilford Woodruff, in The Teachings of President Brigham Young, Volume 3, 1852-1854, Collier’s Publishing Co. October 1987

“The seed of Abel will be ahead of the seed of Cain to all eternity.”

Joseph Fielding Smith, “The Way to Perfection, Short Discourses on Gospel Themes,” 1931, Genealogical Society of Utah

“In justice it should be said that there have been among the seed of Cain many who have been honorable and who have lived according to the best light they had in this second estate. Let us pray that the Lord may bless them with some blessings of exaltation, if not the fulness, for their integrity here.”

Joseph Fielding Smith, “Letter to J. Reuben Clark,” 3 April  1939, Box 17, Folder 7, JFS, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“In regard to the Negro, the doctrine of the Church is that they may be baptized and therefore enter the Celestial Kingdom, but not in exaltation.”

Mark E. Peterson, “Race problems - As They Affect the Church: at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level,” 27 August 1954, Brigham Young University

“If that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the Celestial Kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get a Celestial resurrection.”

Alvin R. Dyer, “For What Purpose?” Missionary Conference in Oslo, Norway, 30 October 1961

“It is a frightening thought but it is undoubtedly true, that only those who are worthy of leadership will enter the Celestial Kingdom because that is the Kingdom of administration. Others who are less valiant, who do not have the qualities of leadership and direction, will necessarily have to settle for the Terrestrial Kingdom.”

“In the wisdom of our Heavenly Father, He has made this life a probation which means that a person who is born in a lower division can accelerate through this life to a higher division. For example, if a colored person, being born into the Telestial division, will receive and accept the Gospel he can be elevated to the Celestial division or the Terrestrial division. That is the purpose of a probation.”

Joseph Smith, History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843], p. 1434, The Joseph Smith Papers, History of the Church 5:217

“Had I any thing to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species.”

Brigham Young, “Governor Brigham Young’s Address before the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah upon Slavery,” 5 February 1852, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, Reported by George D. Watt and Wilford Woodruff, in The Teachings of President Brigham Young, Volume 3, 1852-1854, Collier’s Publishing Co. October 1987

“I will not consent for one moment to have an African dictate to me or my brethren with regard to Church or State Government. I may vary in my views from others and they may think I am foolish in the things I have spoken, and think that they know more than I do, but I know I know more than they do. If the Africans cannot bear rule in the Church of God, what business have they to bear rule in the State and government affairs of this Territory or any other?

In the government affairs of State and Territory and kingdoms by right God should govern, He should rule over nations, and control kings. If we suffer the Devil to rule over us, we shall not accomplish any good.”

“What we are trying to do today is to make the Negro equal with us in all our privileges. My voice shall be against it all the day long. I shall not consent for one moment. I will call them to counsel. I say I will not consent for one moment for you to lay a plan to bring a curse upon this people. It shall not be while I am here.”

Joseph Fielding Smith, “The Way to Perfection, Short Discourses on Gospel Themes,” 1931, Genealogical Society of Utah

“The reasons for the choosing of a special nation to bear the Priesthood and be favored with the oracles of truth are many. It is both consistent and reasonable for the Lord to call such people and bestow upon them special favors, when all the rest of mankind rejected the word. Through this covenant people the Lord reserved the right to send into the world a chosen lineage of faithful spirits who were entitled to special favors based on pre-mortal obedience. Moreover, the choosing of a special race, and the conferring upon it of ‘peculiar covenants and obligations, which other nations would not keep, had the effect of segregating this race from other races. If no special covenant or peculiar practice had been given to Israel, with the strict commandment not to mix with other peoples, Israel would have disappeared as a nation in the course of a very few years. Even as it was it took years of training and constant guidance on the part of divinely appointed prophets to impress upon the people the sacredness of their special call.”

Mark E. Peterson, “Race problems - As They Affect the Church: at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level,” 27 August 1954, Brigham Young University

“Now let’s talk about segregation again for a few minutes. Was segregation a wrong principle? When the Lord chose the nations to which the Spirits were to come, determining that some would be Japanese and some would be Chinese and some Negroes and some Americans, He engages in an act of segregation. When He permitted the banishment of Hagar and Ishael again He indulged in segregation. In the case of Jacob and Esau, He engaged in segregation. When He preserved His people Israel in Egypt for 400 years, He engaged in an act of segregation, and when He brought them up out of Egypt and gave them their own land, He engaged in an act of segregation. We speak of the miracle of the preservation of the Jews as a separate people over all these years. It was nothing more or less than an act in segregation. I’m sure the Lord had his hand in it because the Jews still have a great mission to perform. In placing a curse on Laman and Lemuel, He engaged in segregation. When He placed the mark upon Cain, He engaged in segregation. When he told Enoch not to preach the gospel to the descendents of Cain who were black, the Lord engaged in segregation. When He cursed the descendants of Cain as to the Priesthood, He engaged in segregation. When He forbade intermarriages as He does in Deuteronomy, Chapter 7, He established segregation.”

“Who placed the Negroes originally in darkest Africa? Was it some man, or was it God? And when He placed them there, he segregated them.”

“We are willing that the Negro have the highest kind of education. I would be willing to let every Negro drive a Cadillac if they could afford it. I would be willing that they have all the advantages they can get out of life in the world, but let them enjoy these things among themselves. I think the Lord segregated the Negro and who is man to change that segregation? It reminds me of the scripture on marriage, "what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Only here we have the reverse of the thing--what God hath separated, let not man bring together again.”

Bruce R. McConkie, “Mormon Doctrine,” 1958, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City

“In a broad general sense, caste systems have their root and origin in the gospel itself, and when they operate according to the divine decree, the resultant restrictions and segregation are right and proper and have the approval of the Lord. To illustrate: Cain, Ham, and the whole negro race have been cursed with a black skin, the mark of Cain, so they can be identified as a caste apart, a people with whom the other descendants of Adam should not intermarry. (Gen. 4; Moses 5.) The whole house of Israel was chosen as a peculiar people, one set apart from all other nations (Ex. 19:5-6; Deut. 7:6; 14:2); and they were forbidden to marry outside their own caste. (Ex. 34:10-17; Deut. 7:1-5.) In effect the Lamanites belonged to one caste and the Nephites to another, and a mark was put upon the Lamanites to keep the Nephites from Intermixing with and marrying them. (Alma 3:6-11.)”

“Deity in his infinite wisdom, to carry out his inscrutable purposes, has a caste system of his own, a system of segregation of races and peoples. The justice of such a system is evident when life is considered in its true eternal perspective. It is only by a knowledge of pre-existence that it can be known why some persons are born in one race or caste and some in another. Segregation and caste systems will continue on in a future eternity.”

Ernest Wilkinson, “Wilkinson Diary,” 5 May 1960, Box 100, Folder 4, ELW Papers, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“I wish we could take him on our faculty, but the danger in doing so is that students and others take license from this, and assume that there is nothing improper about mingling with other races.” 

“Since the Lord, himself, created the different races and urged in the Old Testament and other places that they be kept distinct and to themselves, we have to follow that admonition.”

Mark E. Peterson, “Race problems - As They Affect the Church: at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level,” 27 August 1954, Brigham Young University

“The discussion on civil rights, especially over the last twenty years has drawn some very sharp lines. It has blinded the thinking of some of our own people, I believe. They have allowed their political affiliations to color their thinking to some extent, and then, of course, they have been persuaded by some of the arguments that have been put forth.

It is a good thing to understand exactly what the negro has in mind on this subject. I’ll be talking about other races besides negroes, of course, but it is the negro question which pinpoints it, so I would like to talk first of all about the negro, and his civil rights. We who teach in the Church certainly must have our feet on the ground and not be led astray by the philosophies of men on this subject any more than any other subject.”

J. Reuben Clark, in “Conference Report,” General Conference, October 1954

“Adam, his own family, was invaded. His son offered improper sacrifice and then committed murder. From him was taken away the right to perform sacrifice. He was shut out; he lost his priesthood, which has never been restored to his descendants. But that offshoot so begun grew and prospered in the land, and from that time on down, the pagan world has been a great part of humankind.”

“Well, there are, now, wolves in the sheepfold disguised as sheep. Against them and against their teachings we must all be fighting affirmatively for the truths of the gospel.”

Report of Utah State Advisory Committee, to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, 31 March 1959, reel 7, part 27, Selected Branch Files, Papers of NAACP, 1-4, LOC, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“The Negro is the minority citizen which experiences the most generally widespread inequality in Utah.”

“The Negro is simply not given any kind of equal chance to compete for the jobs for which he is qualified, and irrespective of his personal habits or his ability to pay he simply will not be allowed to buy a decent home.”

“The Mormon interpretation of the Curse of Canaan in the Old Testament and Latter-day scriptures, together with unauthorized, but widely accepted statements by leaders in years past have led to the view among many adherents that birth into any race other than the White is a result of inferior performance in a pre-earth life, and that by righteous living dark-skinned races may again become “white and delightsome.”

“The Mormon practice of excluding the Negro from their universal priesthood does not extend to any other race and interracial marriages have been extensively performed in that Church’s Temple elsewhere.”

Spencer W. Kimball, “Spencer W. Kimball Diary,” 9 March 1965, reel 7, SWK; NAACP Presses Protests in Utah, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“At 5:00, I went down to deliver a letter to President Tanner and saw through the doorway the picketing of the Negroes and their associates. There were about 60 of them walking back and forth in a circle in front of the Church Office Building, picketing the church. This is the third day. They had done it on Sunday and on Monday and again today. Their chief complaint was that the Church was silent [on civil rights]. They said they were not well treated in Utah, that they were discriminated against in housing and in jobs, and that the Church discriminated against Negroes because they would not give them the priesthood. I jokingly said to Brother Tanner, “Your friends are still marching.” And he said, “Yes, what would you do with them?” And I said, “I would ignore them.” And as I went to his door, quite a large group of our people were inside the building watching them and I said to them, “Your rapt attention is exactly what the Negroes appreciate.”

Ezra Taft Benson, in “Conference Report,” General Conference, April 1965

“Should it be of concern to us when the mouthpiece of the Lord keeps constantly raising his voice of warning about the loss of our freedom as he has over the years? There are two unrighteous ways to deal with his prophetic words of warning: you can fight them or you can ignore them. Either course will bring you disaster in the long run.”

“To have been on the wrong side of the freedom issue during the war in heaven meant eternal damnation. How then can Latter-day Saints expect to be on the wrong side in this life and escape the eternal consequences? The war in heaven is raging on earth today.”

N. Eldon Tanner, in Glen W. Davidson, “Mormon Missionaries and the Race Question,” 29 September 1965, Christian Century 82: 1185

“Civil rights legislation is not a moral question and therefore not a church matter.”

Ezra Taft Benson, “Council of the Twelve Minutes,” 4 November 1965, Box 64, Folder 8, SWK, Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“He was confident in his own mind from a study he had made of the negro question that we are only seeing something being carried out today that was planned by the highest councils of the communist party twenty years ago.”

“Martin Luther King is an agent if not a power in the communist party.”

“[NAACP] are largely made up of men who are affiliated with one of the communist-front organizations, and he thought they would do anything in their power to embarrass the church.”

“[We] ought to be very careful what we do in the negro field, whether it be Nigeria, here, or any other place in the world.”

Ezra Taft Benson, “Trust Not the Arm of Flesh,” Improvement Era, Volume 70, Number 12, December 1967, Church History Catalog, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“Yes, it is the precepts of men versus the principles of God. The more we follow the word of God, the less we are deceived, while those who follow the wisdom of men are deceived the most.

Increasingly the Latter-day Saints must choose between the reasoning of men and the revelations of God. This is a crucial choice, for we have those within the Church today who, with their worldly wisdom, are leading some of our members astray.”

“That timely counsel about “a fervid but false solicitude for the unfortunate” could have saved China and Cuba if enough people knew what the Communist masters of deceit really had in mind when they promised agrarian reform.

Such timely counsel could help save our country from Communism, as the same masters of deceit are showing the same false solicitude for the unfortunate in the name of civil rights.”

“There is no doubt that the so-called civil rights movement as it exists today is used as a Communist program for revolution in America just as agrarian reform was used by the Communists to take over China and Cuba.”

“As far back as 1928, the Communists declared that the cultural, economic, and social differences between the races in America could be exploited by them to create the animosity, fear, and hatred between large segments of our people that would be necessary beginning ingredients for their revolution.”

“This is the plan as follows: Using unidentified Communist agents and non-Communist sympathizers in key positions in government, in communications media, and in mass organizations, such as labor unions and civil rights groups, demand more and more government power as the solution to all civil rights problems. Total government is the objective of Communism. Without calling it by name, build Communism piece by piece through mass pressures for presidential decrees, court orders, and legislation that appear to be aimed at improving civil rights and other reforms. If there is social, economic, or educational discrimination, then advocate more government programs and control.”

“Some wonder if it can happen here. Just take a good look at what has been going on around us for the past few years. It is happening here! If it is to be prevented from running the full course, we must stop pretending that it doesn’t exist.”

“Not one in a thousand Americans - black or white - really understand the full implications of today’s civil rights agitation. The planning, direction, and leadership come from the Communists, and most of those are white men who fully intend to destroy America by spilling Negro blood, rather than their own.”

“We must insist that duly authorized legislative investigating committees launch an even more exhaustive study and expose the degree to which secret Communists have penetrated into the civil rights movement.”

“Persistent cries of “police brutality” should be recognized for what they are - attempts to discredit our police and discourage them from doing their job to the best of their ability.”

“The solution to most, if not all, of the current problems involving civil rights is less government, not more.”

Ezra Taft Benson, in “Conference Report,” General Conference, April 1968

“We live in a time of crisis. Never since the period of the Civil War has this nation faced such critical days. Americans are destroying America.”

“Through the exercise of political expediency, the government is condoning the breakdown of law and order.”

“The facts are clear. Our problem centers in Washington, D.C.”

“Our priceless heritage is threatened today as never before in our lifetime: from without by the forces of Godless Communism, and at home by our complacency and by the insidious forces of the Socialist-Communist conspiracy, with the help of those who would abandon the ancient landmarks set by our fathers and take us down the road to destruction.”

Ezra Taft Benson, “An Enemy Hath Done This,” 1969, Chapter 27: Our Immediate Responsibility, Parliament Publishers, Salt Lake City, Utah

“One of the main thrusts of the communist drive in America today is through the so-called civil rights movement.”

“The man who is generally recognized as the leader of the so-called civil rights movement today in America is a man who has lectured at a communist training school, who has solicited funds through communist sources, who hired a communist as a top-level aide, who has affiliated with communist fronts, who is often praised in the communist press, and who unquestionably parallels the communist line. This same man advocates the breaking of the law and has been described by J. Edgar Hoover as “the most notorious liar in the country.”

I warn you, unless we wake up soon and do something about the conspiracy, the communist-inspired civil rights riots of the past will pale into insignificance compared to the bloodshed and destruction that lie ahead in the near future. Do not think the members of the Church shall escape.”

First Presidency, “Letter of the First Presidency Clarifies Church’s Position on the Negro,” 15 December 1969, Improvement Era, February 1970

“We believe the Negro, as well as those of other races, should have his full Constitutional privileges as a member of society, and we hope that members of the Church everywhere will do their part as citizens to see that these rights are held inviolate. Each citizen must have equal opportunities and protection under the law with reference to civil rights.

However, matters of faith, conscience, and theology are not within the purview of the civil law. The first amendment to the Constitution specifically provides that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

The position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints affecting those of the Negro race who choose to join the Church falls wholly within the category of religion. It has no bearing upon matters of civil rights. In no case or degree does it deny to the Negro his full privileges as a citizen of the nation.

This position has no relevancy whatever to those who do not wish to join the Church. Those individuals, we suppose, do not believe in the divine origin and nature of the church, nor that we have the priesthood of God. Therefore, if they feel we have no priesthood, they should have no concern with any aspect of our theology on priesthood so long as that theology does not deny any man his Constitutional privileges.”

Harold B. Lee to Ernest Wilkinson, quoted in “Ernest Wilkinson Diary,” 10 November 1960, Box 100, Folder 4, ELW, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“[If] a granddaughter of mine should ever go to BYU and become engaged to a colored boy there I would hold you responsible.”

Brigham Young University, “Church Schools and Students of Color,” 1961, Box 3, Folder 3, WEB, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“[If BYU] closed its doors to students of known Negro blood, [it] would arouse a great deal of adverse publicity both as to the Church and its schools.”

“The real danger is intermarriage with those of limited Negro blood, who are difficult to identify and which cannot therefore be excluded.”

“How can the door of the university be left open and still attract few Negroes?

1. Do no proselytizing of Negro athletes. 

2. Discourage undue publicity of the Negro who is on campus. 

3. Watch moral standards carefully. 

4. Quietly counsel students against dating a known Negro. (Call in any boy or girl seen with a Negro.) 

5. Send a prepared letter to answer inquiries of Negroes regarding admittance to B.Y.U. or other Church school. (Sample attached.)”

“Non-church members are often unhappy here regardless of race.”

“Take into consideration the social difficulties and disappointments you would encounter on entering an Institution where all the students are of the white race, save a mere dozen or so.”

“You are welcome to come, but if you do so, it should be with your eyes open to realities so that you do not develop bitterness or frustration while you are with us.”

William Berrett, Brigham Young University Vice President “Questions and Answers,” Brigham Young University,  n.d., Box 3, Folder 5, WEB, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Why so few Negroes at BYU? This is the result of their decision.”

Eddie Kimball, Brigham Young University Athletic Director, quoted in Abe Chunin, “The Negro Policy in Athletics at BYU,” 12 September 1962, Arizone Daily Star 

“We do not actively recruit Negro athletes and will not in the foreseeable future.” 

“This is not a matter of discrimination. We simply feel Negroes would not be comfortable on our campus.”

“[There] is not a single Negro family living in Provo.”

“This creates quite a social problem for Negroes wishing to come to our school.”

Joseph Ray to Ernest Wilkinson, 22 April 1968, Box 443, Folder 2, ELWP, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

““I think your institution will be a thorn in the side of the Conference until such time as you recruit at least a token [Black] athlete. Until you do, all explanations that the charges are not true will not carry weight.”

Ernest L. Wilkinson, “Memorandum of Statement Made to Inspection Team from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,” 16 May 1968, in Wilkinson Diary, Box 102, Folder 5, ELW, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“[If] the Government feels that BYU is discriminatory because of this theological concept of the Church, we think that would be in violation of the Bill of Rights, which prevents abridgement of religion.”

Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Wilkinson must have known that BYU faced an uphill battle in trying to claim an exemption from the Civil Rights Act. Title VI of the act vested executive agencies with authority to deny federal monies to universities and high schools that practiced racial discrimination. The Johnson administration, in fact, had instructed the Justice Department to target universities and high schools that had discriminatory policies. In 1968, some fifty school districts in the South still refused to integrate, and a fair number of private Christian universities, including Bob Jones University and Grove City College, drew the attention of federal authorities. 

Wilkinson also must have known that there was a mounting body of case law affirming the government’s ability to penalize religious institutions. While the administration recognized the right of private religious institutions to practice their religion, that right had to be carefully balanced against federal law, especially when institutions received federal assistance. Simply put, the Johnson administration declared that religious institutions like BYU couldn’t hide behind the First Amendment to discriminate against Black students.”

Hollis Bach to Ernest Wilkinson, 24 May 1968, Box 463, Folder 19, ELPW, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“1. The university catalogue had to “contain in the admissions policy a positive statement of nondiscrimination.” 

2. The university handbook had to contain a similar statement. 

3. BYU had to recruit in “population centers where minority students are significant in number,” which the committee “deemed to mean 25% or more.” 

4. Alumni had to be informed of BYU’s “nondiscriminatory policy.” 

5. BYU had to recruit Black athletes. 

6. BYU had to inform “off-campus employers” that it would refer students of color for employment. 

7. BYU student housing had to accept all students regardless of “race, color, or national origin.” 

8. Placement of student teachers had to be “made without regard to race, color, or national origin.”

Robert Thomas, “Memo to Wilkinson,” 21 January 1969, Box 556, Folder 12, ELPW, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“I think you will need to point out to the Brethren that we can’t escape the explicit question ‘Do you recruit Negroes?’ As long as our answer is negative or ambiguous, we will be under increasing pressure.”

Robert Thomas, “Memo to Wilkinson, re: Possible Effects on Academic Programs If Racial Issue Is Unresolved at BYU,” 30 January 1969, Box 556, Folder 12, ELPW, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Few universities would associate with BYU.”

“[BYU] would be almost sure to lose accreditation.”

“[I] would like to believe that there is no discrimination at BYU because we fully practice the principles of Christian love and brotherhood rather than because of the practical necessity to obtain funds from federal agencies that prohibit discrimination.”

William Berrett, “The Negro Situation,” address at the Church Education Coordinators Convention, 6 March 1969, Box 3, Folder 5, WEB, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

““What can we tell students as they are confronted with the charges that our Church is discriminating against the Negro? Tell them it is true. We are prejudiced, but so is every other white group.”

“No teacher should give apologies for the fact that Negroes cannot hold the priesthood. All the prophets from Joseph Smith to President McKay have had the same response to their prayers. We have people who think that if enough social pressure is brought to bear, then there will be a revelation of convenience to do away with the Negro not holding the priesthood.”

Ernest Wilkinson, “Digest of Minutes of Meeting of Brigham Young Board of Trustees,” 4 September 1969, BOx 489, Folder 14, ELPW, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“There were 471 student disturbances or riots on campuses throughout the country, 25 bombings, 46 arsons or suspected arsons, and 67 incidents of general destruction, involving injuries to 589 persons.”

Ernest Wilkinson, “Memo to Board of Trustees Re: Charges of Racism and Bigotry Against BYU and the LDS Church,” 5 November 1969, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University

“Events of the past two or three weeks have pointed up dramatically that a number of highly vocal people and groups have dedicated themselves to discrediting Brigham Young University and the LDS Church, by branding us with a “racist and un-Christian” tag. During the week of October 18-24, 1969, alone, this charge of racism appeared on NBC-TV’s Huntley-Brinkley Report, on all other major television and radio networks plus thousands of individual television and radio stations, and hundreds of daily newspapers.”

“If they are successful in getting over their point, and they have been highly successful the past few weeks, the resulting consequences will extend far beyond athletics to such vital areas as accreditation at BYU, growth of our Institute Programs on college campuses, the attitude of people generally toward the LDS Missionary system, and the attitude among some of the people within the Church itself.”

“This year we have only three Negro students in our student body.”

“President Wilkinson has taken the position in public statements, and to the representatives of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare that we do not discriminate. However, it is getting increasingly difficult to defend our policy in light of our practice. The picture has changed so markedly the past few months that we can no longer get by with what we once did. Robert Barker, our Washington attorney, after research on this subject, has come to the conclusion that we are in violation of the Civil Rights law. If this should be established, the consequences could have far reaching effects into many phases of the Church's operation.

In addition to our generally avoiding any recruitment of Negroes, we do discriminate against the Negro in two particulars in relation to the athletic program.

(a) While we recruit white athletes, both members and non-members of our Church, we do not affirmatively recruit Negro athletes.

(b) We do not offer athletic grants-in-aid to Negro students, as we do the whites. True, if they attend and make the team, we are authorized to then give them a grant-in-aid for the following year, but this is still discriminating for we offer these grants-in-aid to whites before they register. Indeed that is the reason they register. Our policy, incidentally, would be considered highly discriminating by the NCAA, and would cause us to lose their support.”

“While we have had many problems relative to the race issue the past several years, the specific incident which has brought BYU and the Church into national attention recently was the football game with Wyoming, Saturday, October 18. Prior to that game 14 Negro members of the Wyoming team showed up in the office of Coach Lloyd Eaton wearing black arm bands in protest against the alleged racist policies of the LDS Church.”

“This is the worst publicity campaign against the BYU we have ever experienced, and it is continuing.”

“April 13, 1968 -- Negro members of the track team at University of Texas at El Paso refused to compete against BYU.”

“July, 1968 - - Sports Illustrated said " . . . BYU is a Mormon school, and the Book of Mormon specifies an inferior role for the Negro.”

“November 21, 1968 -- Negro students boycotted a San Jose State College-BYU football game.”

“February 2, 1969 -- BYU symphonic band refused permission to play at El Cerrito High School because of racial implications.”

“February 27, 1969 -- Over 100 protesters filed onto the playing floor at a New Mexico-BYU basketball game, asking the crowd to boycott the game.”

“March 14, 1969 -- California State College at Hayward canceled a baseball game with BYU. Stanford University canceled a tennis match. Stanford also asked us to cancel a basketball game scheduled for December, 1970.”

“April 19, 1969 -- Negroes boycotted a BYU-Texas El Paso track and field meet.”

“June 16, 1969 -- BYU was not invited to the prestigious Riverside Baseball Tournament (we have been invited for the past several years) because of “racial unrest.”

“October 10, 1969 -- BYU Executive Vice President Ben E. Lewis reported that James Fletcher, President of University of Utah, told him that in Fletcher's opinion, BYU is going to have to actively recruit black athletes if they expect to stay in WAC conference--and that if other schools voted to move BYU out of the conference, he would feel impelled to vote with the other schools against BYU.”

“October 11, 1969 -- Anti-BYU demonstration at Arizona State University-BYU football game. Two hundred demonstrators chanted "BYU racists," "Boycott BYU." Petition by black students asked ASU to dissolve its relationship with BYU.”

“October 22, 1969 -- Western Athletic Conference Commissioner, Wiles Hallock reported to the Associated Press that the situation had reached "crisis proportions." Later he stated that he thought the conference could work out its problems. He also stated "whenever a conference member meets BYU, it is standard procedure to have some kind of demonstration."

“Even if we resign only from the Conference, we run the risk that our entire intercollegiate athletic program would fold because universities would shy away from scheduling games with us because of the adverse publicity which might accrue to them.”

“Our fourth alternative is that if a Negro student is available who qualifies in all respects, academically, morally, athletically, we are authorized to issue him a grant-in-aid on the same basis as any other student.

We do not believe that this will mean many Negroes, if any, on our teams because:

1. Not many will meet our academic standards. For example, a Mormon Negro boy by the name of Williams went to Wyoming. He knew his grades would not permit him to attend BYU.

2. Not many will meet our social and moral standards.

3. Not many will desire to come to BYU because of lack of social life.”

“If we have a Negro or two on our athletic teams, we may have some problems. But that possibility exists now with Negroes who are not athletes. It is minimal at BYU because of the very few we have and we intend to keep it that way with athletes.”

Spencer W. Kimball, “Kimball Diary,” 4 April, 1970, reel 34, SWK, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“We go into Conference with some apprehension for many weeks. We have been increasing the security around the buildings because of threats being made that there would be bombings and demonstrations and possible riots, and some veiled threats against the Brethren. We have had uniformed police in the front office of the lobby and at the backdoor and near the temple.”

Ernest Wilkinson, “Wilkinson Diary,” 21 March 1970, Box 103, Folder 4, ELW, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Intermarriage [would be] one of the tragedies that will inevitably result if we have a sizeable number of Negro students at BYU.”

Ernest Wilkinson and Heber Wolsey, “Minorities, Civil Rights, and BYU,” 5 April 1970, Salt Lake Tribune, also in other newspapers

“Brigham Young University has always had excellent relations with many colleges and universities, and hopes that a free and open exchange of ideas and activities (including, but not limited to, athletics) may continue with them. However, since several organization, both off and on the campuses of certain of these universities, continue to publicize as fact their personal interpretation of certain policies and practices of BYU and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), we believe it is proper and highly important to let the public of all colleges and universities know exactly what those policies and practices actually are.”

“There is not a large number of Black students on our campus, but that is a result of their decisions and not of our policy. Their decisions are undoubtedly influenced by the fact that there are no Blacks living within 35 miles of our campus.”

“There is a religious belief confirmed by each Prophet of the Church that Blacks of African lineage may not, at the present time, hold the priesthood.”

“Historically there have been many instances where the Lord has given the priesthood only to certain people. The earliest reference appears in the Old Testament, where Moses was instructed to give the priesthood only to the tribe of Levi. Members of the other eleven tribes, whether righteous or not, could not officiate in the priesthood.”

Eileen Shanahan, “Private Schools that Bar Blacks to Lose Tax Aid,” 11 July 1970, The New York Times, The New York Times Archives

“The tax‐exempt status of private schools that continue to practice racial discrimination in admissions will be revoked under a new policy announced today by the Internal Revenue Service. 

The policy will be applied nationwide, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Randolph W. Thrower, said. Its greatest impact, however, is expected to be felt by the racially segregated private academies.”

“Such schools are heavily dependent on contributions, which have heretofore been regarded as tax‐exempt. The loss of exemption would apply to any income or property of the schools, but the major effect would.be the loss of deductibility for contributions. Tax‐exempt status permits contributors to deduct their contributions from their taxable income in their returns.”

“All tax ‐exempt private schools will be required to answer a written inquiry from the Revenue Service and explain their admissions policies so far as race is concerned.

The Revenue Service said it “anticipated that, in most instances, evidence of a nondiscriminatory policy can be supplied by reference to published statements of policy or to the racial constituency of the student body.”

“Under the new policy, any school that claims not to be discriminating but is subsequently found to be discriminating would have its exempt status revoked retroactively.”

Harold B. Lee, quoted in “Wilkinson Memo,” 18 July 1970, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“[I] would close BYU if we ever had a colored athlete on our teams.”

Spencer W. Kimball, “When the World Will be Converted,” Ensign, October 1974

“How can we be satisfied with 100,000 converts out of nearly four billion people in the world who need the gospel?”

“Remember also that Enoch, the prophet, beheld the spirits that God had created. (See Moses 6:36.) These prophets visualized the numerous spirits and all the creations. It seems to me that the Lord chose his words when he said “every nation,” “every land,” “uttermost bounds of the earth,” “every tongue,” “every people,” “every soul,” “all the world,” “many lands.”

Surely there is significance in these words!

Certainly his sheep were not limited to the thousands about him and with whom he rubbed shoulders each day. A universal family! A universal command!

My brethren, I wonder if we are doing all we can. Are we complacent in our approach to teaching all the world? We have been proselyting now 144 years. Are we prepared to lengthen our stride? To enlarge our vision?”

“And as I read the scripture I think of the numerous nations that are still untouched. I know they have curtains, like iron curtains and bamboo curtains.”

“When I read Church history, I am amazed at the boldness of the early brethren as they went out into the world. They seemed to find a way. Even in persecution and hardship, they went and opened doors which evidently have been allowed to sag on their hinges and many of them to close. I remember that these fearless men were teaching the gospel in Indian lands before the Church was even fully organized. As nearly as 1837 the Twelve were in England fighting Satan, in Tahiti in 1844, Australia in 1851, Iceland 1853, Italy 1850, and also in Switzerland, Germany, Tonga, Turkey, Mexico, Japan, Czechoslovakia, China, Samoa, New Zealand, South America, France, and Hawaii in 1850. When you look at the progress we have made in some countries, with no progress in many of their nearby countries, it makes us wonder. Much of this early proselyting was done while the leaders were climbing the Rockies and planting the sod and starting their homes. It is faith and super faith.”

“I believe the Lord can do anything he sets his mind to do.

But I can see no good reason why the Lord would open doors that we are not prepared to enter. Why should he break down the Iron Curtain or the Bamboo Curtain or any other curtain if we are still unprepared to enter?

I believe we have men who could help the apostles to open these doors—statesmen, able and trustworthy—but, when we are ready for them.

Today we have 18,600 missionaries. We can send more. Many more!”

“I am asking for missionaries who have been carefully indoctrinated and trained through the family and the organizations of the Church, and who come to the mission with a great desire.”

“The question is frequently asked: Should every young man fill a mission? And the answer has been given by the Lord. It is “Yes.” Every young man should fill a mission.”

“We need to enlarge our field of operation. We will need to make a full, prayerful study of the nations of the world which do not have the gospel at this time, and then bring into play our strongest and most able men to assist the Twelve to move out into the world and to open the doors of every nation as fast as it is ready. I believe we have many men in the Church who can be helpful to us, who are naturally gifted diplomats. I believe we should bring them to our aid and as stated before, I have faith that the Lord will open doors when we have done everything in our power.”

“If we do all we can, and I accept my own part of that responsibility, I am sure the Lord will bring more discoveries to our use. He will bring a change of heart into kings and magistrates and emperors, or he will divert rivers or open seas or find ways to touch hearts. He will open the gates and make possible the proselyting. Of that, I have great faith.”

“We can change the image and approach the ideals set out by President McKay, “Every member a missionary.” That was inspired!

I know this message is not new, and we have talked about it before, but I believe the time has come when we must shoulder arms. I think we must change our sights and raise our goals.

When we have increased the missionaries from the organized areas of the Church to a number close to their potential, that is, every able and worthy boy in the Church on a mission; when every stake and mission abroad is furnishing enough missionaries for that country; when we have used our qualified men to help the apostles to open these new fields of labor; when we have used the satellite and related discoveries to their greatest potential and all of the media—the papers, magazines, television, radio—all in their greatest power; when we have organized numerous other stakes which will be springboards; when we have recovered from inactivity the numerous young men who are now unordained and unmissioned and unmarried; then, and not until then, shall we approach the insistence of our Lord and Master to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

Brethren, I am positive that the blessings of the Lord will attend every country which opens its gates to the gospel of Christ. Their blessings will flow in education, and culture, and faith, and love, like Enoch’s city of Zion, which was translated, and also will become like the 200 years of peaceful habitation in this country in Nephite days. There will come prosperity to the nations, comfort and luxuries to the people, joy and peace to all recipients, and eternal life to those who accept and magnify it.”

Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Kimball’s enthusiasm soon collided with reality. He appointed former Nixon official David Kennedy to be a “special ambassador” to help carry out his global vision.16 The president sought Kennedy’s advice, and the retired ambassador gave it to him, unvarnished and unfiltered. In a private conversation in April 1974, just after Kimball’s landmark address, Kennedy informed the Mormon leader that he couldn’t truly globalize the church as long as the priesthood ban existed. Then he did something that caught the church president off guard: Kennedy walked up to a globe on Kimball’s desk and placed his hand over the African continent. Forget about proselytizing there, he told Kimball. It was foolhardy to establish a mission in Africa when Black members couldn’t hold the priesthood. White priesthood holders from the United States simply could not go to Africa to run churches. It wouldn’t work. Nor should it. Black people had to run their own churches.”

Carl Hawkins to Rex E. Lee, 19 September 1975, Box 76, Folder 2, REL, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Somebody has decided to make a real issue of our discrimination, so that our accreditation is really in jeopardy.”

Spencer W. Kimball, “Kimball Diary,” 3 August 1977, Reel 39, SWK, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Totally without authority from anyone, [Wallace] baptized a black boy and then proceeded to ordain him to the priesthood. He was determined to come to General Conference where he hoped to have a confrontation with me. We got a restraining order to keep him out of the Conference. He was excommunicated from the Church.”

Jack Carlson to Spencer W. Kimball, in Royal Shipp, oral history, Interview with Gregory A. Prince, 22 October 1994, MLH, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“[I am] afraid the Church is a strong horse riding full-force into the 21st Century, and the Church leaders are like a rider sitting backwards, looking the other way.”

Edward L. Kimball, “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood,” 2008, BYU Studies, Volume 47, Number 2, Article 1, Brigham Young University

“The decade of the 1950s was a period of great ferment that would lead to the next decade’s explosion of civil rights action, with both moral and legal challenges to segregation in the South and social inequality elsewhere. Thus, during Spencer’s apostleship, the issue of racism was never far from his mind.”

“As awareness of the priesthood policy grew, many white potential investigators found the priesthood ban offensive and refused to listen to the missionaries. The escalation of the civil rights movement during the 1960s sensitized Americans to racial bigotry, and they found it difficult to see the Church’s prohibition on black ordination as anything else.

 Protest against the Church policy took many forms—rejection of missionaries, public demonstrations, even sabotage. In 1962, a small bomb damaged the east doors of the Salt Lake Temple and blew out some windows. While no one claimed responsibility, many people assumed it was motivated by opposition to the priesthood policy. The Utah chapter of NAACP threatened to picket October general conference in 1963 but dropped the plan when President Hugh B. Brown indicated in a meeting with NAACP leaders that he would read a statement supporting full civil rights.

Congress adopted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol occurred in 1965, and that same year three hundred protesters paraded to the Church Office Building demanding that the Church endorse a civil rights bill then languishing in the Utah legislature. The Church did not make a public statement, but the legislation passed.

Between 1968 and 1970 at least a dozen demonstrations or violent acts occurred when BYU athletic teams played other schools. Opposing players refused to participate or wore black armbands. One spectator threw acid, and another threw a Molotov cocktail that failed to ignite. Stanford severed athletic relations with BYU.”

“In 1974, the NAACP sued the Boy Scouts of America over the policy in LDS Church-sponsored Boy Scout troops of having deacons quorum presidents serve also as senior patrol leaders. The Church quickly changed the policy.”

“When in 1975 President Kimball announced the construction of a temple in São Paulo, Brazil, there was concern about how to determine who, in such a racially mixed country, would be eligible to enter the completed temple. He later said that at the time he “was not thinking in terms of making an adjustment.” He thought, rather, that the Church would simply have to inquire even more carefully into the racial background of members seeking recommends.”

“Requests for missionaries continued to come from individuals and groups in Africa, particularly Nigeria and Ghana. How could the Church deny gospel teaching to sincere seekers? And how would they function without priesthood?

The American conscience was awakening to the centuries of injustice against blacks; the balance had tipped decisively against racism and toward egalitarianism, preparing whites to accept blacks as both legal and social equals. This consciousness did not happen at once, nor did it reach everyone, but it prepared white Mormons to welcome blacks as full participants.

This new ethos also created social pressure. Many Americans scorned Mormons as bigots, and the perception may have affected missionary efforts.

The Church’s commitment to missionary work—always high—had achieved unprecedented heights under President Kimball’s vision of missionary work sweeping the earth. Both leaders and members continually confronted the logical consequence: missionary efforts had to include black Africa.”

Gospel Topics Essays, “Race and the Priesthood,” Church History, Gospel Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“As the Church grew worldwide, its overarching mission to “go ye therefore, and teach all nations” seemed increasingly incompatible with the priesthood and temple restrictions.”

Brigham Young, “Governor Brigham Young’s Address before the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah upon Slavery,” 5 February 1852, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, Reported by George D. Watt and Wilford Woodruff, in The Teachings of President Brigham Young, Volume 3, 1852-1854, Collier’s Publishing Co. October 1987

“The Lord told Cain that he should not receive the blessings of the Priesthood nor his seed, until the last of the posterity of Abel had received the Priesthood, until the redemption of the Earth.”

“For this reason the Negro race cannot hold the Keys of the Priesthood until the times of restitution shall come, and the curse be wiped off from the Earth, and from Michael’s seed. Then Cain’s seed will be had in remembrance and the time come when that curse should be wiped off.”

Brigham Young, “Remarks by President Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City,” 9 October 1859, Journal of Discourses, Volume 7, p. 282-291

“How long is that race to endure the dreadful curse that is upon them? That curse will remain upon them, and they never can hold the Priesthood or share in it until all the other descendants of Adam have received the promises and enjoyed the blessings of the Priesthood and the keys thereof. Until the last ones of the residue of Adam’s children are brought up to that favourable position, the children of Cain cannot receive the first ordinances of the Priesthood. They were the first that were cursed, and they will be the last from whom the curse will be removed. When the residue of Adam come up and receive their blessings, then the curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will receive blessings in like position.”

First Presidency, “First Presidency Statement,” 17 August 1949

“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."

Evan Pettit Wright, “Address Delivered by President Evan P. Wright at the Cape District Conference, Mowbray, C.P. South Africa,” 24 October 1952, in “A History of the South African Mission,” Period 3, 1944-1970, p. 421

“Prophets of the Church have told us that when others have received the Priesthood, have been gathered, have come to the kingdom, and other children of the Lord resurrected, then the curse will be removed from Cain.”

Mark E. Peterson, “Race problems - As They Affect the Church: at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level,” 27 August 1954, Brigham Young University

“Well, what about the removal of the curse? We know what the Lord has said in the Book of Mormon in regard to the Lamanites - they shall become a white and delightsome people. I know of no scripture having to do with the removal of the curse from the Negro. I think that we should not speculate too much about that. As long as the scriptures are silent on the subject, we should not speculate too much about that.”

First Presidency, “Letter of the First Presidency Clarifies Church’s Position on the Negro,” 15 December 1969, Improvement Era, February 1970

“We join with those throughout the world who pray that all of the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ may in due time of the Lord become available to men of faith everywhere. Until that time comes we must trust in God, in His wisdom and in His tender mercy.”

Hugh B. Brown, in “An Abundant Life: The Memoirs of Hugh B. Brown,” edited by Edwin B. Firmage, Signature Books, Salt Lake City, 1988), p. 125

“There was a time when the Prophet Joseph Smith would ask the Lord, receive an answer, and then put the response into practice. But after the foundation of the church was laid, and its doctrinal policies established, it seemed that continued revelation of that kind would result in such a massive collection of records that nobody could tell what the law was. So we now stand upon those first, fundamental revelations. When a question arises today, we work over the details and come up with an idea. It is submitted to the First Presidency and Twelve, thrashed out, discussed and rediscussed until it seems right. Then, kneeling together in a circle in the temple, they seek divine guidance and the president says, "I feel to say this is the will of the Lord." That becomes a revelation. It is usually not thought necessary to publish or proclaim it as such, but this is the way it happens.”

Spencer W. Kimball, “Letter to Edward L. Kimball,” 11 March 1963, Box 63, Folder 6, SWK, in Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Revelation[s] will probably never come unless they are desired. I think few people receive revelations while lounging on the couch or while playing cards or while relaxing. I believe most revelations would come when a man is on his tiptoes, reaching as high as he can for something which he knows he needs, and then there are bursts upon him [that provide] the answer to his problems.”

Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“Sometime early in his presidency, Kimball decided to lift the ban. He had given it “a great deal of thought [and] a great deal of prayer,” he wrote in his diary, having recognized that the ban was incompatible with his vision to globalize the church. He knew that the church couldn’t fulfill Jesus’s command to take the gospel to “every nation, kindred tongue and people” as long as the ban remained in place. 

But Kimball also knew that lifting the ban wouldn’t be easy. David O. McKay had tried—and failed—and neither of his successors, Joseph Fielding Smith or Harold B. Lee, had shown any inclination to lift it. There were too many hard-liners in the Twelve. Apostle McConkie was the most formidable holdup, but senior apostles Mark E. Petersen and Ezra Taft Benson vigorously opposed Black priesthood ordination as well. Then there were less prominent apostles, men not generally known to rock the boat or cause problems but strong defenders of LDS racial teachings all the same. Delbert L. Stapley, Boyd K. Packer, L. Tom Perry, David B. Haight, Marvin J. Ashton, and Howard W. Hunter fell into this camp, as did Thomas S. Monson and Gordon B. Hinckley. The only one in favor of lifting the ban was Hugh Brown, but he lacked clout within the new Kimball administration. After years of pressing for change, he had simply given up hope that the ban would be lifted during his lifetime. He died in 1975, leaving opponents of the ban without an advocate among the Twelve.”

“Now Kimball had at least five important apostles in his corner: his counselors and Apostles McConkie, Packer, and Monson. But what about the others? “He sensed resistance from some,” Kimball’s son Edward candidly explained. But he “did not push, lobby, pressure, or use his office to seek compliance. Instead, he increased his visits to the temple, imploring the Lord to make his will known, not only to him but also to the [apostles].” Gibbons captured the moment when he stated that President Kimball struggled “with how to resolve the matter in a way that the entire leadership would stand behind.”

Kimball’s diary is tantalizingly silent on which apostles resisted him, but in private he told Edward that it was Mark Petersen, Ezra Taft Benson, and Delbert Stapley.”

“On June 1, the Twelve and the First Presidency met in the temple. It wasn’t by accident that Apostle Petersen was away on a church assignment in Ecuador, for there is no indication in the months leading up to this meeting that he consented to lifting the ban. Nor is there evidence that Apostle Stapley was prepared to accept what was coming. He was in the hospital and had given no indication that he saw a place for Black men in the church as priesthood holders.”

“The meeting began at 9:00 a.m. and lasted well over two hours. After the Brethren conducted their usual business and took communion, President Kimball asked them to forgo lunch and stay to discuss additional business. He told them he wanted to lift the ban. At that moment, there appeared to be one holdout, Ezra Taft Benson, who had shown no willingness to end the restriction in previous deliberations on the subject. Benson reportedly wanted to “table” the discussion, but Kimball demurred. In any event, the prophet knew that a revelation required unanimity from the Twelve, so he asked the apostles if they had “anything to say,” hoping to enlist their support to win over Benson. Perhaps it’s fitting that the apostles who came to the president’s aid were the ones who determined first that the ban had to end. McConkie spoke first, followed by Packer and Monson. These headstrong men now dominated the room as they expressed to Benson and the rest of the Twelve the wisdom of lifting the ban. McConkie gave a ten-minute oration on why Black people “must receive the priesthood before the Millennium.” He also discussed the points from his memo to President Kimball, reiterating that there were no scriptural barriers to granting Black men the priesthood.”

“Packer spoke next, also for ten minutes, delivering “equally persuasive reasons.” He quoted from the Doctrine and Covenants to support the change. Then Monson offered his opinion. After they finished, each of the apostles spoke. “There was a wondrous and marvelous spirit of unity in the meeting,” McConkie observed. All that was left now was to pray. The Brethren gathered in a prayer circle—a special Mormon temple ritual—and listened intently as President Kimball prayed. Kimball’s prayer, which lasted about ten minutes, confirmed their decision to lift the ban. Each said they felt the Holy Spirit prick their hearts while the president prayed. This included even Benson, who explained that he “would have voted against” the proposal to ordain Black men had he not “experienced the feeling that I did in this room this morning.” All of the apostles called it the most intense experience of their lifetime and believed that it was a genuine communication from God. “Not one of us who was present on that occasion was ever quite the same after that,” Gordon Hinckley soberly recalled. Benson said it was “the sweetest spirit of unity and conviction” he had “ever experienced.”

“Only moments after the meeting ended, the president telephoned Apostle Petersen, still in Ecuador, to apprise him of the revelation. Petersen agreed to support it but “felt that the revelation’s coming was more striking than the decision itself.” In other words, the fact that the Twelve achieved a consensus to lift the ban shocked him. He knew, as did President Kimball and the rest of the apostles, that one dissenter would have thwarted the entire revelation. In any event, with everyone on board, Petersen wasn’t going to oppose it: “I told President Kimball that I fully sustained both the revelation and him one hundred percent.” But he did have one request: he asked the president to add a disclaimer discouraging interracial marriage when church leaders published the revelation in the Church News. Kimball agreed.”

“Hours later the First Presidency visited Apostle Stapley in the hospital to give him the news. “I’ll stay with the Brethren on this,” he reassured Kimball. This was hardly a ringing endorsement, but it was the best Stapley could muster. He died two months later.”

“Petersen’s and Stapley’s support for the revelation, however tepid, thrilled Kimball. It meant that there was full unanimity among the Twelve.”

“Franklin Richards, the most senior of the lower-ranking general authorities, took some of the luster out of the room by prattling on about what the statement omitted. He backed the revelation, he said, but the statement that Gibbons read “left out women.”

Edward L. Kimball, “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood,” 2008, BYU Studies, Volume 47, Number 2, Article 1, Brigham Young University

“In May 1975, President Kimball referred to his counselors various statements by early Church leaders about blacks and the priesthood and asked for their reactions. Wary of ways in which the question had been divisive during the McKay administration, he asked the Apostles to join him as colleagues in extended study and supplication. Francis M. Gibbons, secretary to the First Presidency, observed special focus on the issue in the year before the revelation. Ten years after the revelation, Dallin H. Oaks, president of BYU in 1978, recalled this time of inquiry: “[President Kimball] asked me what I thought were the reasons. He talked to dozens of people, maybe hundreds of people . . . about why, why do we have this.”

“In June 1977, Spencer invited at least three General Authorities to give him memos on the implications of the subject.”

“Although minutes of quorum meetings are not available and participants have not commented in detail, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve discussed the issue repeatedly, at length, and over a period of months.”

“On March 9, 1978, as the First Presidency and Twelve met in the temple, the Apostles unanimously expressed their feeling that if the policy were to change, any change must be based on revelation received and announced by the prophet. President Kimball then urged a concerted effort from all of them to learn the will of the Lord. He suggested they engage in concerted individual fasting and prayer.

Over time, through the many days in the temple and through the sleepless hours of the night, praying and turning over in his mind all the consequences, perplexities, and criticisms that a decision to extend priesthood would involve, Spencer gradually found “all those complications and concerns dwindling in significance.” They did not disappear but seemed to decline in importance. In spite of his preconceptions and his allegiance to the past, a swelling certainty grew that a change in policy was what the Lord wanted.”

“This answer had become clear in Spencer’s mind as early as late March, but he felt unity within the leadership was important, and he continued to discuss the matter with others. He sensed resistance from some, which he fully understood.”

“On March 23, Spencer reported to his counselors that he had spent much of the night in reflection and his impression then was to lift the restriction on blacks. His counselors said they were prepared to sustain him if that were his decision. They went on to discuss the impact of such a change in policy on the members and decided there was no need for prompt action; they would discuss it again with the Twelve before a final decision.

Francis Gibbons, secretary to the First Presidency, had the impression that President Kimball had already come to know God’s will and was now struggling with how to resolve the matter in a way that the entire leadership would stand behind.

On April 20, President Kimball asked the Twelve to join the Presidency in praying that God would give them an answer. Thereafter he talked with the Twelve individually and continued to spend many hours alone in prayer and meditation in the Holy of Holies, often after hours when the temple was still.”

“On May 25, Mark E. Petersen called President Kimball’s attention to an article that proposed the priesthood policy had begun with Brigham Young, not Joseph Smith, and he suggested that the President might wish to consider this factor.”

“On May 30, Spencer read his counselors a tentative statement in longhand removing racial restrictions on priesthood and said he had a “good, warm feeling” about it. They reviewed past statements and decided to ask G. Homer Durham, a Seventy supervising the Historical Department, to research the matter further. They also concluded to alter the pattern of their next Thursday morning meeting with the Twelve by canceling the traditional luncheon in the temple and asking the council members to continue their fasting.”

“On this first Thursday of the month, the First Presidency, Twelve, and Seventies met in their regularly scheduled monthly temple meeting at 9:00 a.m., fasting. There they bore testimony, partook of the sacrament, and participated in a prayer circle. The meeting lasted the usual three and a half hours and was not notably different from other such meetings until the conclusion, when President Kimball asked the Twelve to remain. Two had already left the room to change from their temple clothing in preparation for the regular business meeting of the First Presidency and the Twelve that normally followed. Someone called them back. Elder Delbert L. Stapley lay ill in the hospital, and Elder Mark E. Petersen was in South America on assignment. Ten of the Twelve were present.”

“He outlined to them the direction his thoughts had carried him—the fading of his reluctance, the disappearance of objections, the growing assurance he had received, the tentative decision he had reached, and his desire for a clear answer. Once more he asked the Twelve to speak, without concern for seniority. “Do you have anything to say?” Elder McConkie spoke in favor of the change, noting there was no scriptural impediment. President Tanner asked searching questions as Elder McConkie spoke. Then Elder Packer spoke at length, explaining his view that every worthy man should be allowed to hold the priesthood.”

“Eight of the ten volunteered their views, all favorable. President Kimball called on the other two, and they also spoke in favor. Discussion continued for two hours.”

“President Kimball asked, “Do you mind if I lead you in prayer?” There were things he wanted to say to the Lord. He had reached a decision after great struggle, and he wanted the Lord’s confirmation, if it would come. They surrounded the altar in a prayer circle. President Kimball told the Lord at length that if extending the priesthood was not right, if the Lord did not want this change to come in the Church, he would fight the world’s opposition.”

“During that prayer, those present felt something powerful, unifying, ineffable.”

“Spencer felt that the reaction evidenced his brethren’s acceptance of the policy change and, at the same time, their acceptance of him.”

“President Kimball also later said, “I felt an overwhelming spirit there, a rushing flood of unity such as we had never had before.” And he knew that the fully sufficient answer had come.”

Bruce R. McConkie, “All Are Alike Unto God,” 18 August 1978, Speeches, Brigham Young University

“The Lord could have sent messengers from the other side to deliver it, but he did not. He gave the revelation by the power of the Holy Ghost. Latter-day Saints have a complex: many of them desire to magnify and build upon what has occurred, and they delight to think of miraculous things. And maybe some of them would like to believe that the Lord himself was there, or that the Prophet Joseph Smith came to deliver the revelation, which was one of the possibilities. Well, these things did not happen. The stories that go around to the contrary are not factual or realistic or true, and you as teachers in the Church Educational System will be in a position to explain and to tell your students that this thing came by the power of the Holy Ghost, and that all the Brethren involved, the thirteen who were present, are independent personal witnesses of the truth and divinity of what occurred.”

Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“The revelation lifted the ban, but it didn’t address the doctrine that had sustained it. This oversight proved catastrophic for the postrevelation church as Latter-day Saints continued to teach that Black people bore a divine curse.” Preface

“Lester Bush, for one, wanted to know “what view the Church now takes on all the traditional doctrines which formerly sustained the priesthood restriction on blacks” and if the church still accepted “the Cain/Ham genealogy.” He asked if there was still a connection between skin color and moral purity in a premortal life, specifically how racial teachings in the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price should be interpreted in light of the end of the priesthood ban. Robert Vernon, Spencer Kimball’s neighbor, asked directly, “Does the Church now reject the ‘descendants of Cain,’ ‘curse of Ham,’ and ‘pre-existent sin’ arguments?”

“Was it still the doctrine of the church that Black people were cursed? The Brethren remained tight-lipped; that was by design.”

“The revelation was supposed to make these problems vanish. But they didn’t.145 Apostle McConkie was the most adamant in refusing to let go of Mormon racial teachings, stubbornly insisting that Black members were only adopted into the house of Israel. In McConkie’s reckoning, all lineages had some of the blood of Abraham in them—except those of Black people. “I believe the seed of Cain has none,” he proclaimed. In addition, he continued to discuss royal lineages and preferential treatment that some had earned in a pre-earth life, despite assuring Latter-day Saint religious educators that “all are alike unto God.” McConkie never grappled with the theological implications of this paradox. Nor did he expunge the offensive racial theories in his revised edition of Mormon Doctrine, published in 1979. The new edition included information about the priesthood revelation but left intact all the passages about Black people being less valiant and cursed.”

“Whether in the final years of his life McConkie recognized the pain he had caused Black people is doubtful. After all, he didn’t expunge the racist teachings in Mormon Doctrine, nor did he express remorse for teaching them. Indeed, the apostle’s last published book—a hefty tome called A New Witness for the Articles of Faith—reinforced much of the racial theology in Mormon Doctrine. All the familiar language was there: “favored families,” “chosen seed,” and biblical curses. The book was published shortly after he died and indicated that he hadn’t changed any of his views about Black people.”

“In 1993, McConkie’s son Joseph coauthored a book with his friend and colleague Robert Millet. Both taught religion at BYU, both were allies of Robert Matthews, and both were ardent defenders of Apostle McConkie’s teachings.36 In Our Destiny: The Call and Election of the House of Israel, published by Bookcraft, an LDS-affiliated publishing house, Millet and McConkie quoted extensively from Apostle McConkie’s writings to defend their position that Latter-day Saints bore special Israelite privileges and leadership responsibilities in the church, based on their Northern European heritage and premortal behavior. Among the authorities they cited was William J. Cameron, a White supremacist and anti-Semite, whose writings in the 1920s was widely embraced by Latter-day Saint authors and general authorities of that era.”

Robert Matthews, Brigham Young University Dean of Religion, “Memo to England,” 7 November 1986

“[Bruce R. McConkie] did not, and does not, say that the Brethren and the Church had been wrong all along in denying the blacks the priesthood in the first place, or that the Church had fostered a wrong theology that now would need to be changed.” 

“I knew Elder McConkie rather well, and I know for a fact that in 1980, two years after the 1978 revelation, he did not think or propose that the Church had been wrong in its policy towards the blacks but only that they had misunderstood when the change would come.”

Bruce R. McConkie, “New Revelation on Priesthood,” Sermons and Writings of Bruce R. McConkie, 1989

“The ancient curse is no more. The seed of Cain and Ham and Canaan and Egyptus and Pharaoh - all these now have power to rise up and bless Abraham as their father. All these, Gentile in lineage, may now come and inherit by adoption all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Gordon B. Hinckley, in Larry B. Stammer, “Mormon Leader Defends Race Relations,” 12 September 1998, Los Angeles Times

“There is no need for any further disavowal of former Mormon teachings that blacks are cursed by God. The church’s black members are not asking for a reinterpretation of the old doctrines.”

Jason Horowitz, “The Genesis of a Church’s Stand on Race,” 28 February 2012, Washington Post

“In his office, religion professor Randy Bott explains a possible theological underpinning of the ban. According to Mormon scriptures, the descendants of Cain, who killed his brother, Abel, “were black.” One of Cain’s descendants was Egyptus, a woman Mormons believe was the namesake of Egypt. She married Ham, whose descendants were themselves cursed and, in the view of many Mormons, barred from the priesthood by his father, Noah. Bott points to the Mormon holy text the Book of Abraham as suggesting that all of the descendants of Ham and Egyptus were thus black and barred from the priesthood.”

“God has always been discriminatory” when it comes to whom he grants the authority of the priesthood, says Bott, the BYU theologian. He quotes Mormon scripture that states that the Lord gives to people “all that he seeth fit.” Bott compares blacks with a young child prematurely asking for the keys to her father’s car, and explains that similarly until 1978, the Lord determined that blacks were not yet ready for the priesthood.

“What is discrimination?” Bott asks. “I think that is keeping something from somebody that would be a benefit for them, right? But what if it wouldn’t have been a benefit to them?” Bott says that the denial of the priesthood to blacks on Earth — although not in the afterlife — protected them from the lowest rungs of hell reserved for people who abuse their priesthood powers. “You couldn’t fall off the top of the ladder, because you weren’t on the top of the ladder. So, in reality the blacks not having the priesthood was the greatest blessing God could give them.”

Church News, “Interracial Marriage Discouraged,” 17 June 1978, Deseret News

“For a number of years, President Spencer W. Kimball has counseled young members of the Church to not cross racial lines in dating and marrying.

Following are some excerpts of his messages on the subject:

In an address to seminary and institute teachers at Brigham Young University on June 27, 1958, President Kimball, then a member of the Council of the Twelve, said:

". . .there is one thing that I must mention, and that is the interracial marriages. When I said you must teach your young people to overcome their prejudices and accept the Indians, I did not mean that you would encourage intermarriage."

“Addressing a Brigham Young University devotional on Sept. 7, 1976, President Kimball counseled the students:

"We are grateful that this one survey reveals that about 90 percent of the temple marriages hold fast. Because of this, we recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally.”

Bruce R. McConkie, “Mormon Doctrine,” 1979, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City

“On June 1, 1978, in the Salt Lake Temple, in the presence of the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve, President Spencer W. Kimball received a revelation from the Lord directing that the gospel and the priesthood should now go to all men without reference to race or color. 

This means that worthy males of all races can now receive the Melchizedek Priesthood, perform ordinances, and hold positions of presidency and responsibility. It means that members of all races may now be married in the temple, although interracial marriages are discouraged by the Brethren.”

Russell M. Nelson, “Children of the Covenant,” General Conference, April 1995, Footnote 38

“The commandment to love our neighbors without discrimination is certain. But it must not be misunderstood. It applies generally. Selection of a marriage partner, on the other hand, involves specific and not general criteria. After all, one person can only be married to one individual.

The probabilities of a successful marriage are known to be much greater if both the husband and wife are united in their religion, language, culture, and ethnic background. Thus, in choosing an eternal companion, wisdom is needed. It’s better not to fly in the face of constant head winds.”

Church Education System, “Eternal Marriage Student Manual,” Quoting Spencer W. Kimball, Approved June 2003, Used in Religion 234 Preparing for an Eternal Marriage, and Religion 235 Building an Eternal Marriage, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City

“In selecting a companion for life and eternity, certainly the most careful planning and thinking and praying and fasting should be done to be sure that, of all the decisions, this one must not be wrong.”

“We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally.”

Matthew L. Harris, Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality, Oxford University Press

“In 2004, Tamu Smith, a Black Latter-day Saint model and actress, took her children to a photo shoot for the cover of an LDS publication. The magazine’s producers wanted to pair her with a Black man who would stand in for her White husband and Smith refused. “If they’re not going to validate my family,” she angrily responded, “then they’re going to have to find someone else who is OK with that.” 

Joy Smith, a White woman married to a Black man, experienced a similar humiliation in 2004 when she taught a lesson in Relief Society. She criticized the Brethren’s teachings on interracial marriage, eliciting a wave of pushback from other women in the room. When Smith pointed out how “outmoded racist teachings persist,” the Relief Society president told her she was “out of bounds” and released her from her calling. Around the same time, church leaders told a Black LDS teenager named Channel Achenbach that when she became of marriage age, she shouldn’t marry a White man because her “seed is cursed.”

Gospel Topics Essays, “Race and the Priesthood,” Church History, Gospel Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“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.”

“The Church proclaims that redemption through Jesus Christ is available to the entire human family on the conditions God has prescribed. It affirms that God is “no respecter of persons” and emphatically declares that anyone who is righteous—regardless of race—is favored of Him.”

Bruce R. McConkie, “All Are Alike Unto God,” 18 August 1978, Speeches, Brigham Young University

“There are statements in our literature by the early Brethren which we have interpreted to mean that the Negroes would not receive the priesthood in mortality. I have said the same things, and people write me letters and say, “You said such and such, and how is it now that we do such and such?” And all I can say to that is that it is time disbelieving people repented and got in line and believed in a living, modern prophet. 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.

We get our truth and our light line upon line and precept upon precept. We have now had added a new flood of intelligence and light on this particular subject, and it erases all the darkness and all the views and all the thoughts of the past. They don’t matter any more.

It doesn’t make a particle of difference what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year, 1978. It is a new day and a new arrangement, and the Lord has now given the revelation that sheds light out into the world on this subject. As to any slivers of light or any particles of darkness of the past, we forget about them.”

News of the Church, “Church Issues Statement on Racial Equality,” Ensign, February 1988

“We repudiate efforts to deny to any person his or her inalienable dignity and rights on the abhorrent and tragic theory of the superiority of one race or color over another.”

Gordon B. Hinckley, “An Interview with Gordon B. Hinckley,” 7 April, 1996, 60 Minutes, CBS News

"It's behind us. Look, that's behind us. Don't worry about those little flicks of history."

Gordon B. Hinckley, in Larry B. Stammer, “Mormon Leader Defends Race Relations,” 12 September 1998, Los Angeles Times

“I don’t hear any complaint from our black brethren and sisters. I hear only appreciation and gratitude wherever I go. But I don’t see anything further that we need to do.”

“I don’t look for any change. I don’t look for the opportunity of saying anything. I feel we’re doing for our black brethren and sisters what they wish done.”

“I’m not going to worry about it. We are giving to our black brethren and sisters everything that we give to everybody else in the church. We neither regard them below or above others and we’re doing for them and we’re helping them and we’re reaching out to them and assisting them and blessing them. I just leave the matter right there.”

“Goodness sakes, they gather around you, throw their arms around you, and when we announced a temple in Accra in a meeting they just broke loose with enthusiasm, stood up and started to clap and shout. But I don’t see anything further that we need to do.”

Alexander B. Morrison, “No More Strangers,” Ensign, September 2000

“How grateful I am that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has from its beginnings stood strongly against racism in any of its malignant manifestations.”

Jeffrey R. Holland, “Interview with Helen Whitney,” 4 March 2006, Frontline, Public Broadcasting Service

“One clear-cut position is that the folklore must never be perpetuated.”

“They, I'm sure, in their own way, were doing the best they knew to give shape to [the policy], to give context for it, to give even history to it. All I can say is however well intended the explanations were, I think almost all of them were inadequate and/or wrong.”

“We simply do not know why that practice, that policy, that doctrine was in place.”

“Some of the folklore that you must be referring to are suggestions that there were decisions made in the pre-mortal councils where someone had not been as decisive in their loyalty to a Gospel plan or the procedures on earth or what was to unfold in mortality, and that therefore that opportunity and mortality was compromised. I really don't know a lot of the details of those, because fortunately I've been able to live in the period where we're not expressing or teaching them, but I think that's the one I grew up hearing the most, was that it was something to do with the pre-mortal councils.”

“I think we can be unequivocal and we can be declarative in our current literature, in books that we reproduce, in teachings that go forward, whatever, that from this time forward, from 1978 forward, we can make sure that nothing of that is declared.”

Mark Tuttle, Church Spokesperson,  in Peggy Fletcher Stack, “Mormon and Black: Grappling with a Racist Past,” 6 June 2008, Salt Lake Tribune

“This folklore is not part of and never was taught as doctrine by the church. The church has no policy against interracial marriage, nor does it teach that everyone in heaven will be white.”

Sheldon Child, in Carrie A. Moore, “LDS Marking 30-Year Milestone,” 7 June 2008, Salt Lake Tribune

“When you think about it, that’s just what it is - folklore.”

“Never really been official doctrine.”

Church Newsroom, “Church Statement Regarding ‘Washington Post’ Article on Race and the Church,” 29 February 2012, Salt Lake City, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“For a time in the Church there was a restriction on the priesthood for male members of African descent.  It is not known precisely why, how, or when this restriction began in the Church but what is clear is that it ended decades ago. Some have attempted to explain the reason for this restriction but these attempts should be viewed as speculation and opinion, not doctrine. The Church is not bound by speculation or opinions given with limited understanding.”

Gospel Topics Essays, “Race and the Priesthood,” Church History, Gospel Library, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“Over time, Church leaders and members advanced many theories to explain the priesthood and temple restrictions. None of these explanations is accepted today as the official doctrine of the Church.”

Dallin H. Oaks, “No apology? Really? Mormons question leader Dallin H. Oaks' stance,” 30 January 2015, Salt Lake Tribune 

“I know that the history of the church is not to seek apologies or to give them. We sometimes look back on issues and say, 'Maybe that was counterproductive for what we wish to achieve,' but we look forward and not backward. The church doesn’t seek apologies, and we don’t give them.”

Dallin H. Oaks, “Trib Talk: LDS leaders Oaks, Christofferson on religious freedom, LGBT rights,” 30 January 2015, Salt Lake Tribune

“I’m not aware that the word ‘apology’ appears anywhere in the scriptures, Bible or Book of Mormon. The word ‘apology’ contains a lot of connotations in it and a lot of significance.”

“We think that the best way to solve these problems is not a formal statement of words that apology consists of, but talking about principles and good will among contending viewpoints.”

Dallin H. Oaks, “President Oaks' Full Remarks from the LDS Church's 'Be One' Celebration,” 1 June 2018, Church News

“To concern ourselves with what has not been revealed or with past explanations by those who were operating with limited understanding can only result in speculation and frustration. To all who have such concerns, we extend our love and this special invitation. Let us all look forward in the unity of our faith and trust in the Lord’s promise that “he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female.”