Mormon Church and Blacks

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("Mormon Church") was founded by the Prophet Joseph Smith and five others in 1830. There have been black Mormons since 1832. Elijah Abel, an early Mormon Seventy Apostle, was African-American (one-forth Negro)--his son and grandson (who appeared white) were also ordained elders. Black Mormons were considered equal in the time of Joseph Smith, and there were at least several dozen black Mormons in the time of Joseph Smith including at least one Presiding Elder in Boston. While running for U.S. President Joseph Smith advocated that blacks be freed, educated, and given equal rights. Joseph Smith was assassinated in June of 1844. A black Mormon named Green Flake leads the first Mormon wagon-train into Salt Lake Valley,in late 1847. In 1848, Brigham Young begins to "ban" black Mormons from the priesthood and all Mormon Temples, because he considered them to be the "children of Cain" and inheritors of the Curse of Cain: which was a black skin and a denial of the Priesthood in mortality. The justification is the verse Abraham 1:26 in "The Book of Abraham" that says the Egyptians were Canaanites, and Canaanites were "blessed with wisdom" but "cursed as pertaining to the Priesthood". Many Yankee Protestants believed that Negroes were "Canaanites". Just about all Mormons in the 1840s were former Yankee Protestants. Brigham Young advocated "death on the spot" for white men that had children with Negro women. He legalizes Negro slavery in Utah in 1850. He allows Negroes to continue to join the Church, but banned them from the temples and priesthood. This became known as the "Priesthood-Ban". Young did say the "curse" would one day be removed but not until after all of Abel's children first had the opportunity to receive the Priesthood. Mormon leaders interpreted this to mean that the "Negro" would not get the Priesthood until sometime after the Millennium (1000 year reign of Christ) was over. Until then, faithful Mormon Negroes would be servants in the Celestial Kingdom. Brigham Young taught that the "mark of Cain" was a black skin, kinky hair, and a flat nose. A small number of black Mormons remained in the Church during the 130 year "Priesthood-Ban Era" which was from 1848 to 1978. On June 8th, 1971, three active black Mormons in Utah, Ruffin Bridgeforth Jr., Darius Gray, and Eugene Orr, formed the "Genesis Group". On June 8th 1978, (seven years to the day after the Genesis Group was formed in Salt Lake City), Mormon Church President Spencer W. Kimball announces that the Priesthood-ban has ended via a letter to church leaders and the media later called "Official Declaration 2" (nicknamed "The 1978 Revelation"). Most white Mormons were overjoyed. The Genesis Group grows substantially after 1990 (currently about 1000 members in Utah) The Church also ends its "ban" on white/black marriage in 1978. Today there are about 20,000 African-American Mormons in North America.