From the days of the Prophet Joseph even until now, it has been the doctrine of the Church, never questioned by any of the Church leaders, that the Negroes are not entitled to the full blessings of the Gospel. 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. God’s rule for Israel, His Chosen People, has been endogamous. Modern Israel has been similarly directed. We are not unmindful of the fact that there is 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. First Presidency letter to Dr Lowry Nelson
Think of the Negro, cursed as to the Priesthood ... 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 gospel. 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. 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 celestial glory ...
Now let’s talk segregation again for a few moments ... 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 engaged in an act of 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 ... 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 ... He forbade intermarriage ... He certainly segregated the descendants 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 ...
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? There are 50 million Negroes in the United States. If they were to achieve complete absorption with the white race, think what that would do. With 50 million Negroes inter-married with us, where would the Priesthood be? Who could hold it, in all America? Think what that would do to the work of the Church!
Now we are generous with the Negro ... 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? ... What God hath separated, let not man bring together again. Mark E Petersen, address to Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level, Brigham Young University Provo Utah 27th August 1954, ‘‘Race Problems – As They Affect the Church’’
I would not want you to believe that we bear any animosity toward the Negro. ‘Darkies’ are wonderful people, and they have their place in our church. Joseph Fielding Smith, Look magazine 22nd October 1963
Not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his wickedness he became the father of an inferior race ... Millions of souls have come into this world cursed with a black skin ... 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. Enoch saw the people of Canaan, descendants of Cain, and he says, ‘And there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people.’ Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way to Perfection pp101-102
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. ibid. p107
There is a reason why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantage. The reason is that we once had an estate before we came here, and were obedient, more or less, to the laws that were given us there. Those who were faithful in all things there received greater blessings here, and those who were not faithful received less ... There were no neutrals in the war in heaven. All took sides either with Christ or with Satan. Every man had his agency there, and men receive rewards here based upon their actions there, just as they will receive rewards hereafter for deeds done in the body. The Negro, evidently, is receiving the reward he merits. Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation I:61
The Latter-day Saints have no animosity towards the Negro. Neither have they described him as belonging to an ‘inferior race’. Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions 4:170
The people known as Egyptians are not cursed with a black skin but have received another curse barring them from the priesthood. Egyptus was not a black woman. ibid. 173
The Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned, particularly the priesthood and the temple blessings that flow therefrom. Bruce R McConkie, Mormon Doctrine ed p527, 1966
Forget everything I have said ... We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world. Bruce R McConkie, ‘New Revelation on Priesthood’, 1981
Although, I do not care much for a Negro, still I have a warm spot in my heart for those beautiful singers. David O McKay, ninth president
Dear Brother, In your letter to me of October 28 1947, you say that you and some of your fellow students ‘have been perturbed about the question of why the negroid race cannot hold the priesthood’.
In reply I send to you the following thoughts that I expressed to a friend upon the same subject:
Stated briefly, your problem is simply this:
Since, as Paul states, the Lord ‘hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth’, why is there shown in the Church of Christ discrimination of the colored race?
This is a perplexing question, particularly in the light of the present trend of civilization to gain equality to all men irrespective of race, creed or color. The answer, as I have sought it, cannot be found in abstract reasoning, for, in this case, reason the soul is ‘dim as the borrowed rays of the moon and stars to weary, wandering travellers’.
I know of no scriptural basis for denying the priesthood to Negroes other than one verse in the Book of Abraham; however, I believe as you suggest, that the real reason dates back to our pre-existent life.
This means that the true answer to your question (and the only one that has given me satisfaction) has its foundation in faith – (1) Faith in a God of Justice, (2) Faith in the existence of a plan of salvation for all of Gods children ...
That because God is Just, the negro is given the opportunity to have a body, and therefore qualify for the blessings of some future state.
... Sometime in God’s plan, the negro will be given the right to hold the priesthood. In the meantime, those of that race who receive the testimony of the Restored Gospel may have their family ties protected and other blessings made secure, for in the justice and mercy of the Lord they will possess all the blessings to which they are entitled in the eternal plan of Salvation and Exaltation.
Nephi 26:33, to which you refer, does not contradict what I have said above, because the negro is entitled to come unto the Lord by baptism, confirmation and to receive the assistance of the Church in living righteously. David O McKay, Home Memories 1947
We are in the midst of a survey looking toward the possibility of admitting Negroes. Believing as we do in divine revelation through the President of the Church, we all await his decision. Hugh B Brown, The New York Times 7th June 1963
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The Church has no intention of changing its doctrine on the Negro. Throughout the history of the original Christian church, the Negro never held the priesthood. There’s really nothing we can do to change this. It’s a law of God. N Eldon Tanner, Seattle Magazine December p60 1967
The late sixties found the Brigham Young University the focal point of militant protests. Sports events provided the context for protests, boycotts, disrupted games, mass demonstrations, and ‘riots’. At one point the conflict among schools within the Western Athletic Conference became so intense that the conference almost disbanded. Administrators, already embroiled in student demonstrations over Vietnam, began to separate themselves from the Mormon school. Stanford University, for instance, severed all relations with Brigham Young University. O Kendall White junior and Daryl White ‘Abandoning an Unpopular Policy: An Analysis of the Decision Granting the Mormon Priesthood to Blacks’, Sociological Analysis vol 41 p233 (Fall 1980)
[A Negro] looks as though he has been put in an oven and burnt to a cinder ... His hair baked crisp, his nose melted to his face, and the color of his eyes runs into the whites. Some men look as if they had only been burned brown; but he appears to have gone a stage further, and been cooked until he was quite black. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought Spring p45 ‘From Caucasian to Negro’, 1973; cited Bush’s ‘Mormonism’s Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview’ pp57-58 endnote #99
In early 1978, the Mormon Church found itself suffering from a massive news media campaign criticizing their attitudes towards blacks and non-whites. Allegations of discrimination and racism by such groups as the NAACP and ACLU were directed against the LDS Church, and rightly so.
The Mormon leadership began to sweat.
If things progressed badly for them, they feared losing large numbers of their members who saw the Church as a White Supremacist haven, and were willing to tell the media about it.
Even worse, they feared losing their federal tax exempt status from the IRS; a loss that would have devastated their financial empire.
On June 8, 1978, Mormon President and prophet, Spencer W Kimball announced to the world a new Official Declaration from the Lord.
Suddenly, he claimed, ‘...all worthy male members of the Church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or colour’. Mike Schreib, Mormonism: A Religion for Dumb White People