Black people and temple and priesthood policies (LDS Church)

Under the racial restrictions that lasted from the presidency of Brigham Young until 1978, people with any Black African ancestry could not hold the priesthood in the LDS Church and could not participate in most temple ordinances, including the endowment and celestial marriage. Black people were permitted to be members of the church, and to participate in some temple ordinances, such as baptism for the dead. The racial restrictions were applied to Black Africans, persons of Black African descent, and anyone with mixed race that included any Black African ancestry. The restrictions were not applied to Native Americans, Hispanics, Melanesians, or Polynesians. Priesthood Brigham Young taught that Black men would not receive the priesthood until "all the other descendants of Adam have received the promises and enjoyed the blessings of the Priesthood and the keys thereof." The priesthood restriction was particularly limiting, because the LDS Church has a lay priesthood and all worthy male members may receive the priesthood if they choose to do so. Young men are generally admitted to the Aaronic priesthood at age 12, and it is a significant rite of passage. Between 1852 and 1978, most Black people were not permitted to participate in ordinances performed in the LDS Church temples, such as the endowment, celestial marriages, and family sealings. Despite this, Joseph Fielding Smith clarified in 1958 "...if a Negro is baptized and remains true and loyal, he will enter the celestial kingdom... but we cannot promise him that he will receive the priesthood". LDS leaders teach that those marriages sealed in the church's temples can become celestial marriages that bind the family together forever, whereas those marriages that are not sealed are terminated upon death. As church president, David O. McKay taught that Black people "need not worry, as those who receive the testimony of the restored gospel may have their family ties protected and other blessings made secure, for in the justice of the Lord they will possess all the blessings to which they are entitled in the eternal plan of Salvation and Exaltation." Brigham Young taught, "When the ordinances are carried out in the temples that will be erected, [children] will be sealed to their [parents], and those who have slept, clear up to Father Adam. This will have to be done ... until we shall form a perfect chain from Father Adam down to the closing up scene." An exception to the temple ban for Black members was that (except for the complete temple ban period from the mid-1960s until the early 1970s under McKay) Additionally, Black children who were legally adopted by white parents could be sealed to their parents. The LDS Church relies heavily on its unpaid members to fulfill leadership positions and serve in church callings. For men, the priesthood is required for many leadership and church callings and is given to virtually every male as early as age 11. For both men and women, a temple endowment is required or encouraged for other callings, such as missionary service. This limited the ability of Black members to serve in various callings. When the priesthood was given to Black people under Joseph Smith, they were also able to serve in a variety of callings. For example, Elijah Abel served a mission and was called to hold the priesthood office of seventy. When Brigham Young instituted the priesthood restriction, Black members were barred from many leadership and service positions, and, initially, from attending priesthood meetings. In 1952, McKay banned Black people from speaking at priesthood meetings and firesides. In 1945, Abner and Martha Howell were called to serve a mission to establish segregated congregations in the southern states. Howell was given a letter signed by LeGrand Richards that allowed him to speak even though Black people were not permitted to attend services there. He was later given a card designating him as an "Honorary High Priest". By the 1960s, Black men could serve in leadership roles in auxiliary organizations and attend priesthood meetings, including serving in the Sunday School or Young Men presidency. However, the program was canceled after several members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles objected. Since the 1978 rescinding of racial restrictions, Black people have been able to serve in church callings and fulfill leadership positions. until 2020 there had not been a member of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, or the general organizational presidencies (Relief Society, Young Women, Primary, Young Men, or Sunday School) that was Black. On April 4, 2020, Ahmad Corbitt was sustained as First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency, and is the first Black person to hold that position. People who married Black people The first time a church leader taught that a non-Black person was cursed for having married a Black person was on February 6, 1835. An assistant president of the church, W. W. Phelps, wrote a letter theorizing that Ham's wife was a descendant of Cain and that Ham himself was cursed for "marrying a black wife". After 1978, husbands of Black women could receive the priesthood and spouses of Black people could perform temple rituals. Implementation Several Black men received the priesthood after the racial restrictions were put in place, including Elijah Abel's son Enoch Abel, who was ordained an elder on November 10, 1900. One commentator has pointed out that these incidents illustrate the "ambiguities, contradictions, and paradoxes" of the issue during the twentieth century. Occasionally, members discovered they had African ancestry after being given the priesthood. In some cases, priesthood authority over-ruled genealogy research. For example, the First Presidency reinstated the president of the Ipiranga, Brazil branch, stating he was not of the lineage of Cain, despite genealogy research showing Black ancestry. In other cases, members with Black ancestry received patriarchal blessings giving lineage through one of the tribes of Israel, which allowed priesthood ordination. In South Africa, some mission presidents had not observed the ban, and ordained members with mixed blood. The First Presidency called Evan Wright and instructed him that no one could receive the priesthood unless they were able to trace their genealogy outside of Africa, even if they had no appearance of African descent. Wright called several missionaries full-time to assist in the genealogy work, but the lack of men who could fulfill the requirement proved difficult. In 1954, David O. McKay made a change to allow men to be ordained who did not appear to have Black heritage. For example, Fijians were not given the priesthood until 1955 when McKay visited Fiji and told the president of the Samoa Mission that proselyting efforts with the Fijians could begin. Four years later, McKay informed his counselors that there was no evidence that the peoples of Fiji were of African descent. In 1964, the priesthood was extended to Indigenous Australians and in 1966 to Egyptians. ==Stated justifications for the priesthood ban==

Church leadership officially cited various reasons for the doctrinal ban, God puts a mark on Cain after he kills his brother Abel. Brigham Young taught that Cain killed Abel to get advantage over him, so God cursed Cain's descendants to not receive the priesthood until all the rest of Adam's descendants received the priesthood. During Young's presidency this was the explanation and was consistently taught by all leaders. It was only after Brigham Young died that the Church began teaching that the reason for the ban was unknown. While serving in the First Council of the Seventy, Bruce R. McConkie wrote in his 1966 edition of Mormon Doctrine that those who were sent to Earth through the lineage of Cain were those who had been less valiant in the premortal life. He also said that because Ham married Egyptus and because she was a descendant of Cain, that he was able to preserve the "negro lineage." The denial of the priesthood to certain men was then mentioned and he explained that in this life, Black people would not hold the priesthood, but that those blessings would be available to them in the next life. In 1881, church president John Taylor expounded on the belief that the curse placed on Ham (who was of the lineage of Cain), was continued because Ham's wife was also of that "seed." While later serving as an apostle, McConkie said in 1978 that the curse of Cain was no longer in effect. who were Black, () that Noah had cursed his lineage so they did not have the right to the priesthood, and that all Egyptians descended from him. It was later considered scripture by the LDS Church. This passage is the only one found in any Mormon scripture that bars a particular lineage of people from holding the priesthood. neither used the curse of Ham or the Book of Abraham to justify the priesthood ban. It was not until 1900 that George Q. Cannon, a member of the First Presidency, began using the story of Pharaoh as a scriptural basis for the ban. By the early 1900s, it became the foundation of church reasoning for the priesthood ban. In 1978, when the church ended the ban on the priesthood, Bruce R. McConkie taught that the seed of Ham, Canaan, Egyptus and Pharaoh were no longer under the ancient curse. Author David Persuitte has pointed out that it was commonplace in the 19th century for theologians, including Joseph Smith, to believe that the curse of Cain was exhibited by Black skin, and that this genetic trait had descended through Noah's son Ham, who was understood to have married a Black wife. The doctrine of premortal existence is described in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism as "characterized by individuality, agency, intelligence, and opportunity for eternal progression. It is a central doctrine of the theology of the Church and provides understanding to the age-old question 'Whence cometh man? This idea is based on the opinions of several prominent church leaders, including long-time apostle and later church president Joseph Fielding Smith, who held the view that the premortal life had been a kind of testing ground for the assignment of God's spiritual children to favored or disfavored mortal lineages. According to religious historian Craig Prentiss, the appeal to premortal existence was confirmed as doctrine through statements of the LDS First Presidency in 1949 and 1969. Unknown reasons In 1969, the First Presidency said Black people did not have the priesthood "for reasons which we believe are known to God". Protection from Hell Brigham Young University Religious Studies professor, Randy L. Bott, suggested that God denied the priesthood to Black men in order to protect them from the lowest rung of hell, since one of few damnable sins is to abuse the exercise of the priesthood. Bott compared the priesthood ban to a parent denying young children the keys to the family car, stating: "You couldn't fall off the top of the ladder, because you weren't on the top of the ladder. So, in reality Black men not having the priesthood was the greatest blessing God could give them." In 2012 the official LDS Newsroom responded to Randy Bott's controversial statements sharing, "The positions attributed to BYU professor Randy Bott in a recent Washington Post article absolutely do not represent the teachings and doctrines of [the church]". Human error Referring to the priesthood ban, apostle Spencer W. Kimball said in 1963, "The doctrine or policy has not varied in my memory. I know it could. I know the Lord could change his policy and release the ban and forgive the possible error which brought about the deprivation." ==Teachings about the priesthood ban==

Divinity of ban, Doctrine vs. Policy Church leaders taught for decades that the priesthood ordination and temple ordinance ban was commanded by God. Brigham Young taught it was a "true eternal principle the Lord Almighty has ordained." On the topic of doctrine and policy for the race ban lifting the apostle Dallin H. Oaks stated in 1988, "I don't know that it's possible to distinguish between policy and doctrine in a church that believes in continuing revelation and sustains its leader as a prophet. ... I'm not sure I could justify the difference in doctrine and policy in the fact that before 1978 a person could not hold the priesthood and after 1978 they could hold the priesthood." When it was announced in the 1978 that the ban was reversed, Kimball wrote a letter saying that the Lord revealed "that the long-promised day has come". This was later canonized in LDS scripture as Official Declaration 2. However, it did not specifically say what parts of the ban came from God and which did not. In 2013, the church published an essay which said that the ban had its roots more in racism than the will of God. of 1,156 self-identified Latter-day Saints found that almost two-thirds of surveyed members reported believing the pre-1978 temple and priesthood ban was "God's will". Duration of ban Brigham Young taught that Black men would not receive the priesthood until "all the other descendants of Adam have received the promises and enjoyed the blessings of the priesthood and the keys thereof." But that meant that those who had been denied the priesthood would one day receive the priesthood and its related blessings. Young added that after death once all other children of God had received the priesthood that the curse of Cain would be lifted and Black people would "have [all] the privilege and more" that was enjoyed by other members of the church. In 1963, while discussing when the ban would be lifted, Joseph Fielding Smith told a reporter that "such a change can come about only through divine revelation, and no one can predict when a divine revelation will occur." Mormon apologetics author and lecturer John Lewis Lund wrote in 1967, "Brigham Young revealed that the negro will not receive the priesthood until a great while after the second advent of Jesus Christ, whose coming will usher in a millennium of peace." When the restrictions were reversed in 1978, church president Kimball referred to it as "the long-promised day". Critics say that lifting the restriction before the resurrection is contrary to Young's 1854 and 1859 statements, while church apologists say that Brigham Young's statements meant that Africans could receive the priesthood after all other races were eligible to receive it, not all other individuals. Start of the ban Some scholars have suggested that the actions of William McCary, a half-Black man who called himself a prophet and the successor to Joseph Smith, led to Young's decision to ban Black men from receiving the priesthood. Under the racial restrictions that lasted from Young's presidency until 1978, persons with any Black African ancestry could not receive church priesthood or any temple ordinances including the endowment and eternal marriage or participate in any proxy ordinances for the dead. An important exception to this temple ban was that (except for a complete temple ban period from the mid-1960s until the early 1970s under McKay) Black members had been allowed limited temple access to act as proxies in baptisms for the dead. some leaders interpreted this to mean they would be treated like unmarried White people after death, being limited to living forever as just ministering servants. Apostles George F. Richards and Mark E. Petersen Brigham Young, Joseph Fielding Smith, and Harold B. Lee taught that Black people would eventually be able to receive salvation, without explicitly stating this salvation would include the high status of exaltation. Under John Taylor's presidency (1880–1887), there was confusion in the church regarding the origin of the racial restrictions. Zebedee Coltrin and Abraham O. Smoot provided conflicting testimony of whether or not Joseph Smith stated that Elijah Abel was allowed to hold the priesthood, though the veracity of their testimony is doubted. Coltrin, who ordained Abel, stated that in 1834 Smith had told him, "the Spirit of the Lord saith the Negro had no right nor cannot hold the Priesthood," and that Abel should be dropped from the Seventies because of his lineage. In 1908 church president Joseph F. Smith (a nephew of the church founder) said that Abel's ordination had been declared null and void by his uncle personally. Prior to this statement, he had denied any connection between the temple and priesthood ban and Joseph Smith. From this point on, many statements on the priesthood restriction were attributed to Joseph Smith; all such statements had actually been made by Brigham Young. The church taught that the ban originated with Joseph Smith, with the First Presidency declaring it so in 1947. In 2013, the church issued a statement saying the ban seemed to have started with Brigham Young instead of Joseph Smith. ==History during racial restrictions==

Before 1847 During the time Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement (1830–1844), was the leader, there were no official racial policies established in the Church of Christ. Black people were welcomed as members of the church and as evidence of the lack of official policy, in 1836, two Black men were ordained priests: Elijah Abel and Walker Lewis. Before 1847 a handful of other Black men were ordained to the priesthood. That same year, Abel went on to become a member of the Quorum of the Seventy and received a patriarchal blessing. Some researchers have suggested that the actions of Joseph T. Ball and William McCary led to Young's decision to adopt the priesthood ban in the LDS Church. At one point, he also claimed to be Adam of the Bible. After his excommunication, McCary began attracting Latter Day Saint followers and instituted plural marriage among his group, and he had himself sealed to several white wives. A statement from Young to McCary in March 1847 suggested that race had nothing to do with priesthood eligibility, 1879 meeting at the Smoot residence On May 31, 1879, a meeting was held at the residence of Provo mayor Abraham O. Smoot to discuss the conflicting versions of Joseph Smith's views on Black men and the priesthood, in response to Elijah Abel's petition to be sealed to his recently deceased wife. Abel, a Black male convert to the church, had held the priesthood since 1836, and was now requesting an opportunity to enter the temple. President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles John Taylor, his secretary L. John Nuttall, mayor Smoot, apostle Brigham Young Jr. (son of the late prophet), and Zebedee Coltrin were in attendance. According to Nuttall, who detailed the meeting in his journal, Coltrin and Smoot made statements about all they could recollect Joseph Smith having ever said about Black men and the priesthood. John Taylor recounted a story he had remembered, in which Coltrin had at one time remarked that Black people should not have the priesthood, to which Smith had responded with the account of the Apostle Peter's vision in Acts 10, in which he was commanded by God to "not call any man common or unclean" and to teach the Gentiles despite being a Jew himself, implying that Black men should have the priesthood. in a rather confused state. Later, reflecting on this exchange with the First Presidency, Dr. Nelson would say, "I believe I was the first Mormon to protest the church policy with regard to blacks in a letter to the First Presidency of the church in 1947", and in 1953 published the article "Mormons and the Negro", saying that "This was the first [time] the non-Mormon world knew of this policy, and it was widely publicized through the Negro press." The declaration goes on to state that the conditions in which people are born on Earth are affected by their conduct in the premortal existence, although the details of the principle are said not to be known. It then says that the privilege of mortal existence is so great that spirits were willing to come to earth even though they would not be able to possess the priesthood. In 1969, church apostle Harold B. Lee and member of the First Presidency Alvin R. Dyer blocked the LDS Church from rescinding the racial restrictions. David O. McKay told several people about his struggles with the restrictions, including Mildred Calderwood McKay, Marion D. Hanks, Lola Gygi Timmins, and Richard Jackson. In her book, Contemporary Mormonism, Claudia Bushman describes the pain that was caused by the racial restrictions of the church. This struggle was felt both to Black worshipers, who sometimes found themselves segregated and ostracized, and white members who were embarrassed by the exclusionary practices and who occasionally apostatized over the issue. In 1971, three African-American Mormon men petitioned then–church president Joseph Fielding Smith to consider ways to keep Black families involved in the church and also re-activate the descendants of Black pioneers. As a result, Smith directed three apostles to meet with the men on a weekly basis until, on October 19, 1971, an organization called the Genesis Group was established as an auxiliary unit of LDS Church to meet the needs of Black Mormons. The first president of the Genesis Group was Ruffin Bridgeforth, who also became the first Black Latter Day Saint to be ordained a high priest after the priesthood ban was lifted later in the decade. Harold B. Lee, president of the church, stated in 1972: "For those who don't believe in modern revelation there is no adequate explanation. Those who do understand revelation stand by and wait until the Lord speaks .... It's only a matter of time before the black achieves full status in the Church. We must believe in the justice of God. The black will achieve full status, we're just waiting for that time." Although not refuting his belief that the restrictions came from the Lord, apostle Spencer W. Kimball acknowledged in 1963 that it could have been brought about through an error on man's part. In 1963, he said, "The doctrine or policy has not varied in my memory. I know it could. I know the Lord could change his policy and release the ban and forgive the possible error which brought about the deprivation." 1970s White LDS opposition to ban In the 1970s some White church members protested against teachings and policies excluding Black members from temple ordinances and the priesthood. For instance, three members, John Fitzgerald, Douglas A. Wallace, and Byron Marchant, were all excommunicated by the LDS Church in the 1970s for publicly criticizing these teachings (in the years 1973, 1976, and 1977 respectively). In 1976, Wallace, a high priest in the Church ordained a Black man, Larry Lester, as an Aaronic priest in an effort to force the LDS church to review its doctrines. The ordination was declared void because Wallace had not received prior authorization for the ordination. The next day, he attempted to enter the general conference to stage a demonstration. He was then legally barred from the following October conference, and his house was put under police surveillance during the subsequent April 1977 conference at the request of the LDS church and the FBI. Marchant was excommunicated for signaling the first "opposed" vote in modern church history during the sustaining of the church president in that conference. His vote was motivated by the temple and priesthood ban. He had also received previous media attention from a 1974 lawsuit that changed the church's policy banning even non-Mormon Black Boy Scouts from acting as patrol leaders. Other White members who publicly opposed some church teachings and policies around Black people included Grant Syphers and his wife, who were denied access to the temple over their objections, with their San Francisco bishop stating that "Anyone who could not accept the Church's stand on Negroes ... could not go to the temple." Their stake president agreed and they were denied the temple recommend renewal. Additionally, Prominent LDS politician Stewart Udall (then acting as the United States Secretary of the Interior) wrote a strongly worded public letter in 1967 criticizing church racial restrictions. to which he received hundreds of critical response letters, including ones from apostles Delbert Stapley and Spencer Kimball. ==Racial restrictions end in 1978==

student newspaper The Universe about the end of the racial restrictions In the 1970s, LDS Church president Spencer W. Kimball took General Conference on the road, holding area and regional conferences all over the world. He also announced many new temples to be built both in the United States and abroad, including one temple in São Paulo, Brazil. The problem of determining priesthood eligibility in Brazil was thought to be nearly impossible due to the mixing of the races in that country. When the temple was announced, church leaders realized the difficulty of restricting persons with African descent from attending the temple in Brazil. According to first-person accounts, after much discussion among the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on this matter, they engaged the Lord in prayer. According to the writing of Bruce R. McConkie, "It was during this prayer that the revelation came. The Spirit of the Lord rested upon us all; we felt something akin to what happened on the day of Pentecost and at the Kirtland Temple. From the midst of eternity, the voice of God, conveyed by the power of the Spirit, spoke to his prophet. The message was that the time had now come to offer the fullness of the everlasting gospel, including celestial marriage, and the priesthood, and the blessings of the temple, to all men, without reference to race or color, solely on the basis of personal worthiness. And we all heard the same voice, received the same message, and became personal witnesses that the word received was the mind and will and voice of the Lord." The announcement about the removal of the priesthood ban was issued to the public in the weekly Church News supplement to the Deseret News, which also included admonitions from Kimball not to "cross racial lines in dating and marrying". On June 11, 1978, three days after the announcement of the policy changes, Joseph Freeman, a member of the church since 1973, became the first Black man to be ordained to the office of elder in the Melchizedek priesthood since the ban was lifted, while several others were ordained into the Aaronic priesthood that same day. Later in 1978, McConkie called to repentance all those who questioned the changes with regards to the temple and priesthood bans. He went on to clarify that previous statements made by himself and other church leaders on the subject were to be forgotten and that the focus of the gospel should be on current teachings. Critics of the LDS Church state that the church's 1978 reversal of the racial restrictions was not divinely inspired as the church claimed, but simply a matter of political convenience, as the reversal of restrictions occurred as the church began to expand outside the United States into countries such as Brazil. These countries have ethnically mixed populations, and the reversal was announced just a few months before the church opened its new temple in São Paulo, Brazil. The 1978 Declaration on Priesthood was an announcement by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) that reversed a long-standing policy excluding men of Black African descent from ordination to the denomination's priesthood and both Black men and women from priesthood ordinances in the temple. Leaders stated it was a revelation from God. Beginning in the 1850s, individuals of Black African descent were prohibited from ordination to the LDS Church's priesthood—in other cases held by all male members who meet church standards of spiritual "worthiness"—and from receiving temple ordinances such as the endowment and celestial marriage (sealing). LDS Church presidents Heber J. Grant and David O. McKay are known to have privately stated that the restriction was a temporary one, and would be lifted at a future date by a divine revelation to a church president. In 2013, the LDS Church posted an essay about race and the priesthood. Background Men of Black African descent were permitted to hold the priesthood in the early years of the Latter Day Saint movement, when Joseph Smith was alive. After Smith died, Brigham Young became leader of the LDS Church and many were excluded from holding the priesthood. This practice persisted after Young's death, and was maintained until 1978. Events leading up to 1978 In the decades leading up to the 1978 change, it became increasingly difficult for the church to maintain its policy on Africans and the priesthood. The difficulties arose both from outside protests and internal challenges encountered as the membership grew in far away areas of the world outside of the predominantly white Utah. Internal challenges in administering the priesthood ban were mainly due to the difficulty in determining which peoples were of African ancestry in areas such as Brazil, the Philippines and Caribbean and Polynesian Islands as well as shortages of available people for local church leadership positions in areas with a predominantly Black population such as Nigeria or the Dominican Republic. The majority of the protests against the policy coincided with the rise of the civil rights movement in the United States during the 1960s. In 1963, Hugh B. Brown made a statement on civil rights during General Conference in order to avert a planned protest of the conference by the NAACP. During the late 1960s and 1970s, Black athletes at some universities refused to compete against teams from church owned Brigham Young University. A protest in 1974 was in response to the exclusion of Black scouts to become leaders in church sponsored Boy Scout troops. In the 1960s, an effort was made to establish a church presence in Nigeria where many natives had expressed interest. Church leaders found it difficult to make progress in establishing the church in that region without a change in the priesthood policy. On March 1, 1975, LDS Church president Spencer W. Kimball announced plans to build a temple in São Paulo, Brazil. Before the 1978 ban removal, not only were men of Black African descent denied ordination to the priesthood, but men and women of Black African descent were also excluded from performing most of the various ordinances in the temple. Determining priesthood and temple eligibility in Brazil was problematic due to the considerable intermarriage between Amerindians, Europeans, and Africans since 1500, and high uncertainty in tracing ancestral roots. Furthermore, in the Brazilian culture, racial identification had more to do with physical appearance and social class than blood lines. The cultural differences in understanding race created confusion between the native Brazilians and the American missionaries. When the temple was announced, church leaders realized the difficulty of restricting persons with various bloodlines from attending the temple in Brazil. During the first half of the 20th century, most church members and leaders believed the priesthood ban had originated with church founder Joseph Smith. Because of this belief, church leaders were hesitant to overturn the ban. Scholars in the 1960s and 1970s found no evidence of the prohibition before Brigham Young. Softening of the policy Prior to the complete overturning of the priesthood ban, several administrative actions were taken to soften its effect. Before David O. McKay visited the South Africa mission in 1954, the policy was that any man desiring to receive the priesthood in the mission was required to prove a lack of African ancestors in his genealogy. Six missionaries were tasked with assisting in the necessary genealogical research but even then it was often difficult to establish lack of African ancestry. McKay changed the policy to presume non-African ancestry except when there was evidence to the contrary. In 1974, Black people were allowed to serve as proxies for baptisms for the dead. to remain behind for a special meeting. Kimball began by describing his studies, thoughts, and prayers on removing the restriction and on his growing assurance that the time had come for the change. Kimball asked each of the men present to share their views, and all spoke in favor of changing the policy. After all present had shared their views, Kimball led the gathered apostles in a prayer circle to seek final divine approval for the change. As Kimball prayed, many in the group recorded feeling a powerful spiritual confirmation. Bruce R. McConkie later said: "There are no words to describe the sensation, but simultaneously the Twelve and the three members of the First Presidency had the Holy Ghost descend upon them and they knew that God had manifested his will .... I had had some remarkable spiritual experiences before ... but nothing of this magnitude." cited in L. Tom Perry described: "I felt something like the rushing of wind. There was a feeling that came over the whole group. When President Kimball got up he was visibly relieved and overjoyed." Gordon B. Hinckley later said: "For me, it felt as if a conduit opened between the heavenly throne and the kneeling, pleading prophet of God who was joined by his Brethren." The church formally announced the change on June 9, 1978. The story led many national news broadcasts and was on the front page of most American newspapers, and in most largely LDS communities in Utah and Idaho telephone networks were completely jammed with excited callers. The announcement was formally approved by the church at the October 1978 general conference, and is included in LDS Church's edition of the Doctrine and Covenants as Official Declaration 2. Ban lift presented at general conference On September 30, 1978, during the church's 148th Semiannual General Conference, the following was presented by N. Eldon Tanner, First Counselor in the First Presidency: In early June of this year, the First Presidency announced that a revelation had been received by President Spencer W. Kimball extending priesthood and temple blessings to all worthy male members of the Church. President Kimball has asked that I advise the conference that after he had received this revelation, which came to him after extended meditation and prayer in the sacred rooms of the holy temple, he presented it to his counselors, who accepted it and approved it. It was then presented to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who unanimously approved it, and was subsequently presented to all other General Authorities, who likewise approved it unanimously. On that day, the general conference unanimously voted to accept the policy changes "as the word and will of the Lord." Black members were also allowed to serve missions and hold leadership positions. Proselytization restrictions were removed, so missionaries no longer needed special permission to teach Black people, converts were no longer asked about African heritage, and marks were no longer made on membership records indicating African heritage. Statements after the ban reversal Later in 1978, apostle Bruce R. McConkie said: 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. On the topic of doctrine and policy for the race ban lifting the apostle Dallin H. Oaks stated in 1988, "I don't know that it's possible to distinguish between policy and doctrine in a church that believes in continuing revelation and sustains its leader as a prophet. ... I'm not sure I could justify the difference in doctrine and policy in the fact that before 1978 a person could not hold the priesthood and after 1978 they could hold the priesthood." The declaration was canonized by the LDS Church at its general conference on September 30, 1978, through the process of common consent. Since 1981, the text has been included in the church's Doctrine and Covenants, one of its standard works of scripture. It is the most recent text that has been added to the LDS Church's open canon of scripture. The announcement that was canonized had previously been announced by a June 8, 1978, letter from the First Presidency, which was composed of Spencer W. Kimball, N. Eldon Tanner, and Marion G. Romney. Unlike much of the Doctrine and Covenants, Official Declaration 2 is not itself presented as a revelation from God. However, its text announces that Jesus Christ "by revelation has confirmed that the long-promised day has come when every faithful, worthy man in the Church may receive the holy priesthood." No text of the revelation from God has been released by the church, but it is common for adherents to refer to the "revelation on the priesthood" in describing the changes wrought by the announcement and canonization of Official Declaration 2. Modern disavowal of previously given reasons for restrictions Sometime between 2014 and 2015, the LDS Church published an essay titled "Race and the Priesthood". As part of that essay, the church officially stated that the reasons for the previous racial restrictions were unknown, and officially disavowed the racist explanations for the policy, but did not disavow the restrictions themselves. As part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the ban reversal, Dallin H. Oaks said that, "the Lord rarely gives reasons for the commandments and directions He gives to His servants," but acknowledged the hurt that the restrictions caused before they were rescinded, and encouraged all church members to move past those feelings and focus on the future. As of 2019 the LDS Church has not apologized for its race-based policies and former teachings. ==After the restrictions' lifting (1978 to 2013)==

Since the 1978 ban reversal, the church has made no distinctions in policy for Black people, but it remains an issue for many Black members of the church. Alvin Jackson, a Black bishop in the LDS Church, puts his focus on "moving forward rather than looking back." In an interview with Mormon Century, Jason Smith expressed his viewpoint that the membership of the church was not ready for Black people to have the priesthood in the early years of the church, because of prejudice and Black enslavement. He drew analogies to the Bible where only the Israelites have the gospel. In a 1997 TV interview, President Gordon B. Hinckley was asked whether the church was wrong to deny the priesthood. He responded, "No, I don't think it was wrong. It, things, various things happened in different periods. There's a reason for them." In April 2006 in a general conference talk President Gordon B. Hinckley, the president of the LDS Church, had called racism "ugly" and a sin that any guilty of needed to repent from. In 1995, Black church member A. David Jackson asked church leaders to issue a declaration repudiating past doctrines that denied various privileges to Black people. In particular, Jackson asked the church to disavow the 1949 "Negro Question" declaration from the church Presidency which stated that "the attitude of the church with reference to negroes ... is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord ... to the effect that negroes ... are not entitled to the priesthood." The church leadership did not issue a repudiation, and so in 1997 Jackson, aided by other church members including Armand Mauss, sent a second request to church leaders, which stated that white Mormons felt that the 1978 changes resolved everything, but that Black Mormons react differently when they learn the details. He said that many Black Mormons become discouraged and leave the church or become inactive. "When they find out about this, they exit... You end up with the passive African Americans in the church." Other Black church members think giving an apology would be a "detriment" to church work and a catalyst to further racial misunderstanding. African American church member Bryan E. Powell says, "There is no pleasure in old news, and this news is old." Gladys Newkirk agrees, stating, "I've never experienced any problems in this church. I don't need an apology. ... We're the result of an apology." The large majority of Black Mormons say they are willing to look beyond the previous teachings and remain with the church in part because of its powerful, detailed teachings on life after death. Church president Hinckley told the Los Angeles Times: "The 1978 declaration speaks for itself ... I don't see anything further that we need to do." ==2013 to present==

On December 6, 2013, the LDS Church published an essay entitled "Race and the Priesthood" on its official website. The essay stated that "there is no evidence that any black men were denied the priesthood during Joseph Smith's lifetime," but that the priesthood restrictions were first publicly introduced by Brigham Young, stating the racism of the era that influenced his thinking. it was not written by them. As of 2015, it has never been mentioned, alluded to, or footnoted in speeches by LDS authorities at the faith's biannual General Conferences. Many members remain unaware of the essays and some hold to racist beliefs that had been taught in the past. According to Richard Bushman, a Mormon historian, the essay removes the revelatory significance of the ban. He states that it requires a reorientation of Mormon thinking, since "it brings into question all of the prophet's inspiration." Critics argue that it could call into question other teachings of the prophets they say are commands from God. Although the priesthood restrictions existed historically, the LDS Church reports continued significant growth in church membership in Africa, with growth from 318,947 members in 2010 to 578,310 in 2018. As of 2019, there are two church general authorities of African descent, and another general authority of Melanesian (Fijian) descent. In response to a 2016 survey of self-identified Mormons, over 60 percent expressed that they either know (37 percent) or believe (25.5 percent) that the priesthood/temple ban was God's will, with another 17 percent expressing that it might be true, and 22 percent saying they know or believe it is false. ==See also==