FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing well-documented answers to criticisms of the doctrine, practice, and history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Church sources discussing issues with Blacks
Church sources discussing issues with Blacks
The fact: Several black individuals were ordained to the priesthood during Joseph Smith's lifetime
Where it can be found: Encyclopedia of Mormonism
Alan Cherry and Jessie Embry, "Blacks," Encyclopedia of Mormonism (1992; 2007)
From the entry on "Blacks" in Encyclopedia of Mormonism:
The reasons for these restrictions have not been revealed. Church leaders and members have explained them in different ways over time. Although several blacks were ordained to the priesthood in the 1830s, there is no evidence that Joseph Smith authorized new ordinations in the 1840s, and between 1847 and 1852 Church leaders maintained that blacks should be denied the priesthood because of their lineage. According to the book of Abraham (now part of the Pearl of Great Price), the descendants of Cain were to be denied the priesthood of God (Abr. 1:23-26). Some Latter-day Saints theorized that blacks would be restricted throughout mortality. As early as 1852, however, Brigham Young said that the "time will come when they will have the privilege of all we have the privilege of and more" (Brigham Young Papers, Church Archives, Feb. 5, 1852), and increasingly in the 1960s, Presidents of the Church taught that denial of entry to the priesthood was a current commandment of God, but would not prevent blacks from eventually possessing all eternal blessings.
The fact: Jane Manning James did not receive her endowments and was denied them as well as the opportunity to be sealed to her family during her lifetime
Where it can be found: Several books and articles
- H.J. Wolfinger “A Test of Faith: Jane Elizabeth James and the Origin of the Utah Black Community,” in Social Accommodation in Utah, ed. C.S. Knowlton, 1975.
- Linda K. Newell and Valeen Tippets Avery “Jane Manning James: Black Saint, 1847 Pioneer” Ensign (August 1979).
- Margaret Blair Young, "The Lord's Blessing Was With Us," in Women of Faith in the Latter Days, Volume Two: 1821–1845, ed. Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 2012), 132–34.
- Church History Topics, “Jane Elizabeth Manning James”.
Notes