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In the past, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) including Brigham Young have consistently opposed marriages between members of different ethnicities, though interracial marriage is no longer considered a sin. In 1977, apostle Boyd K. Packer publicly stated that "e've always counseled in the Church for our Mexican members to marry Mexicans, our Japanese members to marry Japanese, our Caucasians to marry Caucasians, our Polynesian members to marry Polynesians. ... The counsel has been wise." Nearly every decade for over a century—beginning with the church's formation in the 1830s until the 1970s—has seen some denunciations of interracial marriages (miscegenation), with most statements focusing on Black–White marriages. Church president Brigham Young taught on multiple occasions that Black–White marriage merited death for the couple and their children.

Until at least the 1960s, the LDS Church—Mormonism's largest denomination—penalized White members who married Black individuals by prohibiting both spouses from entering its temples. Even after the temple and priesthood ban was lifted for Black members in 1978 the church still officially discouraged any marriages across ethnic lines. Until 2013 at least one official church manual in use continued discouraging interracial marriages. Past teachings of church leaders on race and interracial marriage have stemmed from racist beliefs of the time and have seen criticism and controversy. Early church leaders made an exception to the interracial marriage ban by allowing White LDS men to marry Native American women, because Native Americans were viewed as being descended from the Israelites. Church leaders did not sanction White LDS women marrying Native American men, however. In 2013, the LDS Church disavowed its previous teachings that interracial marriage was a sin.

Utah's legislation on interracial relationships

Past church leaders' views on interracial marriages were reflected by previous laws in Utah, where its members held a notable amount of political influence. In 1852, the Act in Relation to Service which allowed the enslavement of Black people in Utah Territory was passed, and it also banned sexual intercourse between a White person and "any of the African race." That same day the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners (which allowed White Utah residents to enslave Native Americans) also passed, though it did not contain any discussion on Native-White marriage or sex. In 1888, the government of Utah Territory (with an approximately 80% LDS population) passed an anti-miscegenation law. The law prohibited marriages between a "negro" or "mongolian" (i.e. ethnically Asian person) and a "white person". In 1890, Black individuals made up less than 0.3% of Utah's population of 210,000, Chinese individuals made up less than 0.4%, and Native Americans made up 1.6%. In 1939, the two-thirds-Mormon majority Utah State Legislature expanded the law to prohibit a White person from marrying a "Mongolian, a member of the malay race or a mulatto, quadroon, or octoroon." Unlike laws in other states, Utah's law did not prohibit marriages between White people and Native American people. Utah's 1852 ban on most interracial marriages remained until it was repealed over a century later by its legislature in 1963.

Interracial marriages with Native Americans

Mormons considered Native Americans to be a higher race than Black people, based on their belief that Native Americans were descendants of the biblical Israelites, and they also believed that through intermarriage, the skin color of Native Americans could be restored to a "white and delightsome" state. On July 17, 1831, church founder Joseph Smith said he received a revelation in which God wanted several early elders of the church to eventually marry Native American women in a polygamous relationship so their posterity could become "white, delightsome, and just."

Though Smith's main successor Young he believed that Native American peoples were "degraded", and "fallen in every respect, in habits, custom, flesh, spirit, blood, desire", he permitted Mormon men to marry Native American women as part of a process that would make Native people white and delightsome and restore them to their "pristine beauty" within a few generations. However, Native American men were prohibited from marrying White women in Mormon communities.

Young performed the first recorded sealing ceremony between a "Lamanite" and a White member in October 1845 when an Oneida man Lewis Dana and Mary Gont were sealed in the Nauvoo Temple. There is evidence that Young may have married his Bannock servant Sally. Sally later married Ute chief Kanosh. By 1870 only about 30 White, Mormon men had Native American wives, and few additional interracial marriages with Native Americans occurred. Later church leaders taught Native American skins would be lightened through some other method, and under the presidency of Spencer W. Kimball, the church began officially discouraging any White-Native interracial marriages.

In canonized scripture

The Book of Mormon

In the Book of Mormon, the Lord cursed the Lamanites, and as a sign of the curse their skin was marked with blackness. The black marking was made so that the Nephites would not find the Lamanites "enticing", so "that they might not mix and believe in incorrect traditions", and so they would remain a separate people. If a Nephite intermarried and had children with a Lamanite, the Lord also cursed and marked them, and cursed their descendants.

Hugh Nibley, a prominent Mormon apologist, argued that the curse could be thought of as traditions inconsistent with God's commandments. He also posited the curse did not spread through interracial reproduction, but that by intermarrying Nephites would participate in Lamanite traditions, so God placed the mark to prevent the spread of Lamanite culture among the Nephites. The Book of Mormon Seminary Teacher Manual currently used to teach seminary students about the Book of Mormon, quotes apostle Joseph Fielding Smith as stating that the skin color was changed to "keep the two peoples from mixing".

The Pearl of Great Price

In the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price, the name of Ham's wife is Egyptus, which is given the meaning of forbidden. It teaches that their grandson, Pharaoh, was a descendant of the Canaanites (Abraham 1:22), a race of people who had been cursed with black skin for committing genocide against "the people of Shum". W. W. Phelps, an early church leader, taught that Ham himself was cursed because he had married a Black wife. In The Way to Perfection, apostle Joseph Fielding Smith quoted B. H. Roberts in pointing out that Egyptus means forbidden, and suggests that might be because she was "of a race with which those who held the priesthood were forbidden to intermarry."

The Bible

In Genesis Isaac commands Jacob not to marry the Canaanites. The Old Testament Student Manual, which is the manual currently used to study the Bible's Old Testament in church Institutes of Religion, teaches that Ham's sons were denied the priesthood because he had married Egyptus. It also states it is because "a daughter of Canaan would not be worthy to join Jacob in entering into a marriage covenant with the Lord." In Deuteronomy, the Israelites were commanded not to marry the Canaanites. In 1954, apostle Mark E. Petersen used this as an example of why the church did not allow interracial marriages. Another example of intermarriage in the Bible is that from the book of Judges in which Samson marries a Philistine woman. The LDS Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual teaches that marrying a Philistine was against the will of God.

19th-century teachings on Black–White marriages

Black people and the Latter Day Saint movement
Overview articles Black people and Mormonism Black people and early Mormonism History of African Americans in Utah Black Mormons Genesis Group LDS temple and priesthood policies 1978 Revelation on Priesthood
Historical teachings Mormon teachings on skin color Curses of Cain and Ham Mormonism and slavery History of slavery in Utah Act in Relation to Service Joseph Smith's views Premortal life Patriarchal blessings Civil rights and Mormonism Segregation Interracial marriage Lynching of Thomas Coleman
Living people Michelle Amos Thurl Bailey Alex Boyé Alan Cherry Brandon Davies Joseph Freeman Darius Gray Keith N. Hamilton Alvin B. Jackson Frank Jackson Peter M. Johnson JTM Bryan Kehl Gladys Knight Mia Love Burgess Owens Mark Paredes Jabari Parker Marvin Perkins Darron Smith Catherine Stokes Shaquille Walker Winston Wilkinson Jamal Willis
Deceased people Elijah Abel Joseph T. Ball Amanda and Samuel Chambers Eldridge Cleaver Gobo Fango Green Flake Mary Lee Pugh Hope Jane Manning James Peter Kerr Walker Lewis William McCary
Category Pan-Africanism
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Joseph Smith

In 1843 church founder Joseph Smith wrote, "Had I to do with the Negro I would confine them by strict aw to their own species," in reference to interracial marriage. A year later as mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, he held a trial and fined two Black men the modern equivalent of thousands of dollars for trying to marry White women. A decade earlier hundreds of non-Mormon citizens of Jackson County, Missouri accused the LDS community of inviting Black people to live among them, thus, creating the risk of interracial marriage. Critics cited this as a reason for demanding the removal of Mormon people from the state. The apostle Parley P. Pratt denied this invitation had taken place, however.

There are other records of Smith's teaching on interracial marriage. For example, in 1897 First Presidency member George Q. Cannon wrote in his journal that Joseph Smith had taught a later president of the church, John Taylor, that a White man married to a woman with Black ancestry could not receive the priesthood, and that they both would be killed along with any of their children if the penalty of the law were executed. Three years later Cannon also stated that Smith had taught Taylor that any male child born with any Black heritage from one or more parents could not receive the priesthood as he was "tainted with Negro blood." In 1908, church president Joseph F. Smith stated the church founder had declared the priesthood ordination of Elijah Abel as void as he had a Black great-grandparent due to a mixed-race marriage. Abel was referred to as an octoroon man at the time for his one-eighth Black heritage. Abel's petitions for temple ordinances were also denied by Smith's next successors Brigham Young and John Taylor because of his Black ancestor.

Brigham Young

On at least three occasions (1847, 1852, and 1865) Smith's successor Brigham Young publicly taught that the punishment for Black–White interracial marriages was death, and the killing of a Black–White interracial couple and their children as part of a blood atonement would be a blessing to them. He further stated that interracial children are sterile "like a mule", a teaching later repeated in a church magazine. Young taught that the moment the church consents to White members having children with Black individuals the church would go to destruction, and that, "Any man having one drop of the seed of Cain in him cannot hold the priesthood." Young also taught that a White person who had children with a Black person would be cursed to the priesthood.

Similar to honor killings as well as a form of human sacrifice, blood atonement is the belief that Jesus' atonement for humanity's sins does not apply to some sins, such as interracial sexual activity and marriage, because they are too serious. To atone for these sins, their perpetrators should be killed in a way that allows their blood to be shed upon the ground as a sacrificial offering. This doctrine was most widely taught during the Mormon Reformation. Examples of how Young applied his teaching of it with regard to interracial relationships are as follows:

• 1847 — Young heard of a Mormon family composed of a Black man Enoch Lovejoy Lewis (son of ordained priesthood holder Kwaku Walker Lewis), a White woman Mary Matilda Webster, and their interracial child living in Massachusetts and responded that if the family wasn't living so close to non-Mormons "they would all have to be killed" since the law is that Black and White seed should not be "amalgamated".
• 1852 — As territory governor, Young stated before the territory legislature that if a White man had children with a Black woman, he should request to have his head chopped off. He continued saying that if someone were to kill the man, woman and any children of such a union, that it would be a blessing to them and "it would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin".
• 1865 — In a speech in the Salt Lake Tabernacle Young repeated the teaching of death as punishment for Black and White individuals producing interracial offspring, stating the penalty would always be in place.

Interracial marriages of William McCary

In 1847, former slave and Mormon convert William McCary drew the ire of Brigham Young and others in Nauvoo for his marriage to a White woman, Lucy Stanton, and his later alleged mixed-race polygamous sealings to additional White women without church authorization. McCary stated he had Native American heritage in order to marry Stanton and avoid the greater stigma that the few Black people in Nauvoo faced. The most common interpretation of the events around McCary and his excommunication is that they contributed to or precipitated the subsequent ban of Black members from temple ordinances and priesthood authority. McCary elicited the first recorded general authority statement connecting race and priesthood restriction when the apostle Parley Pratt referred to him as the "black man who has got the blood of Ham in him which linege was cursed as regards the priesthood."

Lynching of Thomas Coleman

In 1866, Thomas Coleman, a Black member of the LDS Church, was murdered in Salt Lake City after it was discovered he was courting a White woman. His throat was slit so deeply from ear to ear that he was nearly decapitated, and his right breast was slit open, similar to the penalties simulated in the temple endowment and taught by Brigham Young. He was also castrated and his killer(s) pinned a note warning Black men to stay away from White women to his chest. Historian D. Michael Quinn stated that this murder was a fulfillment of Young's 1852 teaching that the penalty for mixed-ethnic marriage was decapitation. The LDS apologetics organization FAIR argued that Coleman's death may have been unrelated to Young's teachings or temple penalties, since Coleman was not an endowed church member.

Under Wilford Woodruff

In the late 1800s at least two White members were denied church ordinances after marrying a Black person. In 1895, a White woman was denied a temple sealing to her White husband because she had previously married a Black man, even though she had since divorced him. First Presidency member George Q. Cannon argued that allowing her access to the temple would not be fair to her two, multi-ethnic daughters, whom she'd had with her former husband. Cannon recorded in his journal having stated in 1881 that when it came to the important question of interracial marriage, Mormons believed against "intermarriage with inferior races, particularly the negro." A White man was denied the priesthood in 1897 because he had married a Black woman, though, then senior apostle Lorenzo Snow stated the man would be eligible if he divorced his wife and married a White woman. In 1899 a White woman Caroline Amelia Bailey and her Black husband Elijah A. Banks were baptized into the LDS Church in Minneapolis. They would later be denied temple ordinances and Banks priesthood ordination in 1910.

1900–1950 teachings

George Q. Cannon

In 1900, George Q. Cannon, first counselor in the First Presidency under Lorenzo Snow, repeated Young's teachings that if a priesthood-holding man married a Black woman, then according to God's law, the man and any offspring should be killed so the seed of Cain would not receive the priesthood. That same year a Black man John Wesley Harmon Jr. and his wife Lilian Blanche Clark, a daughter of a Nanticoke chief, joined an LDS congregation in Delaware.

Under Joseph F. Smith (1901—1918)

A Southern states mission president German Ellsworth was worried about the presence of Black-White marriages like the Banks' and instructed his missionaries around 1902 to stop working among Black people as he stated the presence of Black members and interracial couples slowed the recruitment of White people. As church president Joseph F. Smith declared in 1907 that anyone with "negro blood" to any "remote a degree" was "deprived of the rights of the priesthood because of the decree of the Almighty." John Wesley Harmon was told in a 1911 letter from the First Presidency Smith that his appeal for ordination to the priesthood was denied citing the "curse of Ham". He left the LDS Church shortly after.

Rudger Clawson

In 1903 the Quorum of the Twelve and First Presidency denied a temple sealing to a man with one Black great-grandparent. The apostle Rudger Clawson recorded that the man was "tainted with negro blood". A few days after the decision Clawson stated in a stake conference that the White members should be glad to be "wellborn" so they can have the blessings of the temple and referenced the young man who was denied a temple marriage as he was one-eighth Black and "tainted with the blood of Cain". Clawson later lamented in a meeting that the man's white father of "pure parentage" had brought a curse upon his posterity by marrying a woman with a Black grandparent.

B. H. Roberts

Some other early-20th-century teachings on the subject include the highly influential 1907 Deseret News five-volume book series The Seventy's Course in Theology by church seventy and prominent Mormon theologian B. H. Roberts. In it Roberts dedicates an entire lesson of the first volume to the "Negro Race Problem", and approvingly quoted a Southern author who stated that a social divide between White and Black people should be maintained at all costs as socializing would lead to mixed-race marriages with an inferior race, and no disaster would compare to this mixing as it would doom the Caucasian race. The lesson cited multiple biological justifications such as craniology (phrenology) to defend banning Black–White "commingling". Additionally, a 1913 church publication in the church's Young Woman's Journal encouraged young women to maintain White racial purity and health by avoiding "race disintegration" and "race suicide" through interracial reproduction.

J. Reuben Clark

First Presidency member J. Reuben Clark told top leaders of the church's Young Women in 1946 that, "It is sought today in certain quarters to break down all race prejudice, and at the end of the road ... is intermarriage. ...o not ever let that wicked virus get into your systems that brotherhood either permits or entitles you to mix races which are inconsistent. Biologically, it is wrong; spiritually, it is wrong." The quote was reprinted in the church's official Improvement Era magazine. Three years later as senior vice-president of the church-owned Hotel Utah which then banned Black people, Clark stated that the hotel's ban was in place to prevent interracial socializing that could hurt church leaders' efforts "to preserve the purity of the race that is entitled to hold the priesthood" and that the church taught White members to avoid social interaction with Black people.

Under George Albert Smith

In 1947, the First Presidency, headed by George Albert Smith, sent a response letter to a California stake president inquiring on the subject stating, "Social intercourse between the Whites and the Negroes should certainly not be encouraged because of leading to intermarriage, which the Lord has forbidden. ... rying to break down social barriers between the Whites and the Blacks is that should not be encouraged because inevitably it means the mixing of the races if carried to its logical conclusion." Two months later in a letter to another member Utah State sociology professor Lowry Nelson, the First Presidency stated that marriage between a White person and a Black person is "most repugnant" and "does not have the sanction of the Church and is contrary to church doctrine".

1950–1978 teachings

Under David O. McKay

The latter half of the 20th century saw many changes in American legal and social views on interracial marriages, and many changes in top church leaders' teachings on the topic. For instance, church apostle Mark E. Petersen said in a 1954 address that church doctrine barred Black people and White people from marrying each other. The speech was circulated among the faculty of church-run Brigham Young University (BYU), much to the embarrassment of fellow LDS scholars. Over twenty years later Petersen denied knowing if the copies of his speech being passed around were authentic or not, apparently out of embarrassment for his previous statements.

In 1958, church apostle Bruce R. McConkie published Mormon Doctrine, in which he stated that "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." The quote remained for half a century, despite many other revisions, until the church's Deseret Book ceased printing the book in 2010. The apostle Delbert L. Stapley stated in a 1964 letter to George W. Romney that Black people should not be entitled to "inter-marriage privileges with the Whites."

In 1960, BYU leaders were "very much concerned" when a male Black student received a large number of votes for BYU student vice president, and, subsequently, apostle Harold Lee told BYU president Ernest Wilkinson he would hold him responsible if one of his granddaughters ever went to "BYU and becme engaged to a colored boy". A few months later in 1961 BYU's board of trustees decided for the first time to officially discourage Black students from attending BYU and encourage them to attend other universities. By 1965 administrators were sending a rejection letter to Black applicants which cited BYU's discouragement of interracial courtship and marriage as the motive behind the decision. By 1968 there was only one Black American student at BYU.

In 1966, a White woman who had received her endowment was banned by local leaders from returning to the temple and was told her temple ordinances were invalid because she had since married a Black man. Church president David O. McKay upheld her exclusion from church temples, but stated that her endowment was still valid.

Spencer W. Kimball

Then apostle Spencer W. Kimball gave several speeches addressing the topic of interracial marriage. In a 1958 BYU address he stated that "hen I said you must teach your people to overcome their prejudices and accept the Indians, I did not mean that you would encourage intermarriage ... we must discourage intermarriage ... it is not expedient." He added that interracial marriage was not considered a sin. In a January 1959 address Kimball taught that church leaders were unanimous in teachings that Caucasians should marry Caucasians, stating that interracial marriage was selfish because the background differences could be a challenge for the marriage and the couple's children. He also told BYU students in 1965 that "the brethren feel that it is not the wisest thing to cross racial lines in dating and marrying", something he repeated at BYU as church president in 1976.

Teachings from 1978–present

Many church publications since the 1978 lifting of the Black temple and priesthood ban have contained statements discouraging interracial marriage. In the same June 1978 issue announcing that Black members were now eligible for temple ordinances, missionary service, and priesthood ordination, the official church newspaper also printed the article "Interracial marriage discouraged". The same day of the change, a church spokesperson stated "interracial marriages generally have been discouraged in the past, ... that remains our position" and that "the Church does not prohibit ... interracial marriages but it does discourage them."

In 2003, author Jon Krakauer stated in his book Under the Banner of Heaven that "official LDS policy has continued to strongly admonish White saints not to marry blacks". In response, the church's public affairs released a statement from BYU Dean of Religious Education Robert L. Millet that "here is, in fact, no mention whatsoever in handbook concerning interracial marriages. In addition, having served as a Church leader for almost 30 years, I can also certify that I have never received official verbal instructions condemning marriages between Black and White members." Though, denying any condemnation of interracial marriage, there was no comment on whether it was still discouraged. The most recent statement came in 2008 when spokesperson Mark Tuttle stated that the church has no policy against interracial marriage.

Church leaders' discouragement of marriage between those of different ethnicities continued being taught to youth during church Sunday meetings until 2013, when the use of the 1996 version of the Sunday school textbook for adolescent boys was discontinued. The manual had used a 1976 quote from past church president Kimball which read, "We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally". The quote remains in the still-used, institute Eternal Marriage Student Manual. Additionally, a footnote to a 1995 general conference talk by the apostle Russell M. Nelson noted that loving without racial discrimination is a general commandment, but not one to apply to specific marriage partner criteria since it states that being united in ethnic background increases the probability of a successful marriage. In 2013, the church published an essay called "Race and the Priesthood". The article disavowed teachings in the past that interracial marriage was a sin, indicating that it was influenced by racism of the time. A 2023 survey of over 1,000 former church members in the Mormon corridor found race issues in the church to be one of the top three reported reasons why they had disaffiliated.

See also

• Anti-miscegenation laws
• Black people and Mormonism
• Celestial marriage
• Culture of the LDS Church
• Marriage in the LDS Church
• Phrenology and the Latter Day Saint movement
• Race and sexuality
• Racial segregation of churches in the United States

References

1. Packer, Boyd. Follow the Rule (Speech). LDS Church. Retrieved August 26, 2017 – via BYU. We've always counseled in the Church for our Mexican members to marry Mexicans, our Japanese members to marry Japanese, our Caucasians to marry Caucasians, our Polynesian members to marry Polynesians. The counsel has been wise. ... You might even say, 'I can show you local Church leaders or perhaps even general leaders who have married out of their race.' I say, 'Yes—exceptions.' Then I would remind you of that Relief Society woman's near-scriptural statement, 'We'd like to follow the rule first, and then we'll take care of the exceptions.'
2. ^ Bush, Lester E. (1973). "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview" (PDF). Dialogue. 8 (1).
3. ^ Anderson, Devery S. (2011). The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. p. xlvi. ISBN 9781560852117 – via Google Books. The next year , President McKay addressed a similar issue regarding a woman who had been to the temple and subsequently married a black man. The woman was told by her local Church leader 'that no further Temple visits would be allowed her, and that because of her marriage to a Negro her Temple endowments are ineffective.' McKay overruled the invalidation of her endowments but did prevent her from visiting the temple again.
4. ^ Bringhurst, Newell G.; Smith, Darron T., eds. (2004). Black and Mormon. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252073568 – via Google Books.
5. ^ Park, Benjamin (April 18, 2017). "Why it's time for the Mormon Church to revisit its diverse past". The Conversation. Further, the faith has a long history of shunning interracial relationships. At points, some of its leaders even flirted with theories of eugenics, or the belief that they could help cultivate a pure race. Just until four years ago , a youth manual informed young men that the Church 'recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background.'
6. ^ Aaronic Priesthood: Manual 3 (PDF). Salt Lake City: LDS Church. 1995. p. 128. We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally, and of somewhat the same economic and social and educational background (some of those are not an absolute necessity, but preferred), and above all, the same religious background, without question.
7. ^ Eternal Marriage Student Manual (PDF). LDS Church. 2003. p. 169.
8. ^ Bush, Lester E. Jr.; Mauss, Armand L., eds. (1984). Neither White Nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-22-2. Archived from the original on October 1, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
9. ^ Mauss, Armand L. (2003). All Abraham's Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02803-1 – via Google Books.
10. ^ Turner, John G. (September 20, 2012). Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet. Harvard University (1st ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. p. 210. ISBN 978-0674049673 – via Internet Archive. When Young first entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, he had emphasized that the Saints 'would ... take their squaws & ... raise up children by them.' After several generations, he predicted, 'they will become A white & delightsome people' ... However, intermarriage was forbidden when the roles were reversed, both in Mormon communities and throughout the West. Young observed that it was 'against law for a woman to take an Indian husband.' 'The governing principle is in the husband,' he clarified, 'and by prayer they will bring forth white children.'
11. ^ Fletcher Stack, Peggy (December 16, 2013). "Mormon church traces black priesthood ban to Brigham Young". The Salt Lake Tribune.
12. ^ "Race and the Priesthood". LDS church. December 13, 2013. 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. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.
13. ^ Mason, Patrick Q. "The Prohibition of Interracial Marriage in Utah,1888-1963". Utah Historical Quarterly. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved April 9, 2018.
14. Smith, John Henry (October 2, 1882). "Utah News". Millennial Star. Vol. 44, no. 40. London: LDS Church. p. 639. Retrieved August 26, 2017 – via Google Books. The caste population of Utah according to the last census in 1880, was as follows: "Mormons," 120,283; Gentiles, 14,156; Apostates, 6,988; Josephites, 820; Doubtful, 1,716.
15. ^ Marianno, Scott D. (July 1, 2015). To Belong as Citizens: Race and Marriage in Utah, 1880-1920. Logan, Utah: Utah State University. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
16. Iber, Jorge (2001). Hispanics in the Mormon Zion, 1912-1999 (2001 Paperback ed.). College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press. p. 55. ISBN 1585442054 – via Google Books. Prior to 1930 Utah's predominantly Mormon population (65 percent classified as practicing Mormons in 1930) took justifiable pride in its tradition of self-sufficiency.
17. Bulkeley, Deborah (April 13, 2007). "Mixed marriages on rise". Deseret News. LDS Church. Archived from the original on September 8, 2010. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
18. Marquardt, H. Michael (1999). The Joseph Smith Revelations. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. p. 375. ISBN 1-56085-126-0. Retrieved September 2, 2017. For it is my will, that in time, ye should take unto you wives of the Lamanites and Nephites, that their posterity may become white, delightsome and Just, for even now their females are more virtuous than the gentiles.
19. ^ B. Carmon Hardy (August 30, 2017). Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy—Its Origin, Practice, and Demise. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 34–37. ISBN 9780806159133 – via Google Books.
20. Turner, John G. (September 20, 2012). Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet. Harvard University (1st ed.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0674049673 – via Internet Archive.
21. Shirley Ann Wilson Moore (October 20, 2016). Sweet Freedom's Plains: African Americans on the Overland Trails, 1841–1869. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806156866 – via Google Books.
22. Mueller, Max Perry (September 2014). Black, White, and Red: Race and the Making of the Mormon People, 1830-1880 (PDF) (PhD). Harvard University. pp. 218–219. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 10, 2018 – via Internet Archive. Such unions would join together the two most favored Israelite bloodlines, the (mostly white) progeny of Ephraim and the (mostly red) sons and daughters of Manasseh. Such unions would also help civilize the Indians so that they could fulfill the Book of Mormon precedent to become 'white, delightsome, and just.' 'We will have intermarriages with ,' Brigham Young purportedly taught, so 'the curse of their color shall be removed, and they restored to their pristine beauty.' The creation of covenants—in this case marriage covenants—between white Latter-day Saints of 'chosen seed' and the Native American descendants of the lost tribes of Israel was the fulfillment of Book of Mormon prophecy.
23. ^ Mueller, Max Perry (September 11, 2017). Race and the Making of the Mormon People. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1469633756 – via Google Books.
24. Mueller, Max Perry (September 2014). Black, White, and Red: Race and the Making of the Mormon People, 1830-1880 (PDF) (PhD). Harvard University. p. 188. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 10, 2018 – via Internet Archive. As Heber C. Kimball explained it in his journal, this unprecedented union of the Lamanite Dana and Gont, 'a white woman,' was sanctioned because Dana 'was civilized and had been an Elder about four years.'
25. Winslow, Ben (September 22, 2012). "Brigham Young's secret wife?". Fox 13 Salt Lake City. Tribune Broadcasting. KSTU. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
26. Van Leer, Twila (March 12, 1996). "Chief Praised By Indians Whites Alike". Deseret News. LDS Church. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
27. Bennion, Michael Kay (August 1, 2012). Captivity, Adoption, Marriage and Identity: Native American Children in Mormon Homes, 1847-1900 (Master of History thesis). Las Vegas, Nevada: University of Nevada, Las Vegas. p. 66. Archived from the original on October 12, 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
28. Arrington, Leonard J.; Bitton, Davis (March 1, 1992). The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints (2nd ed.). University of Illinois Press. p. 150. ISBN 0252062361. Relevant sections quoted at mormonmatters.org Archived October 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine.
29. ^ Kimball, Spencer W. (1982). The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball. Bookcraft. p. 226. ISBN 9780884944720 – via Google Books. Cultural differences pose dangers for marriage. When I said you must teach your people to overcome their prejudices and accept the Indians, I did not mean that you would encourage intermarriage. I mean that they should be brothers, to worship together and to work together and to play together; but we must discourage intermarriage, not because it is sin. I would like to make this very emphatic. A couple has not committed sin if an Indian boy and a white girl are married, or vice versa. It isn't a transgression like the transgressions of which many are guilty. But it is not expedient. Marriage statistics and our general experience convince us that marriage is not easy.
30. Jacob 3:5
31. 2nd Nephi 5:21
32. Alma 3:8
33. Alma 3:14
34. Alma 3:15
35. 2nd Nephi 5:23
36. Alma 3:9
37. Nibley, Hugh (2004). "Lecture 44: Alma 2–3, Alma and Amlici". Teachings of the Book of Mormon: Semester 2. Provo, Utah: BYU. p. 197.
38. Book of Mormon Seminary Teacher Manual. LDS Church. 2012. pp. 91–93. The dark skin was placed upon the Lamanites so that they could be distinguished from the Nephites and to keep the two peoples from mixing. The dark skin was the sign of the curse. The curse was the withdrawal of the Spirit of the Lord.
39. Moses 7:7
40. ^ Harris, Matthew L.; Bringhurst, Newell G. (2015). The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-08121-7 – via Google Books.
41. Joseph Fielding Smith. Cain, Ham, and the Priesthood.
42. Genesis 28:1
43. Old Testament Student Manual Genesis-2 Samuel. LDS Church. Therefore, although Ham himself had the right to the priesthood, Canaan, his son, did not. Ham had married Egyptus, a descendant of Cain (Abraham 1:21-24), and so his sons were denied the priesthood.
44. Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual. LDS Church.
45. Deuteronomy 7
46. Judges 14
47. Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual. LDS Church. 2014.
48. Old Testament: Gospel Doctrine Teacher's Manual. LDS Church. 2001.
49. ^ Bushman, Richard Lyman (2005). Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 517. ISBN 1-4000-4270-4 – via Google Books. Probably by 'confinement to their own species' he meant no intermarriage.
50. ^ Smith, George (1948). History of the Church, Vol. 6. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book. p. 210. Retrieved August 28, 2017 – via BYU.
51. Smith, George (1948). History of the Church, Vol. 5. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book. p. 217 – via BYU.
52. Smith, Joseph. Journal, December 1842–June 1844. Vol. 3. LDS Church. 15 July 1843–29 February 1844 – via The Joseph Smith Papers.
53. Johnson, Clark (October 1, 1992). Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833-1838 Missouri Conflict. Provo, Utah: Bookcraft. ISBN 0884948501. Archived from the original on June 29, 2018. Retrieved June 29, 2018 – via BYU. We are not prepared to give up our pleasant places and goodly possessions to them ; or to receive into the bosom of our families as fit companions for our wives and daughters, the degraded free negroes and mulattoes, who are now invited to settle among us.
54. Johnson, Clark (October 1, 1992). Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833-1838 Missouri Conflict. Provo, Utah: Bookcraft. ISBN 0884948501. Archived from the original on June 29, 2018. Retrieved June 29, 2018 – via BYU. The statement concerning our invitation to them to become Mormons, and remove to this state, and settle among us, is a wicked fabrication, as no such thing was ever published in the 'Star', or anywhere else, by our people, nor any thing in the shadow of it; and we challenge the people of Jackson, or any other people, to produce such a publication from us. In fact, one half dozen negroes or mulattoes, never have belonged to our Society, in any part of the world, from its first organization to this day, 1839.
55. ^ Cannon, George Q. The Journal of George Q. Cannon. LDS Church – via Church Historian’s Press.
56. Marianno, Scott D. (July 1, 2015). To Belong as Citizens: Race and Marriage in Utah, 1880-1920. Logan, Utah: Utah State University. pp. 57–58. Retrieved August 26, 2017. In 1897, the First Presidency considered a question related to interracial mixing involving a white husband who married someone 'either black or ... tainted with negro blood.' George Q. Cannon, in determining whether the husband should be ordained to the priesthood, reprised a statement attributed to John Taylor: 'a man who had the priesthood who would marry a woman of the accursed seed' and have the 'law of the Lord ... administered upon him ... would be killed and his offspring for ... the Lord had determined that the seed of Cain should not receive the priesthood in the flesh.' President Cannon feared that administering the priesthood to the offspring of a mixed-race marriage would hazard allowing the 'seed of the murderer ... ahead of the seed of Abel who was murdered.'
57. "Council Minutes, 16 Dec. 1897". George A. Smith Family Papers, Box: 78, Folder 7. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library.
58. "18 Aug 1900 Council minutes". Adam S. Bennion papers. Provo, Utah: Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.
59. ^ Turner, John G. (September 20, 2012). Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet. Harvard University (1st ed.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. p. 222. ISBN 978-0674049673. Retrieved August 28, 2017 – via Internet Archive. If they were far away from the Gentiles they wod all have to be killed hen they mingle seed it is death to all. If a black man & white woman come to you & demand baptism can you deny them? he law is their seed shall not be amalgmated. Mulattoes are like mules they can't have the children, but if they will be Eunuchs for the Kingdom of God's Heaven's sake they may have a place in the Temple.
60. ^ Collier, Fred C. (1987). The Teachings of President Brigham Young Vol. 3 1852–1854. Collier's Publishing. p. 44. ISBN 0934964017 – via Google Books. 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 them 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, although the true principles of it are not understood.
61. ^ Young, Brigham (1865). "The Persecutions of the Saints—Their Loyalty to the Constitution—The Mormon Battalion—The Laws of God Relative to the African Race" (PDF). Journal of Discourses. 10: 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.
62. Schaeffer, Frank (January 12, 2009). "Perspectives on Marriage: Score 1 For Gay America — 0 To The Mormons". Huffington Post.
63. Reynolds, George (November 1, 1868). "Man and His Varieties: Mixed Races-The Effects of Climate". The Juvenile Instructor. 3 (21). Salt Lake City: 165 – via Internet Archive. Some writers deny the possibility of a mixed race of people existing for any great length of time upon the Earth. They say the race would entirely die out ... There is a great deal of truth in this ... We do not believe in the permanency of a race descended from people so wide apart as the Anglo-Saxon and Negro. In fact we believe it a great sin in the eyes of our Heavenly Father for a white person to marry a black one. And further, it is proof of the mercy of God that that no such race appear able to continue for many generations.
64. Collier, Fred C. (1987). The Teachings of President Brigham Young Vol. 3 1852–1854. Collier's Publishing. p. 46. ISBN 0934964017 – via Google Books. ...suppose we ... 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 ....
65. Turner, John G. (August 18, 2012). "Why Race Is Still a Problem for Mormons". The New York Times.
66. Collier, Fred C. (1987). The Teachings of President Brigham Young Vol. 3 1852–1854. Collier's Publishing. p. 49. ISBN 0934964017 – via Google Books. if any man mingles his seed with the seed of Cane the only way he could get rid of it or have salvation would be to come forward & have his head cut off spill his blood upon the ground. It would also take the life of his hildren.
67. ^ Pulley Hudson, Angela (July 2015). "William McCary, Lucy Stanton, and the Performance of Race at Winter Quarters and Beyond". Journal of Mormon History. 41 (3): 97–130. doi:10.5406/jmormhist.41.3.97. JSTOR 10.5406/jmormhist.41.3.97. S2CID 246563870.
68. ^ Stevenson, Russell W. (Spring 2013). "'A Negro Preacher': The Worlds of Elijah Able" (PDF). Journal of Mormon History. 39 (2): 165–254. doi:10.2307/24243899. JSTOR 24243899. S2CID 254481484. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 18, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
69. Quinn, D. Michael (1997). The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power. Signature Books. p. 256. ISBN 9781560850601 – via Google Books.
70. "Blood Atonement". FAIR.
71. ^ Reeve, W. Paul (2015). Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-975407-6 – via Google Books.
72. ^ Park, Benjamin (January 16, 2024). American Zion: A New History of Mormonism. Liveright Publishing. ISBN 9781631498664 – via Google Books.
73. "Century of Black Mormons: Banks, Elijah A." J. Willard Marriott Library. University of Utah.
74. "Century of Black Mormons: Harmon, John Wesley Jr". J. Willard Marriott Library. University of Utah.
75. ^ Larson, Stan (1993). A Ministry of Meetings: The Apostolic Diaries of Rudger Clawson. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-92-3. Apostle Clawson desired an expression of the brethren in regard to a case that had come to his attention. A young man—a member of the church—had sought the hand of one of the daughters of Zion in marriage. She desired to be sealed in the temple. It was ascertained, however, that his mother was tainted with negro blood—she being one-fourth negro—while his father was the son of a prominent family in Israel. Would that be a bar to his entrance to the house of the Lord? It was decided that he could not have the blessings of the house of God.
76. ^ Brooks, Joanna (May 2020). Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and The Problem of Racial Innocence. New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190081751 – via Google Books.
77. Roberts, Brigham Henry (1907). The Seventy's Course in Theology, Vol. 1. Salt Lake City: Deseret News. pp. 165–166 – via Internet Archive. he south is entirely right in thus keeping open at all times, at all hazards, and at all sacrifices an impassible social chasm between black and white. This she must do in behalf of her blood, her essence, of the stock of her Caucasian race ... As a race, the Southern Caucasian would be irrevocably doomed. ... No other conceivable disaster that might befall the South could, for an instant, compare with such miscegenation within her borders. ... But some may deny that the mongrelization of the Southern people would offend the race notion ... That the negro is markedly inferior to the Caucasian is proved both craniologically and by six thousand years of planet-wide experimentation; and that the commingling of inferior with superior must lower the higher is just as certain as that the half-sum of two and six is only four ....
78. Middleton, George W. (July 1913). "The Real Eugenics Problem of America". The Young Woman's Journal. 24 (7). LDS Church. Salt Lake City: Deseret News: 408–410. Retrieved August 26, 2017 – via Google Books. The patriots of a hundred years ago are being overrun by the Polish Jews, and Italians, and Irish peasants who are flocking to America in droves ... If we are but true to ourselves, we have the very factors, geographically, spiritually, and socially, that shall perpetuate our race, and lift us up as a beacon light of civilization when all other parts of our great country have gone into the folly of race disintegration and given their birthright into the hands of undesirable foreigners.
79. Clark, J. Reuben (August 1946). "Plain Talk to Girls". Improvement Era. 49 (8): 492. Retrieved June 2, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
80. Quinn, D. Michael (Fall 2000). "Prelude to the National 'Defense of Marriage' Campaign: Civil Discrimination Against Feared or Despised Minorities" (PDF). Dialogue. 33 (3): 33. doi:10.2307/45226709. JSTOR 45226709. S2CID 254297822.
81. Quinn, D. Michael (2002). Elder Statesman: A Biography of J. Reuben Clark. Signature Books. p. 345. ISBN 1560851554. Retrieved October 9, 2017 – via Google Books. Since they are not entitled to the Priesthood, the Church discourages social intercourse with the negro race, because such intercourse leads to marriage, and the offspring possess negro blood and is therefore subject to the inhibition set out in our Scripture.
82. "Lowry Nelson and First Presidency Letter Exchange" (17 July 1947). Lowry Nelson papers, 1906-1985, Box: 20, folder 1. Utah State University, Merrill–Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division.
83. Whalen, William Joseph (1964). The Latter-Day Saints in the Modern Day World: An Account of Contemporary Mormonism. New York City: John Day Company. p. 254. Retrieved September 16, 2017 – via Google Books.
84. Petersen, Mark E. (August 27, 1954). Race Problems—As They Affect The Church (Speech). Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level. Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah – via Internet Archive.
85. Fletcher Stack, Peggy (May 21, 2010). "Landmark 'Mormon Doctrine' goes out of print". Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on May 25, 2010. Retrieved May 31, 2010 – via Internet Archive.
86. Graham-Russell, Janan (August 28, 2016). "Choosing to Stay in the Mormon Church Despite Its Racist Legacy". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
87. Montgomery, Morton (October 31, 2012). "George W. Romney's Franken-Son: Mitt & His 'Noble' Lies". The Daily Kos. Kos Media. Retrieved August 28, 2017. I fully agree the Negro is entitled to considerations, also stated above, but not full social benefits nor inter-marriage privileges with the Whites, nor should the Whites be forced to accept them into restricted White areas.
88. ^ Bergera, Gary James (Summer 2013). "'This Time of Crisis': The Race-Based Anti-BYU Athletic Protests of 1968–1971". Utah Historical Quarterly. 81 (3): 204–229. doi:10.2307/45063320. JSTOR 45063320. S2CID 254446844.
89. ^ "Mormons Oppose Dates, Marriage To Interracial". The Washington Post. July 15, 1978. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
90. Kimball, Spencer. "Teachings Concerning Marriage and Child-Bearing" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 15, 2007. Retrieved August 26, 2017 – via BYU-Idaho.
91. Kimball, Spencer W. (1982). The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball. Bookcraft. p. 226. ISBN 9780884944720 – via Google Books. The interrace marriage problem is not one of inferiority or superiority. ... It is a matter of backgrounds. The difficulties and hazards of marriage are greatly increased where backgrounds are different. ... When one considers marriage, it should be an unselfish thing, but there is not much selflessness when two people of different races plan marriage. They must be thinking selfishly of themselves. They certainly are not considering the problems that will beset each other and that will beset their children. ... We are unanimous, all of the Brethren, in feeling and recommending that Indians marry Indians, and Mexicans marry Mexicans; the Chinese marry Chinese and the Japanese marry Japanese; that the Caucasians marry the Caucasians, and the Arabs marry Arabs.
92. Kimball, Spencer. Marriage and Divorce (Speech). speeches.byu.edu. BYU. Retrieved August 28, 2017. 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, and of somewhat the same economic and social and educational background (some of those are not an absolute necessity, but preferred), and above all, the same religious background, without question. In spite of the most favorable matings, the evil one still takes a monumental toll and is the cause for many broken homes and frustrated lives.
93. Roberts, Paul T. (August 1983). "A History of the Development and Objectives of the LDS Church News Section of the Deseret News" (PDF). Theses and Dissertations. . Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Department of Communications: 7. Retrieved October 29, 2014.
94. "Interracial Marriage Discouraged". Deseret News. LDS Church. June 17, 1978. Retrieved August 27, 2017. 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.
95. Millet, Robert L. (June 27, 2003). "Church Response to Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven". LDS Church.
96. Fletcher Stack, Peggy (June 8, 2008). "Mormon and Black: Grappling with a racist past". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
97. Embry, Jessie L. (1994). Black Saints in a White Church. Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-044-2. Retrieved August 26, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
98. Nelson, Russell. "Children of the Covenant". LDS Church. Retrieved August 28, 2017. 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.
99. Riess, Jana (March 8, 2024). "Who is leaving the LDS Church? Eight key survey findings". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, Utah. Religion News Service. Archived from the original on March 9, 2024 – via Internet Archive.

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Mormonism and race
• Sexuality and Mormonism
• Marriage in Mormonism
• Interracial marriage in the United States