1830–1978 and after
How a church that ordained Black men came to forbid it, and how it stopped
20 sources, ordered by evidentiary weight — primary and contemporary first, then documentary editions, then the argument. 18 of them are held as full text in the Mormon Corpus; the other 2 are reached only as quotations inside works that are held, and are marked.
Speeches Before the Utah Territorial Legislature, 23 January and 5 February 1852
Brigham Young
The moment the restriction was publicly announced, and the reasoning Young gave for it.
Journal of Discourses, 26 vols.
Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, John Taylor, George Q. Cannon and others
What Brigham Young and his contemporaries actually preached about race and priesthood, in their own words and at length.
Conference Reports, 1880–1970
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
What leaders said from the pulpit on race and lineage, including Kimball's October 1960 Lamanite address.
Doctrine and Covenants, Official Declaration 2 and its 2013 introductory header
Spencer W. Kimball, N. Eldon Tanner, Marion G. Romney
The canonized text of the 1978 revelation and the Church's own 2013 statement that its records offer no clear insights into the practice's origins.
Autobiography of Jane Elizabeth Manning James, dictated to Elizabeth J. D. Roundy
Jane Manning James
A Black Latter-day Saint woman's account of her own conversion, migration and faith in her own words.
First Presidency statements on the Negro question, 17 July 1947, 17 August 1949, 17 August 1951, 15 December 1969
First Presidency
That mid-century leaders framed the restriction as a direct commandment and doctrine, not a policy.
General Conference addresses, 1971–present
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
How rarely and how recently racism has been named from the pulpit, and how the 1978 revelation is remembered there.
Gospel Topics essay, "Race and the Priesthood"
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Exactly what the Church now disavows, and exactly what it declines to say.
Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, 4 vols.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
How the institution narrates this history to its own members today, including Jane James's petitions and the Genesis Group.
"Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview," Dialogue 8, no. 1: 11–68
Lester E. Bush Jr.
The documentary case that the restriction developed after Joseph Smith's death and rests on no known revelation.
Dialogue 12, no. 2 (Summer 1979): Newell G. Bringhurst, "Elijah Abel and the Changing Status of Blacks Within Mormonism"; Sterling M. McMurrin, "A Note on the 1963 Civil Rights Statement"
Newell G. Bringhurst; Sterling M. McMurrin
Abel's biography and the retroactive rewriting of it; and, from the man who brokered it, how the 1963 civil rights statement came about.
"The Fading of the Pharaohs' Curse: The Decline and Fall of the Priesthood Ban," Dialogue 14, no. 3
Armand L. Mauss
A sociologist's account of external pressure, internal negotiation and the Genesis Group's origins.
"Mormonism in Brazil," Dialogue 17:3; "The Mormon Priesthood Revelation and the São Paulo, Brazil Temple," Dialogue 23:1; "Helvécio Martins: First Black General Authority," JMH 36:3
Mark L. Grover
How lineage-tracing worked in practice in a racially mixed country, and the Brazilian context of the 1978 revelation.
"Writing 'Mormonism's Negro Doctrine': An Historical Overview (1973), Context and Reflections," JMH 25, no. 1: 229–271
Lester E. Bush Jr.
What it cost to publish the article, and what leaders did and did not do with the research beforehand.
Dialogue 51, no. 3 (Fall 2018), special issue on race
Joanna Brooks, Matthew L. Harris, Darron T. Smith, Alice Faulkner Burch and others
Patriarchal-blessing lineage practice, the 1908 reversal, and Black Latter-day Saint voices on what the ban's residue still costs.
Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality
Matthew L. Harris
The internal record: quorum debates, the civil rights years, the athletic protests, the Bott affair and the refusal to apologize.
Dialogue 57, no. 3 (Fall 2024), roundtable: Fifty Years since Lester Bush, "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine"
Darius A. Gray, Gregory A. Prince, Yvonne Bush, Newell G. Bringhurst, Robert A. Rees
Darius Gray's own appraisal of the article, and the editors' account of the decision to publish it.
FAIR Answers wiki, "Blacks and the priesthood" cluster (Origin, Nature, Lifting, Repudiated ideas, Social pressure)
FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research)
The strongest faithful case: that no revelation instituted the ban, that the explanations were folklore, and that 1978 was not caused by pressure.
Curse of Cain? Racism in the Mormon Church (2004); Mormons and Negroes (1970); The Negro in Mormon Theology (1967)
Jerald and Sandra Tanner
A contemporaneous documentary trail of the 1960s–70s protests, statements and press coverage.
MormonThink, "Blacks and the Priesthood" and "Race and the Priesthood — Response to LDS.org"; LDS Discussions, "Timeline of the LDS Church Ban on Blacks" and annotated Gospel Topics essay
MormonThink; LDS Discussions
The critical reading: that the 2013 essay omits material the 1947–1969 statements supply, and what that omission implies about prophetic authority.
