The Book of Mormon teaches that “all are alike unto God,” including “black and white, bond and free, male and female” (2 Nephi 26:33). Throughout the history of the Church, people of every race and ethnicity in many countries have been baptized and have lived as faithful members of the Church. During Joseph Smith’s lifetime, a few black male members of the Church were ordained to the priesthood. Early in its history, Church leaders stopped conferring the priesthood on black males of African descent. Church records offer no clear insights into the origins of this practice. Church leaders believed that a revelation from God was needed to alter this practice and prayerfully sought guidance. The revelation came to Church President Spencer W. Kimball and was affirmed to other Church leaders in the Salt Lake Temple on June 1, 1978. The revelation removed all restrictions with regard to race that once applied to the priesthood.

To Whom It May Concern:

On September 30, 1978, at the 148th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the following was presented by President N. Eldon Tanner, First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church:

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.

President Kimball has asked that I now read this letter:

June 8, 1978

To all general and local priesthood officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout the world:

Dear Brethren:

As we have witnessed the expansion of the work of the Lord over the earth, we have been grateful that people of many nations have responded to the message of the restored gospel, and have joined the Church in ever-increasing numbers. This, in turn, has inspired us with a desire to extend to every worthy member of the Church all of the privileges and blessings which the gospel affords.

Aware of the promises made by the prophets and presidents of the Church who have preceded us that at some time, in God’s eternal plan, all of our brethren who are worthy may receive the priesthood, and witnessing the faithfulness of those from whom the priesthood has been withheld, we have pleaded long and earnestly in behalf of these, our faithful brethren, spending many hours in the Upper Room of the Temple supplicating the Lord for divine guidance.

He has heard our prayers, and by revelation has confirmed that the long-promised day has come when every faithful, worthy man in the Church may receive the holy priesthood, with power to exercise its divine authority, and enjoy with his loved ones every blessing that flows therefrom, including the blessings of the temple. Accordingly, all worthy male members of the Church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or color. Priesthood leaders are instructed to follow the policy of carefully interviewing all candidates for ordination to either the Aaronic or the Melchizedek Priesthood to insure that they meet the established standards for worthiness.

We declare with soberness that the Lord has now made known his will for the blessing of all his children throughout the earth who will hearken to the voice of his authorized servants, and prepare themselves to receive every blessing of the gospel.

Sincerely yours,

SPENCER W. KIMBALL
N. ELDON TANNER
MARION G. ROMNEY
The First Presidency

Recognizing Spencer W. Kimball as the prophet, seer, and revelator, and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is proposed that we as a constituent assembly accept this revelation as the word and will of the Lord. All in favor please signify by raising your right hand. Any opposed by the same sign.

The vote to sustain the foregoing motion was unanimous in the affirmative.

Salt Lake City, Utah, September 30, 1978.

Note: Joseph Smith believed that black people were under a curse from God.
Starting in 1831, Smith said he translated parts of the Old Testament, and those parts have been interpreted to mean that Black people were the descendants of Cain and Ham. In his translation Smith wrote "Canaan shall be his servant and a veil of darkness shall cover him that he shall be known among all men." He also wrote "there was a blackness come upon all the children of Canaan", and "the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among them." The Pearl of Great Price, another LDS book of scripture, describes a blackness settling upon the children of Canaan; many critics take this as a reference to descendants of Cain.

Note: Brigham Young was a racist and barred blacks from temples.
Young, while seemingly open to Black men holding the priesthood under Smith's leadership and praising of Black members of the church, later as Smith's successor used the curse as justification of barring Black people from the priesthood, banning interracial marriages, and opposing Black suffrage. He stated that the curse would one day be lifted and that Black people would be able to receive the priesthood post-mortally.
“Now then, in the kingdom of God on the earth, a man who has the African blood in him cannot hold one jot nor tittle of Priesthood; Why? Because they are the true eternal principals the Lord Almighty has ordained, and who can help it − men cannot, the angels cannot, and all the powers of Earth and Hell cannot take it off, but thus saith the Eternal, ‘I am, what I am, I take it off at My pleasure’, and not one particle of power can that posterity of Cain have, until the time comes the [Lord] says He will have it taken away. That time will come, when they will have the privilege of all we have the privilege of, and more. In the Kingdom of God on the Earth the Africans cannot hold one particle of power in Government” Speech given to the Joint Session of the Legislature in Salt Lake City, on Thursday, February 5, 1852.
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. The nations of the earth have transgressed every law that God has given, they have changed the ordinances and broken every covenant made with the fathers, and they are like a hungry man that dreameth that he eateth, and he awaketh and behold he is empty. Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, March 8, 1863.

Note: John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff continued Brigham Young’s racism.
John Taylor taught on multiple occasions that the reason that a descendant of Cain was allowed to survive the flood so that the devil could be properly represented on the earth. The next president, Wilford Woodruff also affirmed that millions of people have Cain's mark of blackness drawing a parallel to modern Native Americans' "curse of redness".

Note: LDS racism continued through the first half of the 20th century.
In a 1908 Liahona article for missionaries, an anonymous but church-sanctioned author reviewed the scriptures about Blackness in the Pearl of Great Price. The author stated that Ham married a descendant of Cain. Therefore, Canaan received two curses, one from Noah, and one from being a descendant of Cain. The article states that Canaan was the "sole ancestor of the Negro race" and explicitly linked his curse to be "servant of servants" to Black priesthood denial. To support this idea, the article also discussed how Pharaoh, a descendant of Canaan according to LDS scripture, could not have the priesthood, because Noah "cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood". In 1931, apostle Joseph Fielding Smith wrote on the same topic in The Way to Perfection: Short Discourses on Gospel Themes. For evidence that modern Black people were descended from Cain, Smith wrote that "it is generally believed that" Cain's curse was continued through his descendants and through Ham's wife.   Smith states that "some of the brethren who were associated with the Prophet Joseph Smith have declared that he taught this doctrine."   Smith also includes statements by Brigham Young summarizing the curse and indicating that it would in the future be lifted.

Note: American society denounced racist institutions in the second half of the 20th century.
 The pressure on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to lift its ban on Black members holding the priesthood and entering temples mounted through mid-20th-century social, athletic, global, and legal development. Increasing national and local scrutiny from civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, challenged the church's racial segregation and discriminatory policies during the civil rights era. In the late 1960s and 1970s, athletic teams and universities (such as Stanford, the University of Wyoming, and others) boycotted or protested athletic competitions against Brigham Young University (BYU) over the church's racial restriction. As the church expanded internationally—particularly into places like Brazil (where the construction of the São Paulo Temple posed practical and moral questions about mixed-race and Black faithful members) and Africa—the policy created severe internal and logistical contradictions.

Note: President Spencer W. Kimball sought consensus among the Twelve Apostles and made up a revelation.
In 1978, when the church ended the ban on the priesthood, apostle Bruce R. McConkie taught that the ancient curse of Cain and Ham was no longer in effect. General authorities in the LDS Church favored Smith's explanation until 2013, when a Church-published online essay disavowed the idea that Black skin is the sign of a curse. The Old Testament Student Manual, which is published by the church and is the manual currently used to teach the Old Testament in LDS institutes, teaches that Canaan could not hold the priesthood because of the cursing of Ham his father, but makes no reference to race.

Note: LDS fanatics claim to have seen Cain that is covered with hair with dark skin.
According to the apostle Joseph Fielding Smith, Cain was cursed to roam the earth without dying. In 1835 church apostle David W. Patten said he saw the cursed Cain covered in hair with dark skin.   Abraham O. Smoot reported the sighting as fact to Joseph F. Smith in a letter. The apostle Abraham H. Cannon also accepted the accounting as fact, and prominent member Eliza R. Snow penned a poem in 1884 about the encounter. Then apostle and later church president Spencer W. Kimball retold the account as factual in his popular 1969 book The Miracle of Forgiveness. Joseph F. Smith's son E. Wesley Smith, then a mission president, reported seeing a "monstrous tall dark figure covered with black hair" in 1921, whom his apostle brother Joseph Fielding Smith confirmed was also Cain. Additional sightings were reported in South Weber, Utah in 1980, and Cain being the same as Bigfoot became a part of Mormon folklore with various other reported sightings.