Black Mormons
[citation needed] It has since grown, and in 1997, there were approximately 500,000 Black members of the church (about 5% of the total membership), mostly in Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean.
[7]: 14 Some Black people joined the church before the restrictions, such as Joseph T. Ball, Peter Kerr, and Walker Lewis, and others converted with their enslavers, including Elijah Abel and William McCary.
[10] Some members of the Black side of the Flake family say that Brigham Young emancipated their ancestor in 1854; however, at least one descendant states that Green was never freed.
[19] Melvyn Hammarberg explained the growth: "There is a kind of changing face of the LDS Church because of its continuing commitment to work in the inner cities.
"[20] Sociology and Religious Studies Professor Armand Mauss says African Americans are particularly attracted by the focus on promoting healthy families.
[21] Still, Don Harwell, president of the Genesis Group, sees it as a sign that "People are getting past the stereotypes put on the church.
[23]: 371 In the United States, researchers Newell G. Bringhurst and Darron T. Smith, in their 2004 book Black and Mormon, wrote that since the 1980s "the number of African American Latter-day Saints does not appear to have grown significantly.
They cite a survey showing that the attrition rate among African American Mormons in two towns is estimated to be between 60 and 90 percent.
"[25] In 2015, Joseph W. Sitati a member of The First Quorum of the Seventy, gave a public statement in which he estimated that 15,000 immigrants from various African countries had joined the Church in the United States.
[29] About the racial restriction policy, she said:[30]These two things: baptism and the Holy Ghost are the only requirements, contrary to popular belief, for entering the Celestial Kingdom and being with God for eternity if one is worthy.
Dunn, who was the son of a Scottish father and a Zulu mother, is believed to be the first Black African convert baptized in Africa in 1905, though he did not remain an active member for long.
[33] Another early convert of African descent was William Paul Daniels, who joined the LDS Church in 1915 while visiting relatives in Utah.
Wright repeatedly expressed to the First Presidency the difficulty in establishing the church in the region caused by the church-wide ban on ordaining men of Black African descent to the priesthood.
This was especially problematic because previous general authorities required even men who appeared white to prove a total lack of Black African ancestry before they could be ordained and records were often unavailable or incomplete.
In the early 1990s, the majority of Latter-day Saints in South Africa were English-speaking white people, mainly of British origin.
[44]: 102 Missionaries arrived in 1928 but were instructed to only work with German people living in the southern part of the country, since they were less likely to be Black.
Finally, they presented a lineage lesson were they taught about the Curse of Cain and specifically asked if they had Black ancestry.
Brazilian members often did not share American views on race, and did not want to implement the priesthood ban on Black men.
[45]: 31 This was partially alleviated in 1967 when the church allowed members who did not appear to be Black to have the priesthood even if they could not trace their genealogy out of Brazil.
The missionaries visited his home late one night and were worried about how to teach an African since the church had not yet reversed its policy.
The spiritual experiences that the Martins family had while investigating the church superseded their concerns for the racial policy of priesthood restriction, and they were baptized.
[48] In 1960, David O. McKay sent Glen G. Fisher on a fact-finding mission to Africa, where he found thousands of people waiting for him.
After the Nigerian government agreed to issue the visas, several members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles expressed their opposition to teaching Black people and voted to cancel the program.
[51] The church had an increase in membership upon repealing the ban by experiencing rapid growth in predominately Black communities while other mainstream sects have been losing members.
[22][52] After 1978 LDS Church growth in Brazil was "especially strong" among Afro-Brazilians, especially in cities such as Fortaleza and Recife along the northeast coast of the country.
[21] The church has been more successful among Black individuals outside the United States than inside, partly because there is less awareness of this past historic discrimination.
[64][65] In 2020 Ahmed Corbett, an African-American raised in West Philadelphia and resident in New Jersey for most of his life from about age 18, but recently moved to Utah, was called as a member of the Young Men General Presidency.
[66] Since Russell M. Nelson has become president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the rate of calling Black general authorities has significantly increased.
[71] In February 2014, Dorah Mkhabela, a Black South African, was made a member of the Young Women General Board.
[72] In 2005 Mauss commented "As far as leadership is concerned, the role of the various minorities in Mormonism as a whole is not yet very great, but it is growing, and it is crucial in parts of the world outside the U.S."[16] although it is unclear how up to date his views were even in that year.
