Racism in Mormonism

A recently published book looks at the forgotten stories of fifty African-American Mormons who were members of the early LDS Church. A review of the book concludes that, while hopeful, these stories are also “wrenching” and “tragic.” What is wrenching and tragic about these stories, and why have they been forgotten—deliberately so, says the authors of the book?

Over the years in The Watchman Expositor we published a number of articles on racism in the LDS Church. You can find three of these on our website:

• In “The Long Promised Day Has Come,” Timothy Oliver looks at Official Declaration – 2, which extended the priesthood to “every faithful, worthy man in the Church without regard for race or color.”
• In “Foundation for Discrimination,” Oliver examines how LDS Scripture itself provided the basis for racial discrimination within the Church.
• Finally, in “Residual Racism in Modern Mormonism,” he looks at the possibility that LDS leaders would repute historic racist doctrines.

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