Mormonism Explained

Black Latter-day Saints: A History

Heritage — the people, not just the question. This page tells the history of Black Latter-day Saints the way it deserves to be told: through its people.

By Todd Noall · August 31, 2026 · 6 minute read

The Short Answer

Who are the Black Latter-day Saints this history belongs to?

Black men and women have been Latter-day Saints since the Church’s first years — ordained in Kirtland, walking to Nauvoo, driving the first wagons into the Salt Lake Valley, holding congregations together in Ghana before missionaries could come, and leading from the Church’s highest councils today. The history of Black Latter-day Saints is not a footnote to the priesthood restriction; the restriction is one chapter inside a longer story of faith that preceded it, endured it, and outlasted it.

“All are alike unto God... black and white, bond and free.”
— 2 Nephi 26:33, in print since 1830

Key Takeaways

Black converts were baptized from the Church’s earliest days, and congregations were interracial from the start; Elijah Abel was ordained an elder in 1836 and later a seventy.
The 1852 restriction was real and lasted 126 years — but it is one chapter, not the whole story, and its full record lives in its own study.
Jane Manning James and Elijah Abel both petitioned for temple blessings and were denied — and both remained faithful to the end of their lives.
In Ghana, Billy Johnson led congregations of believers for fourteen years before missionaries could come; thousands were waiting to be baptized in 1978.
After the revelation, Black leadership rose through the Church’s councils: Helvécio Martins (1990), Joseph W. Sitati (2009), Peter M. Johnson (2019), Tracy Y. Browning (2022).
Today the Church counts Black members in the hundreds of thousands, with Africa among its fastest-growing regions — and temples in Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Hard Questions, In Their Own Studies

Looking for the hard questions? They deserve full answers, and each has one. This page holds the people; the record and every position live in the studies:

The Priesthood Restriction

The full record, 1836–2025, the three-questions framework, and the 1978 revelation.

The Curse of Cain

The theory’s texts, verse by verse — and its disavowal by name.

Are Mormons Racist?

The present-tense question, in three honest parts.

The Book of Mormon & Race

Every verse, every reading.

The Through-Line

From the Beginning — and Through Everything

The history of Black Latter-day Saints is not a footnote to the restriction; the restriction is one chapter inside a longer story of faith that preceded it, endured it, and outlasted it. The timeline below runs the whole arc.

1830 to Today: The Whole Arc

1830s

Black converts are baptized from the Church’s earliest days, and congregations are interracial from the start. Elijah Abel is ordained an elder in 1836 and later a seventy — evidently with Joseph Smith’s knowledge — and serves missions for the Church he never left.

1840s

Q. Walker Lewis is ordained in Massachusetts; Brigham Young praises him in 1847 as “one of the best Elders, an African.” Jane Manning James walks much of the way to Nauvoo and lives in Joseph Smith’s household. Green Flake, baptized while enslaved, enters the Salt Lake Valley with the 1847 vanguard company and is among the first to put crops in the ground.

1852

President Brigham Young announces that men of Black African descent cannot be ordained — the beginning of a 126-year restriction. What happened, why it was explained as it was, and why it existed at all are three different questions with three different answers — the full record.

1870s

Samuel Chambers, baptized in 1844 while enslaved, gathers to Utah in 1870; his testimonies, recorded in his Salt Lake quorum through the 1870s, are among the treasures of early Utah records. Jane Manning James and Elijah Abel both petition for temple blessings and are denied — and both remain faithful to the end of their lives.

1964–78

In West Africa, congregations of believers — led by figures like Joseph William “Billy” Johnson in Ghana — study, organize, and wait more than a decade for missionaries the Church could not yet send. When the missionaries arrive in 1978, thousands are waiting to be baptized.

1971

The Genesis Group is organized under the direction of three apostles with Ruffin Bridgeforth as president — a support organization by and for Black Latter-day Saints that continues today.

1978

On June 1, 1978, President Spencer W. Kimball and the Twelve receive the revelation extending priesthood and temple blessings to all worthy members; it is canonized that September as Official Declaration 2.

1990–2022

Helvécio Martins of Brazil becomes the first Black General Authority in 1990 — his son Marcus had been the first Black missionary called after the revelation. Joseph W. Sitati of Kenya (2009) and Peter M. Johnson (2019) follow as the first Black African and first African American General Authorities; Tracy Y. Browning (2022) becomes the first Black woman in a general presidency of the Church.

2013–today

The Church’s 2013 essay disavows the past theories by name. The 2018 “Be One” celebration marks the revelation’s fortieth anniversary; an ongoing partnership with the NAACP follows; and in 2020 President Nelson declares from the pulpit that favor with God has never depended on the color of one’s skin. Today the Church counts Black members in the hundreds of thousands, with Africa among its fastest-growing regions.

The People

Names the History Belongs To

Every figure below is documented in the Church’s own historical publications. Where their stories intersect the restriction, the studies linked above carry the full record — these cards carry the lives.

Elijah Abel

Baptized in 1832; ordained an elder in 1836 and later a seventy; served three missions for the Church, the last in his seventies. He petitioned for his temple endowment late in life and was denied — and died within weeks of returning from his final mission, faithful. The restriction-era claim that his priesthood had been invalidated is contradicted by the documentary record.

c. 1808–1884

Church History Topics · Century of Black Mormons project

Q. Walker Lewis

A barber and abolitionist of Lowell, Massachusetts, ordained an elder in the 1840s. In 1847 Brigham Young himself commended him to a Church council as “one of the best Elders, an African” — a sentence that predates the restriction and complicates every tidy story about it.

d. 1856

Church History Topics (primary council minutes)

Jane Manning James

Walked much of the way to Nauvoo with her family; lived and worked in Joseph Smith’s household; crossed the plains in 1847. She petitioned Church leaders repeatedly for her temple blessings and was refused — and stayed, bearing testimony to the end. A president of the Church spoke at her funeral.

1822–1908

Church History Topics · her dictated autobiography

Green Flake

Baptized in 1844 while enslaved; entered the Salt Lake Valley with the vanguard company of 1847, days ahead of Brigham Young, and was among the first to plant crops in the valley. His life spans the whole moral complexity of the era — enslaved within a covenant community he helped found.

1828–1903

Church History Topics · pioneer company records

Samuel D. Chambers

Baptized in 1844, at about thirteen, while enslaved in Mississippi — then cut off from the Church for a quarter century. He gathered to Utah with his family in 1870, prospered as a farmer, and his testimonies, recorded in his deacons quorum minutes in the 1870s, are among the most moving documents in early Utah records.

1831–1929

Church History Topics (quorum minutes, primary record)

Joseph W. “Billy” Johnson

Encountered Church literature in Ghana in the 1960s and spent fourteen years gathering and leading congregations of unbaptized believers — holding meetings, singing the hymns, waiting for a Church that could not yet come. He was baptized when missionaries arrived in 1978 and later served as a patriarch.

1921–2012

Church History Topics: Ghana · Global Histories

Today

Leading the Church They Inherited

The generation after 1978 did not merely join; it rose. Three among many:

Helvécio Martins

Of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — the first Black General Authority. He had donated to the São Paulo Temple’s construction knowing his family could not then enter it; twelve years later he was a General Authority of the Church. His son Marcus was the first Black missionary called after the 1978 revelation.

Called 1990

Joseph W. Sitati & Peter M. Johnson

Sitati, of Kenya, became the first Black African General Authority in 2009; Johnson, in 2019, the first African American General Authority — a decade that moved Black leadership from milestone to expectation.

Called 2009 · 2019

Tracy Y. Browning

The first Black woman to serve in a general presidency of the Church, called to the Primary General Presidency in 2022 — teaching the Church’s children, worldwide, what the household of faith looks like.

Called 2022

Where This History Comes From

2 Nephi 26:33 — the scriptural frame. churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/26
Church History Topics: “Elijah Able,” “Jane Manning James,” “Samuel D. Chambers,” “Slavery and Abolition,” “Ghana” — the documented lives. churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics
“Race and the Priesthood,” Gospel Topics Essays (2013) — the disavowal by name. churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/race-and-the-priesthood
Official Declaration 2 (1978), with its 2013 introduction. churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/od/2
“Be One” celebration (2018) and President Russell M. Nelson, “Let God Prevail” (Oct. 2020) — the present teaching. churchofjesuschrist.org
Global Histories and Saints, Vol. 2–3 — the pioneer and international narratives. churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history
Century of Black Mormons project and Scripture Central historical studies — biographical scholarship (primary-record based). scripturecentral.org
The companion studies: the priesthood restriction, the curse-of-Cain theory, the present-tense question, and the Book of Mormon text.