Revelation To Ordain Blacks to the Priesthood

Certainly, the most dramatic change instituted under President Kimball's leadership was the revelation to ordain blacks to the priesthood. On 9 June 1978, the First Presidency addressed a letter to the general and local officers of the Church throughout the world. In it, they said that they had been pleading "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." The letter went on to declare that the Lord had "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."

The New York Times called it "without question the most important shift by the church since it outlawed polygamy." Later, President Kimball recalled that he had prayed over the matter for many days in the temple. "I was very humble. . . . I was searching for this. I wanted to be sure." After his many visits to the temple to meditate and pray, President Kimball called a special meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve and asked them to remain following their meeting.

We considered this very seriously and thoughtfully and prayerfully. . . . I offered the final prayer and I told the Lord if it wasn't right, if He didn't want this change to come in the Church, that I would be true to it all the rest of my life. . . . We had this special prayer circle, then I knew that the time had came. I had a great deal to fight . . . myself, largely, because I had grown up with this thought that Negroes should not have the priesthood. . . . But this revelation and assurance came to me so clearly that there was no question about it.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve said that President Kimball "prayed with great faith and great fervor" and when he finished his prayer the "Lord gave a revelation by the power of the Holy Ghost." Elder McConkie noted that the revelation came to the "President of the Church and to each individual present." The result, he said, "was that President Kimball knew, and each one of us knew, independent of any other person, by direct and personal revelation to us, that the time had now come to extend the gospel and all its blessings and all its obligations, including the priesthood . . . to those of every nation, culture, and race, including the black race."


(Lengthening Our Stride: the Remarkable Administration of Spencer W. Kimball by Dennis L. Lythgoe Fn, BYU Studies, vol. 25 (1985), Number 4 - Fall 1985 12.)