--- title: Mormon Church Priesthood for Black Men: How Integration Happened description: Before June of 1978, the Mormon priesthood was denied to black men canonical: https://time.com/3905811/mormon-priesthood-men-women-integration/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-09T11:00:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:50:22.322Z article:section: History og:title: Mormon Church Priesthood for Black Men: How Integration Happened og:description: Integration didn't happen until June of 1978 og:url: https://time.com/3905811/mormon-priesthood-men-women-integration/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5913ac786b94f82/698852a6e53aba3dfc4ddf93/lds.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The Salt Lake Temple is the bastion of community for Mormons og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mormon Church Priesthood for Black Men: How Integration Happened twitter:description: Integration didn't happen until June of 1978 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5913ac786b94f82/698852a6e53aba3dfc4ddf93/lds.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why the Mormon Church Finally Let Black Men Into the Priesthood  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 9, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  The Salt Lake Temple, pictured in 1975 The Salt Lake Temple, pictured in 1975;National Geographic/Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jun 9, 2015 11:00 AM UTC In the 1970s, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a problem. The priesthood—which, as TIME later [explained](http://time.com/vault/issue/1978-06-19/page/67/), ” is not a clergy rank but a status achieved by nearly all male members”—was denied to black Mormons. The Church’s rules, which had been codified in the years before the Civil War, seemed increasingly out of step with the rest of America. Despite increasingly loud calls to change the practice, the Church dug in for most of the decade. Shortly after athletes began to [protest](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,840363,00.html) games with Brigham Young University, “Mormon elders reaffirmed their belief that blacks cannot be admitted to the priesthood,” TIME [reported](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,878674,00.html) in 1970\. The article went on to explain why that belief was so strongly held: --- > “” --- Amending that policy would take specific instruction from God, not exactly the easiest thing to come by—but it happened. On this day, [June 9, in 1978](https://books.google.com/books?id=5OBGf1djxKYC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=mormon+priesthood+black+june+9+1978+deseret+news&source=bl&ots=%5FAbIouUuNe&sig=HFnmsu6K4VgJJChrXEipSLtupdQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=qvxtVcfoN7OKsQTSiIHgDg&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=june%209%2C%201978&f=false), the _Deseret News_ carried the breaking news that “[every faithful, worthy man in the Church may receive the holy priesthood](https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/od/2).” “The church leaders said they had spent many hours in the Upper Room of the Salt Lake City Temple,” TIME [reported](http://time.com/vault/issue/1978-06-19/page/67/) the following week. “Eventually God ‘confirmed that the long-promised day has come.'” Relatively few people were directly affected by the ruling—TIME estimated that about .025% of Mormons at the time were black—but it was still a milestone for the religion. Women, however, are [still not eligible](http://www.mormon.org/faq/women-in-the-church) for the priesthood—no matter their race. **_Read the full story from 1978, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Revelation](http://time.com/vault/issue/1978-06-19/page/67/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3905811/mormon-priesthood-men-women-integration/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3905811/mormon-priesthood-men-women-integration/"},"headline":"Why the Mormon Church Finally Let Black Men Into the Priesthood","datePublished":"2015-06-09T11:00:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:50:22.322Z","description":"Integration didn't happen until June of 1978","url":"https://time.com/3905811/mormon-priesthood-men-women-integration/","keywords":["faith","Religion","Race","Mormon"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5913ac786b94f82/698852a6e53aba3dfc4ddf93/lds.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5913ac786b94f82/698852a6e53aba3dfc4ddf93/lds.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Salt Lake Temple is the bastion of community for Mormons","caption":"The Salt Lake Temple is the bastion of community for Mormons","creditText":";National Geographic/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/faith/","name":"faith"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3905811/mormon-priesthood-men-women-integration/","name":"Why the Mormon Church Finally Let Black Men Into the Priesthood"}}]}] ```