Joseph Smith and the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were very anti-slavery. Joseph had an idea to buy the freedom of Blacks and help them settle as free men in Missouri, one reason the Missourians drove out the Mormons. Mormon congregations have never been segregated, and Joseph did ordain Blacks to the priesthood. In the 1970’s, when so many Mormons and Mormon leaders were praying for a revelation that would enable Blacks to have the priesthood, leaders did a great amount of research to try to find out why the Blacks had been denied the priesthood after Joseph Smith was martyred. They could not find any written record, so we are not sure why this happened. However, for Blacks to have the priesthood means that they can be called as leaders over whites. That means that Whites have to be ready for this to happen, and the civil rights movement in the U.S. went a long way toward that readiness. Learn more at blacklds.org.