Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons (2008)

• 82%
• 2008

There has been a continuous African American presence in the LDS Church from its earliest days. Until the 1850s, some Black converts were even ordained to the Mormon priesthood. This documentary discusses that little-known legacy. It confronts the hard issues which surfaced during the 1960s, when the Civil Rights Movement drew attention to the Church's priesthood restriction. That restriction was lifted in 1978, which opened the door for an influx of new Black Mormon pioneers. Never-released footage shot in 1968 joins rare archival photographs in this documentary, which also includes interviews with Martin Luther King III, Dr. Cecil "Chip" Murray, as well as many renowned scholars, historians, Black Mormons, and descendants of Black Mormon pioneers.