With two African-American candidates and two Mormon candidates vying for the presidency, black Mormons find themselves at the political intersection of race and religion. Host Michel Martin speaks with two black members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Don Harwell and his wife, Jerri, who have different political viewpoints.

The real heroes of the story are women such as Jane Elizabeth Manning James, a free black woman who was baptized into the LDS Church in the early 1840s and then traveled with a small group of black converts from Connecticut to Illinois in winter, the last 800 miles on foot. “We walked until our shoes were worn out, and our feet became sore and cracked open and bled until you could see the whole print of our feet with blood on the ground,” James recounted in a brief autobiography several decades later. James walked to Utah with the Mormon pioneers in 1847 and remained a devoted member of the Church until her death in 1908, outliving its first five prophets. Upon her death Church leaders recognized James as a pillar of faithfulness—after having denied her access to Mormonism’s most sacred temple rituals by virtue of her race.

During the final week of Black History Month, Brigham Young University is presenting a play about a black Mormon pioneer that requires nearly all African-American actors.

Some black clergy see no good presidential choice between a Mormon candidate and one who supports gay marriage, so they are telling their flocks to stay home on Election Day. That's a worrisome message for the nation's first African-American president, who can't afford to lose any voters from his base in a tight race. The pastors say their congregants are asking how a true Christian could back same-sex marriage, as President Barack Obama did in May. As for Republican Mitt Romney, the first Mormon nominee from a major party, congregants are questioning the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its former ban on men of African descent in the priesthood.

During the Church's "Be One" event celebrating the 40th anniversary of the priesthood revelation, touching stories were shared of the black pioneers in the Church who remained faithful despite painful priesthood and temple restrictions. President Dallin H. Oaks acknowledged, “I observed the pain and frustration experienced by those who suffered these restrictions and those who criticized them and sought for reasons. I studied the reasons then being given and could not feel confirmation of the truth of any of them.” He also shared the touching moment when he sat down and cried for joy learning of the priesthood revelation. President Russell M. Nelson added, "Differences in culture, language, gender, race, and nationality fade into insignificance as the faithful enter the covenant path and come unto our beloved Redeemer." Read President Nelson's full remarks here, and President Oaks's full remarks here.

Ed Willis’s life began in a place literally called “The Lower Bottom.” Drugs, Alcohol, Prostitution—you name it, and it could be found in the lower bottom. Ed was always searching for something. It was this searching that led him to become a Black Panther. Ultimately, Ed can now see that the dignity he was seeking all along could be found in understanding that he is a child of God. On this week’s episode, Ed and his wife, Wanda, share how their membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints changed their lives.

For Ed Willis, life was one harsh blow after another. He sought higher meaning in the Black Panther Party, but ultimately only Jesus Christ brought peace.

*Editor's Note: This is a republication of an article written in 2011, prior to the release of the Church's essay "Race and the Priesthood" in 2013.

A friend mentioned recently that he met his first black Mormon and that he didn't know they existed. Of course they do. I was one. He was shocked and asked, "How could you be a member of a racist church?" I explained the Church's teaching, then turned to my own question about race and religion: why don't we challenge racism in all faiths?

An unprecedented, church-wide celebration on June 1, 2018, celebrating the revelation extending the priesthood to all worthy men in the Church, will feature not only messages from the First Presidency but also performances by the "Empress of Soul" Gladys Knights, Alex Boye, the Unity Gospel Choir International, members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the Bonner family — an LDS family of 10 who previously worked as Baptist ministers in Africa before joining the Church.