"Colored brothers and sisters, Endowment House, 1875"

[_Fence Sitter]

Oh, thanks FS! That is helpful. So, the policy was not uniformly applied through the ages.

I am not sure what you mean by "the policy". Blacks and baptism for the dead or how the Church enforced restrictions on Blacks in general within the Church?

[_just me]

Oh, thanks FS! That is helpful. So, the policy was not uniformly applied through the ages.

I am not sure what you mean by "the policy". Blacks and baptism for the dead or how the Church enforced restrictions on Blacks in general within the Church?

Sorry, I mean the temple policy. It looks like there were periods when blacks could enter to do baptisms and periods when they could not.

[_Fence Sitter]

Sorry, I mean the temple policy. It looks like there were periods when blacks could enter to do baptisms and periods when they could not.

Those two paragraphs are all I have seen on it to date. It is not a subject I have looked at very closely.

[_Rollo Tomasi]

Those of African Lineage as well as anyone else WERE able to do "Baptisms for the Dead".

This was not always the case, of course. Blacks, along with everyone else, were allowed in the Kirtland and Nauvoo Temples (in fact, Elijah Abel received the "washing and anointing" ordinance in the Kirtland Temple). Under BY, however, blacks (male or female) were not allowed in the temple for any reason (including baptisms for their dead). A rare exception was made for Jane James in the late 1890's, who was allowed in the Salt Lake Temple to be "sealed" to Joseph Smith's family "as a servant."

Starting in November 1910, Joseph F. Smith allowed blacks to go to the temple in order to be baptized for their dead (but they could not perform any other ordinances until 1978).

Source: Lester E. Bush, Jr., "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: a historical Overview," Dialogue, vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1973).

EDITED TO ADD: I see from the above that Fence Sitter 'beat me to the punch.' Sorry.

[_just me]

Sorry, I mean the temple policy. It looks like there were periods when blacks could enter to do baptisms and periods when they could not.

Those two paragraphs are all I have seen on it to date. It is not a subject I have looked at very closely.

Yeah, I have lots of questions about the evolution of temple worship, but haven't spent much time researching it. It fascinates me, though. Maybe someday...