The Priesthood Extended to All Races Perhaps few events have had a greater impact on the worldwide spread of the gospel than did the 1978 revelation received through President Spencer W. Kimball extending the priesthood to worthy males of all races. The following is a timeline of major events leading up to the 1978 Revelation on the Priesthood granting black Africans who are worthy the ability to be ordained to the priesthood and receive temple ordinances.
This wording is incorrectly cited in Edward L. Kimball, “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood,” BYU Studies 47:2 (2008), 56, as coming from the McConkie memorandum to Pres. Edward L. Kimball, whose biographies of his father provided a unique window to the process that led to the landmark 1978 revelation that ended the Mormon practice of restricting the priesthood from black men, died Monday at age 86.. Late LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball told his son that the revelation extending the priesthood to all worthy men in the church and temple … Few have fought as hard for an answer as President Spencer W. Kimball … Edward L. Kimball discusses the former Mormon policy of restricting Church members of African descent from receiving the priesthood. Beginning with a brief history of the priesthood ban, the article then traces President Spencer W. Kimball's personal support of the Church's longtime position until, at the death of President Harold B. Lee, it suddenly became his problem. Bruce R. McConkie, “All Are Alike unto God” (CES Religious Educator’s Symposium, Aug. 18, 1978); available at speeches.byu.edu. Edward L. Kimball presents a marvelous account of the 1978 revelation granting the priesthood to worthy men of all races. He examines the traditional and proposed scriptural basis for the policy, its origin and implementation, and the chain of events that led his father, President Spencer W. Kimball, to seek revelation regarding changing the policy. While he and his brethren had talked about the priesthood restriction often and had speculated as to when the Lord would lift it, President Kimball did not begin to focus on it intensely until more than a year before the revelation was announced. The days leading up to June 1978 offer a classic illustration of the pattern leading to much of revelation—an urgent question, an intense consideration, a prayerfully formulated tentative answer, and a spiritual confirmation. The previously unpublished story of the what Spencer W. Kimball did when he read Odgen Kraut's Segregation of Isreal right after having given the priesthood to … I speculate this wording may have come from an interview Edward Kimball conducted with Elder McConkie at a later date. For some time, the General Authorities had discussed this topic at length in their regular… Instead, the focus is on how we can obtain personal revelation using President Kimball’s experience as a model. On September 30, 1978, during the church's 148th Semiannual General Conference, the following was presented by N. Eldon Tanner, First Counselor in the First Presidency: . Today the Mormon church has 6.5 million members and all ''worthy'' young men are eligible to hold its lay priesthood starting at age 12. In early June of this year, the First Presidency announced that a revelation had been received by President Spencer W. Kimball extending priesthood and temple blessings to all worthy male members of the Church. The impressions of others who were in the room have been compiled in Kimball, “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood,” 54–59. Though many Latter–day Saints were surprised at the 1978 announcement, prophets had prayed and hoped for years that the priesthood would be extended to all worthy men. Kimball, but is not. Kimball’s account traces the roots of the priesthood ban, examines doctrinal implications of the policy, suggests various influences that impelled his father to make this a matter of long study and prayer, presents a marvelous narrative of the revelation itself, and, finally, describes the aftermath of the revelation.

Francis M. Gibbons (Biographer of President Kimball).