Gray, Darius

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Darius Gray

1945—

Writer, filmmaker

Why would an African-American man join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), when for more than a century it had prohibited blacks from joining the lay priesthood? That is a question Darius Gray struggled with before converting to the Mormon faith and then after, as one of only a few hundred black members in the predominantly white LDS Church. Believing that he was called to the church despite its troubled racial history, Gray sought a way to bring black members into the LDS Church and to support them in their faith. Thus was born the Genesis Group, an organization dedicated to strengthening the church by meeting the needs of its black members. Seven years later Gray witnessed the historic revelation ending the prohibition against the black priesthood.

Throughout his career as a counselor and leader in the LDS Church, and in his work as an author and filmmaker, Gray served as an important voice for black Mormons, a group whose story went untold for many years. He brought to light the long history of African Americans' contributions to the LDS Church and did much to heal its relationship with a growing number of black members.

Called to the Church, Yet Conflicted

Darius Aidan Gray was born in December of 1945 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His first exposure to the LDS Church came when a white Mormon family moved into his neighborhood. He was initially attracted to the church's open and loving policies, and he began studying the Book of Mormon, one of the sacred texts of the LDS Church, and meeting with missionaries.

The night before he was to be baptized, however, Gray learned that he would not be able to receive the lay priesthood, an important rite of passage that is traditionally extended to all "worthy males" after the age of twelve. Blacks were excluded from the priesthood, meaning that Gray would also not be able to receive some temple ordinances (sacraments) or be married in the church. The prohibition, which dated back to the mid-nineteenth century, was based on the belief that blacks' skin color was a mark of sin.

Discouraged, Gray went home, determined that he would not be baptized. In an interview with Brian Woodward appearing in the Race Anthology 2000, he recalled, "I was faced with a conundrum. The problem was that I had already developed a testimony. My pride, my self-respect could not accept the facts of what they were telling me, but I had received a personal revelation. It wasn't that the church was just or unjust, just that the gospel was true." Gray was baptized the following day and soon moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where the LDS Church remains headquartered.

Gray attended Brigham Young University for a year in 1965 before transferring to the University of Utah to study journalism. He received an undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism and mass communication and then completed a graduate program in Columbia University's School of Journalism. During the 1960s and 1970s he worked as a journalist, becoming the senior staff reporter and the chief photographer for the Mormon-owned KSL-TV affiliate in Salt Lake City.

Helped Support Black Mormons

The 1960s and 1970s were difficult times for the LDS Church. Civil rights groups pressured the church to end the ban on black priests, and African-American athletes began to boycott sporting events at the Mormon Brigham Young University. Even though church leaders made statements denouncing racism and supporting the goals of the civil rights movement, these moves did little to mitigate the church's image as a racist institution.

Gray saw that many black LDS members had become inactive in the church because of perceptions of racial bias and that new converts were few. In 1971 Gray, together with Ruffin Bridgeforth Jr. and Eugene Orr, approached the LDS Church president Joseph Fielding Smith to discuss how members of African descent might be better supported in their faith. Out of those meetings emerged the Genesis Group, which was established as an auxiliary of the LDS Church to provide support for black members and to recruit new converts. The group held monthly meetings at which black LDS members could give testimony (a statement of belief) and find a place within the church. For twenty-six years Gray served as a counselor in the presidency of the Genesis Group.

On June 8, 1978, seven years after the Genesis Group was founded, the LDS Church president Spencer W. Kimball received a revelation from God that the priesthood should be extended to "all worthy males," regardless of their skin color. Blacks could finally be admitted to the priesthood. Gray and fellow Genesis members rejoiced.

In 1997 Gray succeeded Bridgeforth as president of the Genesis Group, a post that he held until 2003. Even after the 1978 revelation, Gray continued to believe that the Genesis Group had an important place in the LDS Church by helping blacks connect with their faith as Mormons as well as with their heritage as African Americans.

Brought an Untold Story to Light

Besides his leadership in the church, Gray did much to bring the long and untold history of black Mormons to light. With Margaret Blair Young, a professor at Brigham Young University, Gray authored a trilogy of historical novels—One More River to Cross (2000), Bound for Canaan (2002), and The Last Mile of the Way (2003)—chronicling early black Mormon pioneers such as Elijah Abel and Jane Manning James. Gray's own great grandfather, who was a slave near Independence, Missouri, appears in the first novel.

Gray was instrumental in several documentary films dealing with the history of African Americans and the Mormon church. He participated in the KUED documentary Utah's African-American Voices in 1999 and in the acclaimed PBS family history series Ancestors, produced by KBYU Television in 2000. In 2007 he appeared in the PBS documentary The Mormons.

Gray also spearheaded the production of two documentary films focusing on black members of the LDS Church. The first, Blacks in the Scriptures (2007), created with Marvin Perkins, another LDS member, covers scriptural references to blacks in the Mormon sacred literature and outlines the long history of blacks in the LDS Church. The second, Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons, released in 2008 and produced with Margaret Blair Young, also discusses the contributions of blacks to the LDS Church but goes on to confront the historical prohibition against the black priesthood and explores what that has meant for black members—both pioneers and modernday churchgoers.

At a Glance …

Born Darius Aidan Gray in December of 1945 in Colorado Springs, CO; married Leslee Maack, July 26, 1977; children: Darius Aidan Gray II. Religion: Mormon. Education: University of Utah, BS, journalism and mass communication; graduate studies, Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism.

Career: KSL-TV, staff reporter and photographer, 1960s-70s; Genesis Group of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, counselor, 1971-97, president, 1997-2003; Brigham Young University, Department of Communications, director of development, after 2003; Tesla Corporation, president, 2008—.

Memberships: African American Historical Genealogical Society; National Advisory Council, Brigham Young University.

Addresses: Publisher—Deseret Book, 36 S. State St., Salt Lake City, UT 84111.

Complementing his work in the LDS Church, Gray was actively involved in a number of genealogical projects. He was the codirector of the Freedman's Bank Records project, an LDS Church-sponsored effort to preserve and publish the records of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, a Reconstruction-era institution set up to aid freed slaves and their families. The records contain the birth, marriage, and family records of more than 480,000 freed slaves, representing an invaluable genealogical resource for African-American family research. The collection was published by the LDS Church on CD in 2001. In addition, Gray hosted the program Questions and Ancestors, a weekly series focusing on genealogical questions broadcast on Brigham Young University radio and television.

After retiring as president of the Genesis Group in 2003, Gray worked for a time as the development director for the Department of Communications at Brigham Young University. In 2008 he became the president of the Tesla Corporation, which specializes in automotive after-market products, and lived with his family in Midvale, Utah.

Selected works

Books

(With Margaret Blair Young) One More River to Cross, Bookcraft, 2000.

(With Young) Bound for Canaan, Bookcraft, 2002.

(With Young) The Last Mile of the Way, Bookcraft/Deseret Book Co., 2003.

Films

Blacks in the Scriptures (documentary), 2007.

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

Sources

Books

Bringhurst, Newell G., and Darron T. Smith, editors, Black and Mormon, University of Illinois Press, 2004.

Periodicals

Deseret News, March 10, 2008.

Online

Genesis Group,http://www.ldsgenesisgroup.org/ (accessed June 10, 2008).

Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons,http://www.untoldstoryofblackmormons.com/ (accessed June 10, 2008).

"Utah's African-American Voices: Darius Gray," KUED,http://www.kued.org/productions/voices/interviews/gray.htm (accessed June 10, 2008).

Woodward, Brian, "The Curse of Cain: Race, Religion, and Reconciliation in the Mormon Church," Race Anthology 2000,http://www.columbia.edu/itc/journalism/gissler/anthology/webwoodward.html (accessed June 10, 2008).