Much has changed for LDS blacks since '78

Recording artist Gladys Knight was working on her first solo single in

1978, a disco-dancing song whose title, "It's a Better Than Good Time,"

would come to describe the feeling of many Latter-day Saints on June 8

that year.

      After more than a century of excluding black males from holding

the faith's priesthood, church leaders announced publicly that day that

then-church President Spencer W. Kimball had received a revelation

extending the priesthood to "all worthy males."

      While Knight was likely unaware of the change — or even the LDS

Church — back then, Darius Gray was a young black member who will never

forget where he was or how he felt. The legacy of that announcement

would change the future not only for both Knight and Gray, but for The

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an institution.

      In the decades since, Knight and thousands of other black members

have joined the faith, with LDS temples now operating in South Africa,

Nigeria and Ghana, and another seven temples operating in Brazil, where

a large black population has helped propel record church growth in

South America.

      As a longtime ambassador of sorts for the church, Gray has worked

tirelessly to explain his faith and to dispel the continuing folklore

about the "premortal valiancy" of black Latter-day Saints to those who

still question the reason for the priesthood ban or who hang on to

discredited LDS folklore about its origin.

      So Sunday's 30th anniversary commemoration of the priesthood