It was On June 9, 1978.
The LDS believe that blacks are inferior, and not worthy of the blessings of Gospel.
Mitt Romney is a high ranking Mormon, as was his father.
So Romney was a Mormon before they "changed their minds" about blacks and as he was brought up in a Mormon family, he was brought up in a racist environment.
He wasn't just a Mormon. He served as a Bishop. He taught that blacks were cowards in the pre-existence in the battle and were punished by God. As an LDS Bishop "Holy Father" moved him, or spoke to him, so that he could tell others of their calling to teach the same. The doctrinal statements, statements by Joseph Smith, Brigham Youth, and other LDS Prophets and Apostles (members of the Quorum of the Twelve) are too numerous to cite here. And the statements aren't all old. They continued right up until 1978.
"THE NEGROES ARE NOT EQUAL WITH OTHER RACES where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned, ...but this inequality is not of man's origin. IT IS THE LORD'S DOING, is based on his eternal laws of justice, and grows out of the LACK OF SPIRITUAL VALIANCE OF THOSE CONCERNED IN THEIR FIRST ESTATE [the Mormon pre-existence]."
Mormon Doctrine, p. 527 - 528, 1966 edition, emphasis added. Other quotes here.
Members of other churches were certainly racists. The Southern Baptist Church has issued an official apology for racism, although it wasn't formerly institutional. Mitt Romney and the LDS Church can't. They can't, because the argument is that God is the one who said blacks were inferior, not the LDS. Don't blame it on them. It was Heavenly Father. They didn't get it wrong. It was Heavenly Father/God's position from the pre-life all the way up until 1978. They are only telling you what Heavenly Father says.
So Mitt was only doing God's work to be a racist when he was an adult, and to teach others to be a racist. He can't apologize for it now, because that would be saying that God was wrong.
To me, perhaps the most poignant thing of all of this are these three sects of the Mormon church:
Independent Latter Day Saints of Nigeria
Independent Latter Day Saints of Ghana
Apostolic Divine Church of Ghana
They are now thought to be defunct. Before 1978 LDS missionaries went to Africa and shared with African blacks the Book of Mormon, Another Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the milk before meat tradition, they baptized them. Then, sometime after that, the black converts were told something along the lines of:
"Oh, and by the way? You can never be exalted and enter the Celestial Kingdom, which is the only one of the three heavenly kingoms where God dwells, and the only one where you become a god, with your own planet, and where you have eternal physical sex with your celestial wives, populating your own planet(s) with bodies filled with spirit babies, and their own christ. And where your children can eventually become gods themselves. Why? It's not up to me. That's what Heavenly Father says. It's because of the color of your skin, of course. You're black. God marked you as punishment for being fence-sitters in the pre-life, you blacks were. You're not white and delightsome."
So these African blacks, baptized LDS, started their own Mormon sects in which they could be exalted and enter the Celestial Kingdom and become gods. That's a footnote you don't see in these stories about LDS racism until 1978.
Thanks. It’s way worse than I thought.