William McCary

Warner "William" McCary (c. 1811 – after 1854) was an African American convert to Mormonism who was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1847 for claiming to be a prophet. Some researchers have suggested that McCary's actions led to the Church's subsequent policy of not allowing people of black African descent to hold the priesthood or participate in temple ordinances.

Background McCary was born as Warner McCary in Natchez, Mississippi, around 1810 or 1811 to an African American slave named Francis, or "Franky". Her master was a white carpenter from Pennsylvania named James McCary. She also had two older children, Kitty and Robert, who may have been James's biological children. Upon James McCary's death around 1813, his will emancipated Franky and the older children but declared Warner and his future offspring to "be held as slaves during all and each of their lives" in the service of his mother and siblings. In Council Bluffs, Iowa, in February 1846, he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by apostle Orson Hyde, and he was probably ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood.

Prophet and excommunication While living in Cincinnati, McCary had claimed on various occasions to be Jesus and Adam, father of the human race. In 1847, as the Saints resided at Winter Quarters before continuing on to the Rocky Mountains, a seemingly penitent McCary had expressed to Brigham Young and members of the Quorum of the Twelve his anguish and confusion over his racial status, saying that he wished to be seen as "a common brother" despite being "a little shade darker," to which Brigham kindly reassured him: "We don't care about the color… It's nothing to do with blood, for of one blood has God made all flesh." President Young urged McCary to show genuine repentance before God, remarking that the Saints had but "to serve the Lord with all our hearts" and "repent [to] regain what we have lost." McCary had settled a short distance away from Winter Quarters and began attracting followers to his own brand of Mormonism. He instituted plural marriage among his followers, and had himself sealed to several white wives in a ceremony that consisted of sex with him and his first wife Lucy.

In the wake of McCary's scandal and excommunication, the members of the Twelve immediately distanced themselves from him A statement from Young to McCary in March 1847 suggested that up until that point, race had nothing to do with priesthood eligibility

After Brigham Young instigated the priesthood and temple ban in 1847, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints generally did not allow men of black African descent to hold the priesthood again until 1978.