In March of 1836 Elijah Abel was ordained an elder. Then in December 1836, he was ordained a seventy by Zegedee Coltrin. Elijah Abel was black. There have been black Latter-day saints from the beginning and there has never been a time since at least 1836, when there wasn't a man of African descent holding the priesthood. This episode of History of the Saints is about those first black saints and the priesthood.