About Mitt's Dad (from Wikipedia...but available elsewhere):
"During his first State of the State address in January 1963, Romney declared that "Michigan's most urgent human rights problem is racial discrimination—in housing, public accommodations, education, administration of justice, and employment."[120] Romney helped create the state's first civil rights commission.[121]
When Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Detroit in June 1963 and led the 120,000-strong[123] Great March on Detroit, Romney designated the occasion Freedom March Day in Michigan, and sent state senator Stanley Thayer to march with King as his emissary, but did not attend himself because it was on Sunday.[119][124][125] Romney did participate in a much smaller march protesting housing discrimination the following Saturday in Grosse Pointe, after King had left.[119][122][123] Romney's advocacy of civil rights brought him criticism from some in his own church;[97] in January 1964, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles member Delbert L. Stapley wrote him that a proposed civil rights bill was "vicious legislation" and telling him that "the Lord had placed the curse upon the Negro" and men should not seek its removal.[35][126] Romney refused to change his position and increased his efforts towards civil rights.[35][126]"
Also from Wiki:
"The [Mormon] church has never kept official records on the race of its membership, so exact numbers of black members are unknown. Black people have been members of Mormon congregations since its foundation, but before 1978 its black membership was small. It has since grown, and in 1997, there were approximately 500,000 black members of the church"
