Three leaders and friends of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People were among the thousands who attended President Russell M. Nelson’s funeral Tuesday, Oct. 7, at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.
President Nelson, 17th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Sept. 27, 2025, at age 101. His more than seven years as prophet-president were characterized by the bridges he built, including linking arms with top leaders of the NAACP.
Those who attended the funeral included the Rev. Amos C. Brown, pastor emeritus of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco; the Rev. Theresa A. Dear, national board member of the NAACP; the Rev. Lawrence E. Carter Sr., founding dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
In 2018, President Nelson and NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson issued a joint call for greater civility and racial harmony. President Nelson spoke at the NAACP National Convention the following year with a call to stand arm in arm and “lift our brothers and sisters everywhere.” Over the next six years until his death, President Nelson continued to strengthen the Church of Jesus Christ’s relationship with the NAACP through education and humanitarian initiatives.
Rev. Brown: President Nelson was ‘an agent of change’
While introducing President Nelson to the NAACP convention in Detroit in 2019, the Rev. Brown affectionately and memorably called President Nelson “a brother from another mother.”
A former student of Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Brown said he came to know President Nelson in 2018 when the Church of Jesus Christ volunteered to fund the restoration of Medgar Evers’s office in Jackson, Mississippi — the Rev. Brown’s hometown. Evers was a civil rights activist who was shot and killed in 1963.
The Church’s effort led by President Nelson to build a bridge across racial lines was “of immense personal meaning to me,” the Rev. Brown wrote in a tribute to President Nelson published by Deseret.
“That connection led to not only a close working relationship between me and President Nelson but a deep, personal connection with him. … I came to know him as a person of great integrity and courage, who loved God and his church, and who was dedicated to being an agent of change,” the Rev. Brown wrote.
The Rev. Brown noted President Nelson’s belief in the dignity and worth of all people and his lifelong dedication to “building bridges, not walls.”
“I will always think of President Nelson fondly as my ‘brother of a different mother’ who was fearless in life and should be remembered as a prophet of progress who devoted his life to creating a better world,” the Rev. Brown wrote.
Rev. Dear: President Nelson ‘invited the NAACP to the table’
The Rev. Dear described President Nelson as “a great listener and very conciliatory leader” who looked “for common ground in uncommon places.”
“After decades of criticism that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not welcoming or receptive to African Americans, in 2018 he invited the NAACP to the table,” she wrote in a column published by Deseret for President Nelson’s 101st birthday.
“It was there, at the table with members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, that we realized that both institutions love Jesus Christ and serving humanity.”
She wrote of the NAACP and the Church of Jesus Christ working together on several projects, including the MyBaby4Me initiative which addresses the infant mortality crisis among African American families.
The Rev. Dear said the Church of Jesus Christ’s reach and impact through President Nelson’s leadership was “deep, broad, affirming and transformative.”
“The theme that exists throughout his life’s work is love of Jesus Christ and service to humanity. He has been faithful to his covenant, commission and his calling,” she wrote.
Rev. Carter: President Nelson is ‘a man of his word’
In response to what he has learned from his relationship with President Nelson, the Rev. Carter said, “I learned that he’s a man of his word.”
“When President Nelson announced in a press conference that he wanted to unite the strength of his church with the strength of the NAACP to lift the largest number of people, he meant it,” the Rev. Carter told Deseret the morning of President Nelson’s funeral.
In April 2023, the Rev. Carter presented President Nelson with the inaugural Morehouse College Gandhi-King-Mandela Peace Prize and praised him for inspiring racial inclusivity in the Church of Jesus Christ and linking arms with the Black community. The Rev. Carter later spearheaded a collaboration between the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and the Morehouse College and Spelman College glee clubs.
The Rev. Carter recalled President Nelson showing him a verse in the Book of Mormon upon which President Nelson “built his ministry” — 2 Nephi 26:33, which states “all are alike unto God.”
“Through his own professional career, President Nelson looked deeply into nature, touching over a thousand hearts,” the Rev. Carter said. “He understood the complexity and the divine intelligence in nature, and he understood that nature is God’s ally. That was the basis of him affirming the sacredness of all human personality. …
“I think President Nelson deserves all of the salutes and admiration that we can express, and appreciation for the way he guided 17 million members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with many people looking on from the sidelines, like myself. He has helped me strengthen my own ministry at Morehouse.”