Darius Gray is an African-American Latter-day Saint speaker and writer.

Gray was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

. He joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in the mid-1960s and then attended Brigham Young University

Brigham Young University

Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...

 for a year. After that he transferred to the University of Utah

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

.

Gray worked for a time as a journalist.

Gray was a counselor in the presidency of the LDS Church's Genesis Group

Genesis Group

The Genesis Group is a social organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for African American members and their families. It was first organized in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1971 to provide members an organization where they could affiliate with fellow African American members. ...

 when it was formed in 1971. He was president of the group from 1997 to 2003. Gray was also the co-director (with Marie Taylor) of the Freedmens Bank Records project for the church's Family History Department. He is a speaker on African-American genealogy

Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...

, blacks in the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 and blacks in the LDS Church

Blacks and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

From 1849 to 1978, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a policy against ordaining black men of African descent to the priesthood. Whereas other churches usually have full-time salaried clergy of whom individual members are often the chief minister to several families, in the LDS...

. He had also written a trilogy of historical novels ("Standing on the Promises")with Margaret Blair Young

Margaret Blair Young

Margaret Blair Young is an American author, filmmaker and writing instructor affiliated with Brigham Young University.- Biography :Young is married to English professor Bruce Young...

, and co-produced/directed a documentary with Young as well: "Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons." Utah's NAACP honored him with its Martin Luther King Jr. award in 2008, and the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity of Iota Iota Chapter honored him as "Citizen of the Year" in 2011.

Gray has traveled throughout the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 to make presentations. In 2007, he appeared in the PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 documentary, The Mormons. In February 2008, he made an invitation-only presentation at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History is located in the Cultural Center of the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1965, it holds the world's largest permanent exhibit on African American culture. In 1997, it moved into a 120,000 square foot facility on Warren Avenue...

 in Detroit that was partly sponsored by New Detroit. . He is also featured in the BYU Television series "Questions and Ancestors."

Gray has also served as a developer of the website blacklds.org and on the advisory board of Reach the Children

Reach the Children

Reach the Children, Inc. is a not-for-profit humanitarian organization with headquarters in Fairport, NY that provides underprivileged African children opportunities for self-reliance by strengthening families and communities. It accomplishes this mission through a community development approach...

, a humanitarian organization designed to help people in Africa.