Owen A. Allred

Who was Owen A. Allred?

Owen Arthur Allred was the leader of the Apostolic United Brethren, a Mormon fundamentalist polygamist group centered in Bluffdale, Utah. He came to this position following the murder of his brother Rulon Allred on orders of rival polygamist leader Ervil LeBaron, in 1977. Allred was born in Blackfoot, Idaho. He had eight wives, twenty-three children and over two hundred grandchildren. In 1942, he was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he married his second wife. After his death, he was succeeded by J. LaMoine Jensen.

Shortly after Allred became head of the AUB, Spencer W. Kimball, the then-president of the LDS Church announced that all worthy males would be able to hold the priesthood without regard to race or color. This effectively ended a century-long prohibition preventing black men from holding priesthood office in the LDS Church. Owen Allred stridently opposed this new practice. He immediately declared that the temples of the LDS Church had been desecrated by the presence of black Latter-day Saints. In response, the AUB built its own Endowment House in Bluffdale and began performing ordinances.