SALT LAKE CITY — Black Mormons discussed the challenges of belonging to a predominantly white religion during a university conference on Friday designed to address the status of blacks in the faith.

Darius Gray, a pioneering black Mormon, commended church leaders for publishing an essay in 2013 that disavowed a previous ban on blacks in the lay priesthood. The essay offered the most comprehensive explanation from church headquarters about the ban, which was in place until 1978. Still, Mr. Gray noted, only two in 10 Mormons have read the essay, limiting its impact.

Many of those attending the conference at the University of Utah said discussions about race in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not happen enough at congregational levels.

“There is a level of fear in exposing the truth behind the racist history of the church,” said Paulette L. Payne, an African-American Mormon and television talk show host in Atlanta, who moderated a panel on race and Mormon women. “When you fear something, you don’t necessarily want to expose it for what it is, because it then becomes a reflection of you.”