BLACK HISTORY MONTH: “NOBODY KNOWS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BLACK MORMONS”

SALT LAKE UTAH TEMPLE

Mormons.

When people think of Mormons they conjure up images of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, white congregants, polygamy, abstinence from caffeine and alcohol. They have images in their mind of proseletyzing Mormon missonaries who have gone all around the world to spread their faith. They still look upon Mormons as harboring racist practices in their church. In fact, between  1830-1978, blacks could not become leaders in the Mormon church due to the doctrine that blacks “bore the mark of Cain”, apartheid faith that denied blacks full participation based on doctrinal beliefs that whites are “pure” and “delightsome,” while black-skinned people are “unrighteous,” “despised” and “loathsome” descendants of the biblical Cain, who was cursed for killing Abel, and therefore were condemned to being cursed because of their blackness. It was not until 1978, under prophet Spencer W. Kimball, that the Mormon Church admitted blacks into full membership, allowing them to hold the priesthood, marry in the temple and receive the same privileges as other members. Today, black men are allowed to be elders/priests in the Mormon churches. Women on the other hand, are not allowed to become priests in the church. In fact the growth of the Mormon church did not take off until Mormons began to make forays into Africa and Latin America. Until then, the church was overwhelmingly all-white.

So, imagine many people’s surprise when they find out that there is a sizeable number of black people who profess to the Mormon faith. (Twenty per cent of Mormons are black.) Even fewer people know that there were black congregants in the church’s earlier days, that the “vanguard company of Mormon pioneers included three “colored servants” who were baptized Mormons, and whose descendants remained active in the Church for several generations. ”

Even a famous black  rhythm and blues singer, Gladys Knight, of Gladys Knight and the Pips fame, is a Mormon:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/22/AR2006052201639.html

Another thing to be considered is that most black Mormons are former Pentecostal congregants.

There is a film on the history of Black Mormons.

 “Nobody Knows; The Untold Story of Black Mormons“, produced by Margaret Young and Darius Gray. The film addresses the history of black Mormons,  their little-known legacy, the effects of the Civil Rights movement and how it was a pivotal force in the church’s releasing its restrictions on the priesthood for blacks. Showing never-before released archival footage, it depicts how life is for modern-day black Mormons.

 “Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons”, is sponsored by Independent Feature Productions.

Click on the following link to learn more about this fascinating, and very little known part of Black History:

http://www.untoldstoryofblackmormons.com/trailer_lg.html

 DSTORYfo@untoldstoryofblackmormons.com

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RELATED LINKS:

MORMON HISTORY DATABASE:untoldstoryofblackmormons.com

http://www.infopig.com/keywords/Mormon.html

CHURCH SEPARATION: THE MORMON CHURCH STILL HAS NOT SETTLED THEIR ‘RACE PROBLEM’:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110011023

INSIGHTS ON BLACKS AND THE PRIESTHOOD:

http://www.ldshistory.net/1990/embry.htm

THE MORMON FAITH AND BLACK FOLKS:

http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/blackmormon/q25.htm

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PBS VIDEO:

“THE MORMONS”  (3-HOUR VIDEO):

http://www.pbs.org/mormons/view/

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THE BLACK MORMON HOMEPAGE:

http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/blackmormon/blackmormons.html

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LINKS:

http://www.juvenileinstructor.org/debut-of-nobody-knows-a-success/

http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=4378

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Little Known FACTS About Black Mormons

Black Mormons were among the first to travel to Utah with Brigham Young and the early Mormon pioneers. The man that actually led the Mormons into Salt Lake Valley (at that time a hostile desert) was Green Flake; a slave of a Southerner who converted to the Church. Brigham Young had Flake freed in 1854. Flake died a faithful Mormon. Fort Union, Utah, was originally a Black Mormon community 20 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Green FlakeSamuel D. Chambers (1831-1929) was a Black Mormon from Mississippi who converted to the Church in 1844, and in 1870 he moved to Salt Lake City. He was one of the largest land-owners and wealthiest men in Salt Lake Valley.

Samuel D. Chambers and his wife Amanda (c. 1910)Dan Bankhead Freeman was another early African-American Mormon who worked as a blacksmith in Corinne, Utah:

Dan Bankhead FreemanJane Manning James was one of the most faithful Mormons in Utah. President Joseph F. Smith spoke at her funeral:

Jane and Isaac James
Jane can be seen in the very center of the photo of Mormons at General Conference about the year 1897. Can you find the other black Mormon in this photo?

Mary Ann Perkins was a black Mormon pioneer who settled in Bountiful, Utah:

Mary Ann Perkins (c. 1910)John Brown accompanied Brigham Young on his entrance to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. He was among the first Mormons to enter what is now the state of Utah. In 1848 he travelled back to his home state of Mississippi in order to lead the Mississippi Mormons (both black and white) to the Salt Lake Valley. In the spring of 1848 57 white and 37 black Mormons left Mississippi in 11 wagons. John Brown later said:

“Every man, woman and child, both white and black, gazed at us with astonishment as we passed their habitations.” [i.e. both black and whites in Mississippi couldn’t believe that a black man was leading 11 wagons of almost 100 souls~both black and whites together] (from Black Latter-day Saints Pioneers online)

John Brown: Leader of the Mississippi Mormon immigration to Utah There were only a few hundred Black Mormons in Utah at any given time before the 1960s. Here is a portait of three members of one early Black Mormon family:

Lucinda Flake (sitting) with her two granddaughters (Fort Union, Utah, c.1880s) The First African-American Police Detective

The very FIRST African-American police detective in the United States was Paul Cephas Howell, a black Mormon who moved from the South to Salt Lake City in 1874. Mormon Church President Wilford Woodruff arranged for his employment as a police officer with the Salt Lake City Police Department; a department overwhelmingly Mormon. Officer Howell became a Detective with that department in 1884; the first African-American police detective.

Officer Paul Cephas Howell, Salt Lake City P.D., 1886From Black Panther to Black Mormon

LeRoy Eldridge Cleaver, the Minister of Information in the early Black Panther Party, and the author of the international bestseller Soul on Ice (1968)–once considered the “Manifesto” of Black Nationalists and even white Radicals.

Cleaver was the most well-known American Black Nationalist and Radical in the 1960s. He was the most well-known Black Panther in the 1960s; the Party being a combination of Black Nationalism and Marxism. After fleeing the U.S. to avoid a manslaughter charge (he was with other Panthers in a shootout with Oakland California Police in 1969) he exiled himself to Algeria and later Cuba. He soon became disillusioned with Communism and Socialism when he saw that socialist countries were no “paradises of the workers” as he had been led to believe. He had a “born-again” experience in Cuba, and became a born-again Christian. He returned to the U.S. in 1975 and was given many years of probation (he was not the shooter). Being a famous figure for years, Cleaver was “wined and dined” by prominent Evangelicals and was offered multimillion dollar contracts to start his own Christian television ministry. He declined this, perferring to work (at a low salary) with young black men in a prison ministry. He concern was not becoming wealthy, but to work with young black men in prisons; to convert them to Christ as the way to free them from crime and gangs. By 1982 he had become disillusioned with the commercialism and showmanshipism of Evangelical Christianity, and he started looking into alternative religions. Also in 1982 he met Cleon Skousen, founder of the Freeman Institute (now called the National Center for Constitutional Studies). Cleaver gave talks for the Freeman Institute, and Skousen (a well-known Mormon author and former FBI agent) introduced Cleaver and his wife to the Mormon Faith. In 1984 he was baptized into the LDS Church. He remained a Member of it (although later not always active) until his death in 1998, at age 62, of diabetes.

Cleaver in 1968 as the Presidential Candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party
Cleaver speaking at a Mormon ward (c. 1994) Other Prominent Black Mormon Converts

In 1981 Modibo Diarra, the president of the National Teacher’s Union of Mali, became a Mormon after much prayer and study of various religions and churches. Converting to a “Christian” church in Mali is very dangerous! But Br. Diarra remains faithful.

Modibo Diarra In 1989 Jesse Thomas Jr., a former Baptist preacher, joined the Church, and now serves in local priesthood-leadership positions. He is also starting a Genesis Group in the Denver area.

Jesse Thomas Jr. in front of the Denver Temple In 1990 Elder Helvecio Martins (a prominent Afro-Brazilian business leader) became a Member of the Second Quorum of Seventy; the fifth highest council in the Church.

In 1995 Lee Radcliff, a black Baptist minister who served as a pastor in Chicago and Mississippi for decades, joined the Church. He is only one of many current or former black ministers who join the Church after 1978.

Lee Radcliff Late ’60s and early ’70s R&B singer Gladys Knight became a Mormon in 1998 after her son Jimmy and his family did. Gladys Knight was the singer in the R&B group Gladys Knight and the Pips. Today (2001 A.D.) she writes and performs Mormon Gospel music.

Gladys KnightA number of African-American athletes have become Mormons; including the famous college and NFL football great Burgess Owens, and the NBA All-Star player Thurl Bailey (who now composes Mormon music).

Burgess Owens