Black Mormon Pioneers Featured at BLACKPAST.ORG

Last updated on: November 28, 2016 at 7:40 pm by Margaret Blair Young

Black Mormon Pioneers Featured at BLACKPAST.ORG 2016-11-28T19:40:55-07:00 Margaret Blair Young

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Junior Apostle Gordon B. Hinckley and Ruffin Bridgeforth, October 19, 1971

For the past several years, I have contributed to the Blackpast online encyclopedia. It is a wonderful resource.

Now, director Dr. Quintard Taylor announces that BLACKPAST has one section devoted to Black Latter-day Saints I join with him in inviting you to peruse the articles.

Here are Dr. Taylor’s words:

The Latter-day Saints Page on BlackPast.org

African Americans have been members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) almost since its founding in 1830. Their numbers were initially small but their role was significant. Green Flake, for example, Brigham Young’s driver and scout, was one of the first Mormon pioneers to reach the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

Yet, for 126 years (1852-1978) men of African ancestry were denied the priesthood and other restrictions were placed on black women and children. Often overlooked in discussions of the ban were the 22 years before the ban was in place where African Americans, such as Elijah Abel and Joseph T. Ball, played important roles in the church. As an LDS Bishop, Ball led the Boston congregation in the mid-1840s, which at the time was the largest outside of church headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois.

After the ban was lifted African Americans such as internationally prominent entertainer Gladys Knight, Utah Jazz basketball star and actor Thurl Lee Bailey, and many others joined the Church. One black LDS member, Mia Love, sits in the U.S. Congress representing Utah’s 4th Congressional District. Far larger numbers of Africans and people of African ancestry in Latin America were converted as well. Today, an estimated 700,000 people of African ancestry call the LDS faith their own.

BlackPast.org captures that history. With financial support from the LDS Church, we have assembled profiles on individual LDS women and men written by LDS and non LDS volunteer contributors (Should the volunteer contributors be named?), documents, speeches, and public statements from the LDS Church and other sources. This page also includes a bibliography of the leading books on the subject and features a timeline that briefly outlines the history of black Mormons. These assembled resources are the largest concentration of information on blacks and the LDS church on the Internet. Here is the link to the page:

http://www.blackpast.org/african-americans-and-church-jesus-christ-latter-day-saints

This is not, however, a static page. We invite others to contribute profiles of significant LDS Church members of African ancestry, to write articles on the history of blacks and the Church, and to suggest other resources that can be linked to this page. We also need your help in spreading this information to LDS members and non-LDS folks around the world. We believe this history should be shared with all. If you are interested in contributing please contact, [email protected]

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