By The LDS Newsroom

SALT LAKE CITY—This month, millions of individuals of African descent are celebrating Black History Month by exploring their family history roots. In the U.S., FamilySearch volunteers have been busy helping digitize historic documents and create free, searchable indexes to them online. Throughout Africa, from Accra to Zimbabwe, where irreplaceable family information and traditions are at risk of being lost due to neglect, war, and deterioration, FamilySearch volunteers are also helping preserve this valuable history so Africans can connect with their roots. Researchers can search the millions of African-related records as they are published online at FamilySearch.org.

For the full article, see:

http://ldsmag.com/index.php?option=com_zine&view=article&Itemid=147&ac=1&id=7566

Scott Colom: Appreciating my Mormon  father

The Commercial Dispatch

Often when I visit a new place or meet a stranger, I think of my Mormon father. James Parkinson and I may not look like father and son, but Parky, as I refer to him, has had an important impact on my life, an impact that started when he became the …

http://www.cdispatch.com/opinions/article.asp?aid=10211

Two choirs celebrate Black History Month – Washington Post

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir of Washington DC and the Alfred Street Baptist Church Senior Choir of Alexandria VA will perform a joint musical program in honor of Black History Month. “The concert will bring two faith traditions together …

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/arts-post/2011/02/two_choirs_celebrate_black_his.html

Snow and rain may stop them from going to class, but nothing can stop BYU students from commemorating the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

With candles in their hands and songs in the air, hundreds of families, friends, students and professors gathered under the Bell Tower to honor King’s mission and achievement on Monday evening as part of the “Walk of Life” candlelight procession, followed by a memorial program featuring a BYU student gospel choir, an excerpt of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and keynote speaker Darius Gray, a broadcast journalist, author and former president of the Genesis Group.

See this link for the rest of the story:

http://universe.byu.edu/node/13227

These links tell the news preceding the event and relate this event to what happened in the 1960′s at BYU.

Pioneer student, Darius Gray, returns to BYU

http://universe.byu.edu/node/13144

Prominent Black Mormon to speak about King

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/faith/51037916-142/gray-king-black-darius.html.csp

Please see this recent article by Marvin Perkins of Blacks in the Scriptures on significant changes to the headings and footnotes in LDS Scriptures:

http://www.blacklds.org/changes-to-lds-scripture-headings-footnotes

To most members of the Church, partaking of the sacrament is a special weekly experience but, at times, might be taken for granted. For the Malabi family of Bujumbura, Burundi, the service held last Aug. 15 was an opportunity that brought them to tears and rejoicing as they partook of the sacrament for the first time in five years.

See this link for the rest of the story:

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/60188/Burundi-Pioneers.html

See this link: Practicing the Church’s New Fourth-Fold Mission

As we near the year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Latter-day Saints are still deeply involved in trying to lend a hand.

When Mariama Kallon was fleeing the rebels in Sierra Leone, she grabbed her scriptures and the plastic bag with her hygiene kit in it.

She still has parts of the kit.

“It blessed the lives of over 25 women in three weeks,” Kallon said of their time in the refugee camp. The women would line up and she would give them each a pinch of toothpaste. They used the bars of soap sparingly to make them last.

They didn’t use the shampoo — it wasn’t labeled and they didn’t know what it was.

Kallon had lost family members during the civil war and ended up with friends who were members of the church. For some of the missionary discussions, she walked three miles to the chapel.

She later served a mission at Temple Square. She brought her scriptures, both changes of clothes that she had and the hygiene kit when she entered the MTC.

Later she was reunited with her little sister and nephew when a Lehi family brought them to the United States, she said during her at-times-emotional presentation of her conversion and the promises that were fulfilled to her.

“Heavenly Father loves each and every one of his children,” Kallon said.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700085724/Time-Out-speaker-offers-peek-into-prophets-life.html?pg=1

See this article on Ghana reunion of returned missionaries in Mormon Times, October 1, 2010

http://www.mormontimes.com/article/17499/Ghana-reunion-more-than-just-a-meeting-of-returned-missionaries

WEST JORDAN, Utah — If you happen to meet someone from Ghana, ask them about the handshake. “You go like this, and then you go like this, and then you go like this, and then you slide down, and you click on my finger and I’ll click on yours,” says Sally Murray as she teaches a child at the Africa Accra Ghana mission reunion. Murray is a former senior missionary to Ghana and the organizer of the reunion held at the Welby Stake center in West Jordan, Utah. …