News

BlackLDS.org has just added a new section for photos. The first set of pictures are of Church members and the Mormon temple in Ghana, Africa.

View the photos here: BlackLDS.org Photos

Bridging Generations
Area youth link with successful elders

EAST ST. LOUIS….For East St. Louis high school youth, a bright future lies ahead, thanks to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Donald Peterson Foundation and other area faith based and civic organizations.  The all-day Black History Remembered 2008 event will begin at 9am on Saturday, April 12th at the Ainad Shriners’ Auditorium, located at 609 St. Louis Avenue in East St. Louis.    Over 400 area youth and parents from East St. Louis and Madison High Schools have registered to attend. 

According to Event Sponsorship Director, Reginald Petty, Black History Remembered 2008 is designed to inspire and encourage our youth to envision possibilities of things that could be and help them gain a desire to achieve their dreams.

“We believe that the youth of East St. Louis have great potential to be successful in their personal lives, education, careers, and families,” commented Petty.  “We’d like to inspire them toward success by presenting stories of individuals, both living and , who grew up in East St. Louis and whose lives are rich with success and achievement, as well as goodness and service to others.  We want them to learn from the past that their dreams, their hopes, their desires can be realized.”

The event will bring together many successful individuals who were raised in East St. Louis.  They will share their stories, including their early years in East St. Louis, their dreams and hopes as young people, and their road through education and career to today’s success.

Those invited to come and share their stories are:   Edna Paterson-Petty, Jimmy Williams,  Eugene Redmond, Ambassador Donald McHenry, Reginald Hudlin, Maurice Hurst, Dr. William Mason, Dr. Ted Savage, Dr. Karla Scott, Barbara Ann Teer, Reginald Thomas, James Overton, Phineas Overton, Dr. Gordon Bush, Dr. E Mosley and the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation.

More than twenty organizations will be on hand to provide on-going mentoring, guidance, scholarship and other post-secondary education funding information, career counseling, and leads on employment opportunities.  Lunch and dinner will be served.  All Black History Remembered 2008 events are free to pre-registered area youth and their guests.

Participants will also enjoy an evening of entertainment, featuring The Hallelujah Singers.  The choir will perform A History of Gullah, “Legacy” a celebration of song, dance, and story telling native to the people of West Africa.  A choir comprised of youth from area churches will perform two musical numbers both nights with The Hallelujah Singers.

A public benefit performance featuring The Hallelujah Singers will also be held April 11th at 7pm at the Ainad Shriners’ Auditorium. All proceeds will go to support this day-long event.  For ticket information, visit the Black History Remembered 2008 website www.bhr08.org and tickets may be purchased through Ticketmasters.  Tickets will be available at the door each night.

You can help!  Give a young person a vision of what can be…As an individual or business sponsor; you have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our youth and their families for generations to come.  Open your heart and your purse strings and contribute generously.  All donations and disbursement of funds shall be handled through a BHR08 checking account established through The Donald Peterson Foundation, a 501(c) (3), non-profit organization.   Your kind donation will enable us to provide this event to area high school youth, with hopes that they will be inspired to dream, and to work toward making those dreams become a reality.  At the conclusion of the event, all remaining funds will be given to area organizations which offer scholarships and mentoring to area youth.  Donations should be made payable to Donald Peterson Foundation, BHR08 Event and should be mailed to BHR08, PO Box 818, O’Fallon, IL 62269.  Donations are also accepted online at www.bhr08.org.

As a volunteer, you can also provide much needed help before and during the event.  Please sign up online at www.bhr08.org.
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Contact Information:
Reginald Petty
274-1878

The Daily Herald is running photos from the Ogden, Utah, screening of Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons. Included with the photos is an article from the Associated Press, “Documentary chronicles history of blacks in LDS church”:

Wrapped in soulful, black spirituals, the 72-minute film takes viewers on a journey from the days of Mormon pioneers to the 1960s civil rights era, when some university athletics teams refused to compete against BYU because of the way blacks were treated by the church. It ends with current black church members sharing their own stories — good and bad.

“We’re not hiding anything, we’re not sugarcoating anything,” [Margaret] Young said. “We’re telling a very difficult history, but the people who are telling it have come through it.”

The Provo Daily Herald reviews “Blacks in the Scriptures,” a DVD produced by Darius Gray and Marvin Perkins to educate Mormons and non-Mormons alike on some of the difficult questions related to race, the priesthood, and Church history:

Perkins, 44, thinks the DVD has value for people who are not LDS but have questions about the faith. The four-part presentation contained on the film’s two discs, he said, is “for everybody, whites, blacks, Polynesians, Latinos, Asians — everybody, both inside and outside the church.”

The most important audience, however, is Latter-day Saints. “Our desire is to cleanse the inner vessel first,” he said, referring to a metaphor used by the warrior Moroni in the LDS scriptural volume the Book of Mormon. “We’re keeping thousands of people out of the church each year because the members don’t know the answers.”

Read Black-and-white Issue by Cody Clark.

A new poll done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows that three percent of American Latter-day Saints (Mormons) are Black. The poll showed higher percentages for Jehovah Witnesses, Evangelicals, and Orthodox Christians and lower percentages for Catholics and Mainline Protestants. You can look at the entire survey here: Pew Forum Research Poll

This survey marks substantial progress. Darius Gray notes that estimates in 1965 of Black Latter-day Saints were only about 300 to 400 people. The current 3% estimate would mean roughly 200,000 people in the USA. Looking at the Deseret News Church Almanac, Darius Gray concludes that about 750,000 Latter-day Saints worldwide have Black African roots.

We would like to see the percentage of Black Latter-day Saints increase. More importantly, we hope that all people would have a better understanding of the Mormon faith and the contribution of Black members. We also hope that Latter-day Saints would continue to improve in their understanding and appreciation of various ethnic groups and religions.

For a scholarly study of these issues, we recommend the book “All Abraham’s Children” by Armand Mauss. To read an article where Dr. Mauss summarizes some of his analysis, go to http://www.blacklds.org/mauss.

This Sunday, March 23, 2008 from 5-6 pm MST.  Marvin will be on the air with Van Hale for one hour discussing the new Blacks in the Scriptures DVD series that he and Darius Gray produced.  Here are details on how to listen and or call in to the show:    Radio Station: KTKK 630 AM, Salt Lake City.  Live Internet Streaming Audio can be accessed at: www.k-talk.com or mms://stream.netro.ca/ktkk  Salt Lake Call-in Number: 254-5855. Outside Salt Lake : 801-254-5855  To Participate by email send your question for Marvin or comment to van.hale@k-talk.com

SEATTLE 14 March 2008

When Lynn Stowell, a volunteer guide at Saturday’s opening of the new Northwest African American Museum, helped a man find information about his grandfather, the man wept. Such was the very personal response among some of the guests…

…The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated computers, a digital imaging system and other equipment and software to the center. Local Latter-day Saint family history experts provided training to center personnel…

Read the full story

This excellent review article, posted on the Juvenile Instructor blog site and titled “I Was Told That It Was True And It Was A Marvelous Day,” provides personal insights to viewing the new film. Additionally, there are several comments as well. Review of Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons

http://www.juvenileinstructor.org/i-was-told-that-it-was-true-and-it-was-a-marvelous-day/

This spring, nationally renowned specialists will join community members to discuss the genealogical resources and techniques available to members of the African American community who want to research their ancestors.

Sponsored by the African American Genealogy Group, Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, The African American Museum in Philadelphia, Chick-fil-A, National Archives and Records Administration Mid-Atlantic Region, Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation and The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mid-Atlantic African American Genealogy Conference (MAAAGC) will be held April 19, 2008, Cherry Hill Family History Center, located at 252 Evesham Ave., Cherry Hill, NJ 08003.

Conference presenters include:

Dr. Rick Kittles, Scientific Director of African Ancestry Inc, and featured geneticist in the popular PBS specials “African American Lives” and “Finding Oprah’s Roots.” Dr. Kittles specializes in tracing ancestry using DNA testing and will be the keynote speaker.

Reginald Washington, African American Genealogy Specialist at the National Archives

Khadijah Matin, National President of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society

Attendees will be able to attend more than 20 hour-long training sessions for beginning and intermediate researchers, including topics, such as: Military and Slavery Records, Native American Ancestry, Internet and Technology Tools, Repositories, Research Tips and Techniques, Family Involvement, and more. Those who register in advance may also discuss questions or problems specific to their research and receive individual help during a special “brick wall” session (geared specifically for researchers who have hit a “brick wall” in their endeavors to research ancestors).

Community members and organizations from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region are invited to the conference, and to access the expertise of some of the best and most experienced African American genealogical researchers to delve deeper into their own family legacies.

For more information on the conference or to pre-register yourself or your group/organization, please visit the conference web site at: www.maaagc.com.

On Saturday, March 8, at 11:00 am, the new film “Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons” will be shown at Peery’s Egyptian Theater, 2415 Washington Blvd. The ticket price is $10.

Information on the film is as follows:

Using interviews with scholars, Civil Rights workers, clergy, and Black Mormons and former Mormons, as well as rare archival footage, this documentary introduces the audience to an unfamiliar history: Black Mormons, who have been present in the faith from its earliest days and who were ordained in the priesthood and served as missionaries. The documentary traces the origins and consequences of the early racialist policies which denied Blacks priesthood and the most important privileges of the faith (performed in temples). The restriction ended in 1978, but as the documentary shows, the folklore which once upheld past policies was not repudiated, and continues to circulate within the Mormon Church. Nonetheless, there are modern Black Mormon pioneers, just as there were Black pioneers in the Mormon migration of 1847.