News

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65pWLY5tD3s

“Last Laborer: Thoughts and Reflections of a Black Mormon” by Keith N. Hamilton, © 2011. For more information visit: www.lastlaborer.com or www.keithnhamilton.com. This book is the remarkable personal story of Keith Hamilton, who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church) in 1980 while attending NCSU. Keith served a full-time LDS mission to Puerto Rico and Barbados and was the first black student to earn a law degree from J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. Keith has served as an LDS bishop, as the chair of the Utah Board of Pardons and Paroles (thus becoming Utah’s first black cabinet member), and co-chair of the Utah Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice System. He has also served on active duty as a judge advocate with the United States Navy in San Francisco, CA.

In addition to telling his own story of growing up in the Jim Crow south of the late 1950s and 1960s, where his grandfather was a Southern Baptist preacher, to his conversion to the LDS Church, to his life in state and church service, Keith also adds his thoughts on the history of the LDS Church’s policies toward blacks and the watershed revelation on priesthood in June, 1978 that extended the priesthood to all worthy males. If you have ever had questions about the Mormon Church’s doctrinal history regarding blacks or have wondered what an African-American convert’s experience in the Church may be like, then “Last Laborer” is a “must read” for you. This book will stimulate your mind, arouse your soul, and challenge your thoughts about blacks as a people and your beliefs about the Mormon Church as an institution with respect to God’s eternal plan for all His children.”

By The LDS Newsroom

“Africa has been held in reserve by the Lord,” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in an October 2010 visit to Burundi. “Africa will someday be seen as a bright land full of gospel hope and happiness.”

Africa is one of the fastest growing areas of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with some 320,000 members, the majority of whom have joined the Church over the past 30 years. They have found that hope and happiness spoken of by Elder Holland by embracing the teachings of Jesus Christ.

For the full article see:

http://ldsmag.com/index.php?option=com_zine&view=article&ac=1&id=7547

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

Monday, February 07 2011

The Tales that Bind: How an African Oral tradition Resonates with the Gospel

By Johnell DeWitt

Our first Sunday in Uganda I watched Brother Onyango Odongo, the uncle of our soon to be Patriarch, reverently sit as he was confirmed a member of our little branch, now a ward. His beautiful face read like an epic.  Each line told a story of great hope and great tragedy and I knew I had to learn his story.

Brother Onyango

Brother Onyango is “80 something” years old, as he told us. No one knows the exact date of his birth or even the exact year, and the closest he can get is he was born sometime in the 1920s. He has witnessed events we can only imagine in our worst nightmares. He lived through the corruption of Milton Obote, the madness of Idi Amin, and more recently the savagery of Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). This last tragedy seems to have affected Brother Onyango the most, understandably as Kony is a member of Brother Onyango’s tribe, the Acholi in Northern Uganda. …

http://www.ldsmag.com/church/article/7455?ac=1

“Within the tropical forests of southern Uganda, Lincoln Barlow looks over a community wash basin that he and his wife helped build as part of a $250,000 humanitarian effort by the LDS Church to bring cleaner water and better sanitation to Africa.”

See:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/50983387-78/uganda-church-lds-nearby.html.csp

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