News

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.

Margaret Young wrote a blog post on Biddy Smith Mason. You can read it here: Biddy Smith Mason

Bro. Martins visited the Orem, Utah Institute of Religion on February 29, 2008. He gave a talk entitled “Thirty Years After the Long Promised Day.” You can read the talk by following this link. Thirty Years After the Long Promised Day.

On July 24th 2007, the Charlotte Chapter of the BYU Alumni Association presented a Pioneer Commemoration at the Levine Museum of the New South. The presentation was related to the museum exhibits of “The Families of Abraham” (photos of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim families in Charlotte) and “From Cottonfields to Skyscrapers” (history of the South).

The Pioneer presentation included photos and artwork for a poem and stories about Black Pioneers, Green Flake and Biddy Mason, and other pioneers. Click here to read the poem about Green Flake. 

The presentation showed film clips from “Brigham Young: Frontiersman” and “Pioneers in Africa”. Artwork of the Martin Handcart Company and the Sweetwater Rescue were set to the music of Gladys Knight and the Saints Unified Voices Choir. The presentation concluded with a reading of a new verse to the Mormon Pioneer hymn “They the Builders of the Nation”. The verse listed below is a tribute to enslaved people who built America. To see and hear the music for this and other hymns, go to www.lds.org/churchmusic/.

They the Builders of the Nation,
came in chains across the sea,
Serving in a land of promise
that denied them liberty.
From this sin, a land addicted,
paid in blood to set them free,
Abraham repair connection,
link us all as family

For more information on the script, please send an e-mail to ckite@byu.net.

Sister Lynette and President Steve Allen, a Branch President and Relief Society President couple, share their Testimony of Faith at the Los Angeles Fireside.

Jackson T Mkhabela was called as Stake President of the Soweto Stake and sustained at a Stake Conference held in the Pimville Stake Center.
All previous Stake Presidents in South Africa had been white though there have been black Counselors. This is significant when you consider the country’s racial diverse past and the fact that President Mkhabela presides over many white Saints in this multiracial Stake. In the Apartheid days the only white people you would see in Soweto where soldiers and police. White saints regularly attend meetings in Soweto as they did this last Sunday. This is not unique to the LDS Church but is reflection of how far South Africans have come as a people. Elder Scott of the 12 and Elder Sitati a Regional Authority Seventy extended the call.