Online Resources
Black Latter-day Saints Research Guide
This section provides a select sample list of online and digital resources that help facilitate research about Black Latter-day Saint history. The first portion of this page features Church History Library collections and Church-produced materials. The second provides information about projects and resources pertaining to Black Latter-day Saint history that can be found at other institutions.
Church History Online Resources
19th Century
The Joseph Smith Papers website is a good source for information about some of the early Black members of the Church. This website is comprised of the Joseph Smith Papers, which have been digitized and transcribed. The website is word searchable and includes documentation regarding Joseph Smith’s and other early Church leaders’ notions and ideas on race and the social and political challenges they faced regarding their personal and religious beliefs on the same topic. Additionally, the website includes some biographical information about early Black Latter-day Saints, such as Elijah Able and Joseph T. Ball.
Jane Manning James autobiography, circa 1902 (MS 4425)
In her autobiography, Jane Manning James recounts her conversion to the Church; travel to Nauvoo, Illinois; some of her experiences in Nauvoo with Joseph Smith; and concludes with some description of her life in Utah.
Sometimes records and information pertaining to specific individuals can be found embedded within other collections. For example, spiritual testimonies given by Samuel D. Chambers can be found throughout the pages of the second volume of the Salt Lake Stake Aaronic Priesthood minutes and records (LR 604 12).
20th/21st Centuries
Genesis Group first meeting audio recording 1971 October 19 (AV 5224)
This recording includes introductory remarks from Gordon B. Hinckley, Boyd K. Packer, Thomas S. Monson, Ruffin Bridgeforth, Darius Gray, Eugene Orr, and others. A Story to Tell (AV 2046)
This item is a compilation of interviews conducted by KSL and collected from Black individuals living in Utah. Those interviewed include Ruffin Bridgeforth, Florence Lawrence, Betty Stewart Moore, Nelson Styles, Billy Mason, and Dr. Ronald C. Coleman.
Blacks in the LDS Church, 1998 June 7–8 (AV 2074)
This item is a collection of television news coverage regarding the 20th anniversary of the 1978 revelation known as “Declaration 2.”
Oral Histories
The Church History Department has gathered oral histories from Church members all over the world. Oral histories gathered from Black Church members can be found by searching the Church History Catalog. Oral history formats include a mix of typescript and audio recordings. While many of the oral histories are digitized, it is not necessarily appropriate to make them readily available online. Oral histories that include information about living individuals or that contain sensitive content are protected. For more information about oral history collections at the Church History Library, please reach out to us through our Ask Us service.
Written by the Church History Department, Global Histories are a good place to find information about the Church in various countries. The histories include African countries, such as Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria, and other countries where there are large populations of people with African ancestry, like Haiti and Brazil.
Non-Church History Online Resources
The Broad Ax was a newspaper that served Utah’s Black community from 1895 to 1899. Julius F. Taylor, owner, editor, and sole journalist for The Broad Ax, relocated the newspaper to Chicago in 1899. This periodical can be found on Utah Digital Newspapers, newspapers.com, and chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
Century of Black Mormons is an online database that presents documented biographical information for Black Latter-day Saints baptized between 1830 and 1930. The database is overseen by historian W. Paul Reeve and hosted by the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library.
The Sema Hadithi Foundation, founded in August 2020, is an organization that “strives to ‘tell the story’ of African-ancestored history, heritage, and culture by researching, preserving, and disseminating information throughout the community.”1 Their work is specifically focused on Black history in Utah. The organization does not currently have a research facility; however, its representatives can put you in touch with historians and researchers whose work has contributed to preserving Utah’s Black history.
Blackpast.org is an online reference guide to African American history that is “dedicated to providing the inquisitive public with comprehensive, reliable, and accurate information concerning the history of African Americans in the United States and people of African ancestry in other regions of the world.”2 The site contains primary sources, timelines, research guides, and encyclopedia entries about historical landmarks, historically Black colleges and universities, and Black individuals, including Latter-day Saints. Entries are written by historians and include citations to primary sources.
Notes
1. “Our Mission,” semahadithi.org.
2. “About Us,” blackpast.org.