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W. Paul Reeve, "Century of Black Mormons" (Season 1, Ep. 3 - Part 2)
Date: 11.25.2019 (Season 1, Episode 3, 23:44 min.) To read the complete Utah Dept. of Culture & Community Engagement show notes for this episode (including topics in time, photos and recommended readings) click here. Interested in other episodes of Speak Your Piece? Click here for more episodes.
Podcast Content:
“Black Saints were among the first to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and have been a part of the Mormon experience since the beginning.” This is an excerpt from Century of Black Mormons.Org, a research database that seeks to document and recover the identities and voices of Black Mormons. University of Utah Professor of Mormon History, W Paul Reeve, spoke to “Speak Your Piece” host Brad Westwood about the public history project, “Century of Black Mormons” in 2020. Reeve serves as this database’s general editor and speaks of Elijah Able and Jane Manning James, Green Flake, Oscar Crosby, and many other enslaved and free African Americans, who also were Latter-day Saints.
If you were looking for a piece of book heaven with the intention of getting lost or finding Reeve outlines 19th and early 20th century events, the hierarchical racial construct in U.S culture, both the national and regional political context and the key players in the changing story of African Americans within Mormon history. The story begins in the 1830 and 1840s, where church leaders offer an all-inclusive, universalistic message to all races and nationalities but then changes to restrict African American membership, prevent priesthood membership and involvement in the church’s highest rituals. Dr. Reeve describes the church’s 20th century return to its universalistic roots and its media campaigns in an effort to claim this diverse identity.
Bio: W. Paul Reeve Raised in Hurricane (Washington County) Utah, W. Paul Reeve has been teaching since 2008 American, Western, Mormon and Utah history at the University of Utah. Paul is the first-ever Simmons Professor of Mormon Studies at the U, and has written a number of books, including Making Space on the Western Frontier: Mormons, Miners, and Southern Paiutes (2007), Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore (with Michael Scott Van Wagenen, 2011), and in 2015 Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (2015).
Do you have a question or comment, or a proposed guest for “Speak Your Piece?” Write us at “ask a historian” – [email protected]
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By Brad Westwood, Senior Public Historian, Utah Dept. of Culture & Community Engagement
4.6
1717 ratings
Date: 11.25.2019 (Season 1, Episode 3, 23:44 min.) To read the complete Utah Dept. of Culture & Community Engagement show notes for this episode (including topics in time, photos and recommended readings) click here. Interested in other episodes of Speak Your Piece? Click here for more episodes.
Podcast Content:
“Black Saints were among the first to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and have been a part of the Mormon experience since the beginning.” This is an excerpt from Century of Black Mormons.Org, a research database that seeks to document and recover the identities and voices of Black Mormons. University of Utah Professor of Mormon History, W Paul Reeve, spoke to “Speak Your Piece” host Brad Westwood about the public history project, “Century of Black Mormons” in 2020. Reeve serves as this database’s general editor and speaks of Elijah Able and Jane Manning James, Green Flake, Oscar Crosby, and many other enslaved and free African Americans, who also were Latter-day Saints.
If you were looking for a piece of book heaven with the intention of getting lost or finding Reeve outlines 19th and early 20th century events, the hierarchical racial construct in U.S culture, both the national and regional political context and the key players in the changing story of African Americans within Mormon history. The story begins in the 1830 and 1840s, where church leaders offer an all-inclusive, universalistic message to all races and nationalities but then changes to restrict African American membership, prevent priesthood membership and involvement in the church’s highest rituals. Dr. Reeve describes the church’s 20th century return to its universalistic roots and its media campaigns in an effort to claim this diverse identity.
Bio: W. Paul Reeve Raised in Hurricane (Washington County) Utah, W. Paul Reeve has been teaching since 2008 American, Western, Mormon and Utah history at the University of Utah. Paul is the first-ever Simmons Professor of Mormon Studies at the U, and has written a number of books, including Making Space on the Western Frontier: Mormons, Miners, and Southern Paiutes (2007), Between Pulpit and Pew: The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore (with Michael Scott Van Wagenen, 2011), and in 2015 Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness (2015).
Do you have a question or comment, or a proposed guest for “Speak Your Piece?” Write us at “ask a historian” – [email protected]