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The Family History Library and its family history centers are important resources for African-Americans in their quest to connect with the past, said speakers at an open house for African-American researchers.
The Family History Library is second only to the Birmingham, Ala., Civil Rights Museum for African-American research.
Keynote speaker for the event, held Feb. 12, was Ronald G. Coleman, Ph.D., of the University of Utah, who spoke of Utah's African-American pioneers, and encouraged those present to connect with their ancestors. His address was followed by a day of classes and workshops.
The open house was co-sponsored by the Family History Library, the NAACP Salt Lake Chapter and the Utah State Office of Black Affairs. Some of those who attended also took advantage of the library's resources to begin or add to research of their family history.
In his address, Dr. Coleman paid tribute to Utah African-American pioneers who came into the valley as early as 1847, and who have posterity who have remained. These pioneers, he said, "came because they were property of southern converts of the LDS Church, who also decided that they would relocate when the decision was made to abandon Nauvoo."
When the Mississippi saints and other slave-holding members came west, they brought 75-100 slaves with them by 1850, resulting in Utah being classified as a slave territory, although it had a more mild code than those found in the South, he said. Slavery in the United States ended in 1862.
"So that on July 22nd, 1847, in the party of 42 men that hacked their way through a trail in Emigration Canyon and later into the valley — in that first group of LDS pioneers — there were three men of African descent: Hark Lay, Oscar Crosby and Green Flake, and their names are recorded on the Brigham Young Monument which is located on Main Street between South Temple and North Temple."
These pioneers, he continued, "had the same kinship networks that their slave owners had. There were family marriages which tied together the Crosbys, Lays, the Matthews, the Flakes . . . over the course of time. Even though small in number, the African-Americans interacted with each other. There were courtships that led to marriages and long and stable relationships."
The first free family of African-Americans in Utah were Jane and Isaac James, converts. Jane Elizabeth Manning James was "a very handsome woman," he said. "A free woman of color born in southwestern Connecticut, who, after converting to another faith, felt that she was still not satisfied, felt that she was unfulfilled. . . . She joined the Church and came to Utah. She was generous and neighborly with others."
He told of Green Flake's owner later sending for him so he could be sold in California. "Brigham Young wrote back saying that he didn't know where Green was, but had heard that he was too sick to even provide for his own family." But "there wasn't much in the territory that Brigham Young didn't know about." (Green Flake died in Idaho Falls, Idaho, in 1903, at age 75.)
Dr. Coleman concluded by encouraging those present "to take advantage of the resources that are here. . . . This is an invaluable resource here in this community, and people come from all over the world.
"Those African-Americans that are here, this is very, very important to have this connection. I would urge you to take advantage; there's no reason not to be able to do it at this point in time."
Another visitor, Darnel L. Haney, a folk artist, said the library has been useful to him, "and I have used it off and on for the past 15 years. This is one of the best facilities I have (used)," he said.
