MURRAY, Utah — Elijah Abel, Jane Manning James and Green Flake
hold a unique, but rather obscure place in Mormon history: all three
joined the church in its infancy and all three were black.They also remained faithful after policies were altered and blacks
were denied priesthood blessings in The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.Abel was the first black man ordained to the priesthood in 1836.
James worked in the home of church founder Joseph Smith and followed
the faith's next president, Brigham Young, across the Plains to Utah in
1848. Flake came to Utah as well, but as the slave of white members. He
was freed by Young in 1854.Such stories won't remain unknown if Darius Gray and Margaret Young
have anything to do with it. They've chronicled the struggles of black
Latter-day Saints in a new documentary, "Nobody Knows: The Untold Story
of Black Mormons.""To me it's parallel with the story of African Americans, period,"
said Gray, who is black and has been a member of the church since 1964.
"We talk about the black history and contributions being either lost,
stolen or strayed generally, and it's the same within the LDS church."Nearly six years in the making, the film is an extension of a longtime
partnership between Gray, a former broadcaster, and Young, a writing
teacher at the church-owned Brigham Young University. Together the pair
have written three books on black Mormons.Wrapped in soulful black spirituals, the 72-minute film takes viewers
on a journey from the days of Mormon pioneers to the 1960s Civil Rights
era, when some university athletic teams refused to compete against BYU
because the church openly discriminated against blacks. It ends with
current black church members sharing their own stories — good and bad."We're not hiding anything, we're not sugar-coating anything," said
Young, who is white. "We're telling a very difficult history, but the
people who are telling it have come through it."Tamu Smith of Provo is one of those storytellers."It is liberating," Smith said of sharing her struggle to fit in and
find other people of color in her faith. "We don't talk about black
Mormon history, and it's sad. Every person in the church needs to see
this."Church history shows that Smith granted blacks full membership in the
faith not long after founding the church in 1830. Brigham Young later
preached that blacks "bore the mark of Cain" and implied that they were
inferior. For decades blacks were not allowed to served as
missionaries, were denied access to church temples and to the sacred
ceremonies that Mormons believed bound families for eternity. Black men
were also denied the right to hold the priesthood, which gives men
ecclesiastical authority.Blacks remained marginalized until June 8, 1978, when a revelation by
then-president Spencer W. Kimball, restored the priesthood for black
men.Some say Kimball was led by prayer and reflection to the announcement,
while others believe the change was driven by more practical reasons.
In the decades following the revelations, Mormon church membership in
Africa grew by leaps and bounds. Today the church claims more than
250,000 members of the church in 27 African nations, statistics on the
church Web site show.Regardless of reason, Kimball's announcement was a stunning change that
Gray said he thought would "have to wait until the Second Coming for it
to occur."A player in the film in addition to his behind-camera role, Gray said
black Mormons needed to tell their own story instead of letting others
continue to interpret their history."It's important to be validated and it's important to share it with our
white brothers and sisters so that they can have an appreciation for
who we are and from whence we've come," he said. "Part of it is sweet,
part of it is bitter, but it's our story."Young said a goal of the film, is to build a bridge between blacks and whites both in and out of the church.Gray and Young have been shopping their project to film festivals
across the U.S. To date it's been shown in Dallas, Detroit and San
Diego, where so many people turned out that organizers had to move the
showing to a larger theater. They hope to find a distributor that will
allow the film to be widely. It was funded largely through a University
of Utah grant and the church was not involved in its production.On Saturday, the film drew a crowd of more than 100 at the Foursite Film Festival in Ogden."This was very impressive," teacher Tamara Lei Peters said. "There have
been so many questions about black people in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. It made me weep in a few places."Peters said she knew nothing about black Mormon history before seeing the film.David Rowe, who teaches at the Salt Lake Theological Seminary, knew the history, but said he was surprised by the film."I would say it was bracingly forthright about the black Mormons'
struggle," said the self-described evangelical. "I didn't expect them
to allow quite as much criticism along with the commendation. I
expected a bit more of PR gloss, but I didn't find it overly
romanticized."Mormon Jeanette Lambert of Salt Lake City said perhaps the film can
begin to heal the divisiveness wrought by the past treatment of black
church members. Sadly, some old doctrines that support the idea that
blacks are less than full church members are still taught, said
Lambert, a hospice nurse."I think there needs to be a concerted effort made to acknowledge that
some things were wrong. It's a part of the repentance process," said
the mother of two teenagers.The dedication and faithfulness of pioneers and the decades of black
members who came after them is something other church members should
know about and celebrate, Lambert said.Abel, James and Flake, "should be some of our heroes," she said.