African Americans in pioneer Utah from: Friday Edition BACKGROUND... Aired on KUER-FM 90, February 14, 1992. Excerpts from Jane Manning James's letter to Brigham Young, 1884. PLAYING TIME OF RELATED AUDIO CLIP... 1min 50sec TRANSCRIPT... Their history has often been forgotten, maybe ignored; but African Americans helped open the west. They were among the trappers who explored and mapped the Rocky Mountains and the cowboys who drove cattle from Texas through Utah. They rode with the Mormon Pioneers and helped build the Salt Lake Temple. They worked on the railroad and in the mines. They served as soldiers defending the frontier. The histories of Blacks in Utah is the history of Utah. Though Mormon prophet Joseph Smith had spoken out in the early years of the church against slavery; Brigham Young called it 'a divine institution'; and by 1850 Utah was the only western territory where Blacks were held as slaves. Free Blacks also joined the waves of pioneers travelling to Utah. Many of them were passionate Latter-day Saints. Jane Manning James was the matriarch of Utah's early Black community. She had worked in the Nauvoo home of Joseph Smith and remained an active Mormon all her life. But she was continually frustrated in her attempts to be married in the Salt Lake Temple. Dear Brother, I called at your house last Thursday to have conversation with you concerning my future salvation. You know my history; and according to the best of my ability, I have lived to all the requirements of the gospel. I realize my race and color and can't expect my endowments at others who are white. My race was handed down through the blood; and God promised Abraham in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. As this is the fullness of all dispensations, is there no blessing for me? Jane Manning James (1884) _____________________________________________________________________ SOURCE... February 14, 1992. Salt Lake City, Utah : University of Utah. KUER-FM90, 1992. AUTHOR... Smith, Robert USE RESTRICTIONS... The contents of this article may be repurposed for non-commercial, non-profit, educational use. _____________________________________________________________________ Distributed by the Utah Education Network eMedia service: http://www.uen.org/emedia Original digital conversion by UCME: Utah Collections Multimedia Encyclopedia project: http://www.uen.org/ucme File ID = a_001023 Page 1.