From Deseret News archives:
Churches' role hailed in lives of early Utah blacks
The legacy of three of the first African-American churches in Utah was recounted by the Rev. France A. Davis at the 55th Annual Utah State History Conference to account for the early religious experience of African-Americans in Utah.
The first African-Americans to arrive in the valley were two trappers in the early nineteenth century before Brigham Young and the pioneers arrived, said Davis. Three African-American slaves Green Flake, Hark Lay and Oscar Crosby would later cross the plains with the Mormon pioneers.
The end of slavery saw the exclusion of African-Americans from churches, said Davis. Through this exclusion emerged new churches for African-American congregations. Utah became the home to three major worshipping groups the Churches of God in Christ, the Calvary Baptist Church and the Trinity African Methodist Episcopal Church. Even a few were numbered among the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Davis.
These churches gave early African-American settlers the opportunity to create their own communities and exercise their beliefs. "Without the African-American (religious) experience in Utah," said Davis, "African Americans would have no center of community ... moral compass, educational foundation and no spiritual refuge."
E-mail: nhale@desnews.com
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