By Stephen Snow
In culmination of Brigham Young University''s celebration of Black History Month, several hundred young adults of diverse races came together to sing songs of unity and praise on the eve of a historic announcement made Feb. 26 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The announcement marked The Church of Jesus Christ''s completion of the largest database of African American genealogy in the world.
'True to my God, true to my land,' were the words of faith sung by the multicultural choir Divine Heritage, setting the tone for the first annual BYU Black Student Union Gospel Fireside, Feb. 25, celebrating racial unity within the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Divine Heritage, the Black Student Union Choir and the Multicultural Student Organization sang musical numbers and old Negro spirituals throughout the gospel fireside.
The meeting highlighted a keynote address by Dr. Darius Gray, a former BYU professor, currently acting as President of a multicultural worship organization called the Genesis Group.
Gray urged the students to follow the advice found in the title of the Negro National Anthem, and 'lift every voice and sing,' as he announced The Church of Jesus Christ would make a proclamation the following day regarding the ancestors of black saints.
The announcement celebrated the completion of a special database compiled by Utah inmates under the direction of The Church of Jesus Christ''s Family History Center. Gray informed the excited students that the database consists of 484,000 African American names compiled from records kept by a post-civil war bank called the Freedman Savings and Loan.
Because freed slaves had no form of identification, the bank made them list detailed information about their families, their former owners, and other information useful in genealogy work. The bank failed, but its detailed records survived.
'The database is the largest depository of African American names anywhere (in the world),' Gray said. 'It is the best family history record you can imagine.'
Gray told the students from BYU, Utah Valley State College, and Ricks College that times have changed since he was one of two black students enrolled at BYU in 1965. The church was small then, he explained, and black saints hardly even constituted a minority at that time.
Gray''s experience at BYU was a lonely one, he said. The only other black student left BYU after a truck-full of white students threw apples and shouted racial slurs at her, he said. Gray remained strong, however, and finished the school year as a lone black man on a campus hardly accepting of him.
'But, oh, how times have changed,' Gray said. 'Sometimes we fail to notice when change occurs, and when we do, we see that a mighty change has taken place.'
Now there are over 100,000 black members in Africa alone, Gray told the students. But, he continued, the church does not keep statistics based on race.
'That is because, regardless of race, we are all brothers and sisters,' Gray said.
Richard Rowley, 23, a senior from West Valley, Utah, is president of the BYU Multicultural Student Organization. He said that the gospel fireside was the first time BYU had ever done anything of its kind.
'The time has come where the African American voice is much louder than it used to be,' Rowley said.
Rowley said he was excited about the announcement of the availability of the African American database.
'It''s tremendous,' Rowley said. 'I don''t think many people really understand the impact this will have.'
Rich Mills, 24, a senior from St. Louis, Missouri, majoring in social work, said he recognizes the impact the database will have.
'Now it will be easier for my family to do genealogy work,' Mills said. 'In the past, it has been so hard for African Americans to get that work done. I''m really excited.'