Review: W. Paul Reeve, project manager and general editor. Century of Black Mormons. J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah. https://exhibits .lib.utah.edu/s/century-of-black-mormons/page/welcome.

Authors

Lauren Cooper

Keywords

black, Mormons, history, media, race

Abstract

W. Paul Reeve opens the statement of purpose on the Century of Black Mormons’s “About” page by capturing the mainstream media and pop culture commentators’ disbelief that a population of Black Mormons exists. In statements culled from sources during the 2012 US presidential election with Mitt Romney, a White Mormon, running against the reelection of Barack Obama, an African American Protestant, comedians describe Black Mormons as “mythical creatures” and news broadcasters speculate there may be “between 500 to 2,000.” In actuality, according to a 2009 Pew Research Study that Reeve references, the estimated Black Mormon population is between sixty thousand and one hundred eighty thousand (“About”). Whether for laughs or in a display of historical misunderstanding, this disbelief points to a larger issue in our society and education system: the legacy of burying the histories of Black people.

BYU ScholarsArchive Citation

Cooper, Lauren (2022) "Review: W. Paul Reeve, project manager and general editor. Century of Black Mormons. J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah. https://exhibits .lib.utah.edu/s/century-of-black-mormons/page/welcome.," Mormon Studies Review: Vol. 9: No. 1, Article 11.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr2/vol9/iss1/11