Unless noted, these resources come from Utah Historical Society publications.
SLAVERY IN TERRITORIAL UTAH
The history of slavery and race in territorial Utah is poignant and complicated, to say the least. For some essential reading, see these UHQ articles:
- Tonya Reitter, “Redd Slave Histories: Family, Race, and Sex in Pioneer Utah”
- Christopher B. Rich, Jr., “The True Policy for Utah: Servitude, Slavery, and ‘An Act in Relation to Service’”
- This Abominable Slavery, by by W. Paul Reeve, Christopher B. Rich Jr. , LaJean Purcell Carruth (Oxford University Press, 2024) and This Abominable Slavery Digital Exhibit (University of Utah)
- Slavery in Zion, by Amy Tanner Thiriot (U of U Press, 2023), and Slavery in Zion, Perspectives Speaker Series (Utah Historical Society)
Black Soldiers in 19th-Century Utah
- Michael J. Clark, “Improbable Ambassadors: Black Soldiers at Fort Douglas, 1869–99”
- Ronald G. Coleman, “The Buffalo Soldiers: Guardians of the Uintah Frontier, 1886–1901”
- Utah’s Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Trail Storymap, Utah Cultural Site Stewardship Program (2025)
Lynching In Utah
Lynching refers to the extrajudicial killing of an individual by a group or mob, and it is a practice with deep roots in American history. In 1925, a mob in Carbon County carried out the extrajudicial killing of Robert “Bob” Marshall. Read about the events leading up to and following the lynching of Robert Marshall in “Justice Denied,” a paper delivered by Gerlach at a commemorative gathering in the Price cemetery on April 4, 1998. Please note that this article contains a disturbing image.
As Gerlach writes, “We cannot undo the past, but we can recognize what has happened and why. To ignore past misdeeds is to condone them, if only by silence; to acknowledge past misdeeds is to educate, and to educate is to prepare the way for a better tomorrow.”
Community & Politics in the 20th-Century
Utah’s African American community grew in the years near the turn of the 20th century, and continued to do so throughout the century. The following articles cover rich stories of community organizers, journalists, families, and even the famous boxer, Jack Johnson.
Celia and Ben Leggroan, a young couple from two established Utah families. USHS.
- Alan J. Clark and Henry McAllister, “Led to the Mountains: The Church of God in Christ Comes to Utah“
- Ronald G. Coleman, “Utah’s African American Community and Politics, 1890-1910“
- Gary Kimball, “William Jefferson Hardin: A Grand but Forgotten Park City African American”
- Richard Ian Kimball, “The Right Sort to Bring to the City”: Jack Johnson, Boxing, Boosterism in Salt Lake City”
- Miriam B. Murphy, “Utah’s Early African American Farmers”
- Miriam B. Murphy, “The Black Baseball Heroes of ’09”
- Jeffrey D. Nichols, “R. Bruce Johnson and African American Political Power in Utah at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”
- Jeffrey D. Nichols, “The Broad Ax and the Plain Dealer Kept Utah’s African Americans Informed”
- Wilfred D. Samuels and David A. Hales, “Wallace Henry Thurman: A Utah Contributor to the Harlem Renaissance.”
- Michael S. Sweeney, “Julius F. Taylor and the Broad Ax of Salt Lake City”
Race Relations in 20th-Century Utah
A Utes v. Aggies basketball game, 1967. Athletics became the site of protests in 1960s Utah. USHS.
As in the rest of the U.S., race relations in 20th-century Utah could often be difficult. They played out in questions of public segregation, religion, college athletics, interracial romance, and more. The social and structural shifts set in motion by WWII, the civil rights movement, and the upheavals of the 1960s, however, opened the door for some improvement.
- Gary Bergera, “This Time of Crisis: The Race-Based Anti-BYU Athletic Protests of 1968-1971″
- Christine Cooper-Rompato, “Utah in the Green Book: Segregation and the Hospitality Industry in the Beehive State”
- Matthew L. Harris and Madison S. Harris, “The Last State to Honor MLK: Utah and the Quest for Racial Justice”
- Patrick Q. Mason, “The Prohibition of Interracial Marriage in Utah, 1888-1963”
- Jessica Marie Nelson, “Race, Latter-day Saint Doctrine, and Athletics at Utah State University, 1960–1961”
- F. Ross Peterson, “‘Blindside’: Utah on the Eve of Brown v. Board of Education”
- Tonya S. Reiter, “Not in My Neighborhood: The 1939 Controversy over Segregated Housing in Salt Lake City“
- Jackie Thompson, “Mignon Barker Richmond, A Community Organizer with Heart,” Better Days 2020
General
Turn to Century of Black Mormons, a digital project from the University of Utah, to learn about the identities and voices of Black Latter-day Saints from 1830 to 1930, many of them in Utah.
The J. Willard Marriott Library holds a notable collection of interviews that took place between 1982 and 1988. In these interviews, African Americans recall their lives in Utah from 1889 to 1988, providing an important chronicle of the black experience in Utah.
Ronald G. Coleman’s work on Blacks in Utah is foundational. Begin with “Blacks in Utah History: An Unknown Legacy” and “African Americans in Utah.”
Further Reading
This pulpit robe was owned and donated by France A. Davis, pastor of the Calvary Missionary Baptist Church of Salt Lake City, Utah. USHS.
Davis, France A. Light in the Midst of Zion. A History of Black Baptists in Utah 1892–1996. Salt Lake City, 1997.
Embry, Jessie L. Black Saints in a White Church: Contemporary African American Mormons. Salt Lake City, 1994.
Gerlach, Larry R. Blazing Crosses in Zion: The Ku Klux Klan in Utah. Logan, Utah, 1982.
Ramjoue, George. “The Negro in Utah: A Geographical Study in Population.” M.A. thesis, University of Utah, 1968.
Stene, Eric. “The African American Community of Ogden, Utah, 1910–1950.” M.A. thesis, Utah State University, 1994.
