Alan Cherry

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Alan Gerald Cherry[1] (February 14, 1946 – July 4, 2024) was one of the few African American converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) prior to the 1978 revelation allowing Black Mormon men to become priests.[2] From 1985-1989, he was director of Brigham Young University's African-American Oral History Project, and recorded interviews with over 200 African-Americans converts to Mormonism across the United States.[3][4][5]

Biography

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Born and raised in New York City,[6][1] Cherry as a teenager was in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom during which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.[1] In 1966, he enlisted with the US Air Force, and was posted to Abilene, Texas.[7] While there, he met a Mormon serviceman, and joined the LDS Church in 1968.[8][3][1][9] In the early 1970s Cherry played and provided comedy routines in the Mormon rock bands Sons of Mosiah, which had Orrin Hatch as their manager, and The Free Agency.[9][10][11][12] Cherry studied at Brigham Young University (BYU),[8] graduating with a BA in sociology and an MA in organizational behavior,[1] and was an original member of the Young Ambassadors, a touring performing group.[7] In June 1978 he received the priesthood, shortly after LDS Church President Spencer W. Kimball received divine revelation allowing black Mormon men to become priests.[7][13] In 1979, Cherry sought and was called on a Mormon mission to Oakland, California.[7][1][14] He later served in high local church callings,[1] and was often invited to speak about his experience as a pre-1978 convert.[2]

In 1985, Cherry was appointed project director of BYU's LDS African-American Oral History Project, and over the next few years, interviewed over 200 African-Americans in Utah and across the United States.[3][4][6] Doing this, Cherry met Janice Barkum, whom he married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1987, and with whom he has had three children.[1][9][15] He spoke about his findings in 1988 at a symposium on the tenth anniversary of the revelation of the priesthood,[6][3][16][17] and at other presentations in subsequent years.[18] The interviews were edited into a video entitled Black Legacy: The history of Blacks in Utah.[4][18] Cherry co-authored an entry on "Blacks" in the 1992 Encyclopedia of Mormonism.[19][20]

Cherry appeared in Mormon Kieth Merrill's 1981 film Harry's War as an IRS agent.[7] He was also cast as a freed slave in the Mormon inspirational film Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration.[1]

Cherry died on July 4, 2024, at the age of 78.[21]

Bibliography

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  • 1970 - It's You and Me, Lord! My Experience as a Black Mormon (Trilogy Arts)[7][11][8][22]
  • 1992 - with Jessie Embry: "Blacks", in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., Daniel H. Ludlow et al., eds., (New York: Macmillan), Volume 1, page 125.[19][20]

Discography

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  • 1970: The Sons Of Mosiah : Live In Washington D.C. (Y' Man's Music)

References

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  16. ^ Ensign article on 10th anniversary meeting
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