Narrating Jane: Telling the Story of an Early African American Mormon Woman

Jane Elizabeth Manning James was among the early African American converts to Mormonism. After joining the church in the early 1840s, James remained a faithful member until her death in Salt Lake City in 1908. Although she was well-known among church members during her lifetime, James was largely forgotten after her death. However, beginning in about 2000, there was a significant up-tick in non-academic LDS discourse about James. Dr. Newell will analyze this recent talk about Jane, showing that she has become a way for Latter-day Saints to talk about both gender and race in ways that create a usable past for the 21st century