African Americans have made Utah their home since the early 1800s. James P. Beckwourth and Jacob Dobson were the first known African Americans to arrive in Utah. They came to northern Utah in the 1820s looking for furs to trade.
African Americans continued to explore and settle in Utah throughout the nineteenth century and into the twenty-first. Some arrived enslaved or seeking religious community or to work, and all of them helped to shape Utah’s political, social, cultural, and economic landscape.
Push and Pull Factors
There were many push and pull factors that drew African Americans to Utah during the 1800s. Utah’s animal population provided fur for traders. Some African Americans arrived in Utah as slaves to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Enslaved African Americans moved to Utah because they did not have a choice. Jobs with mines and railroads pulled some to Utah. Violence and discrimination in other parts of the United States pushed factors that contributed to African American settlement in Utah and the West. Since the early 1800s, African Americans have been a part of Utah’s cultural, political, and religious life.
Settling
The first African Americans to settle permanently in Utah arrived in 1847. Their names were Green Flake, Oscar Crosby, and Hark Lay, and members of the LDS church enslaved them. Slavery was legal in Utah Territory for almost 20 years, and about 800 enslaved African Americans lived in Utah before the Civil War. Slavery ended in 1865 when Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment. African Americans were no longer slaves, but that did not mean that they were treated as equal citizens. They had to continue to fight for their citizenship rights.
Working
African Americans worked for business owners in factories, mines, and railroads. Some owned farms. The Mill Creek area of the Salt Lake Valley became a gathering place for early African American farmers. African Americans worked for railroads, hotels, and restaurants and as domestic servants in private homes. Others ran newspapers, worked as attorneys, opened hotels, wrote novels and plays, or were policemen. Some served in the military at Fort Douglas and Fort Duchesne. Clearly, African Americans contributed to Utah’s economy in several ways.
Building Community
African American Utahns built community by forming clubs and organizations. Black Utahns joined literary clubs, and fraternal organizations, and had a community center. Black women’s groups included the Ladies Civic and Study Club, the Camelia Arts and Crafts Club, and the Nimble Thimble Club. The members of these clubs gathered to sew and work on other artistic projects. African American Utahns celebrated Emancipation Day, also known as Juneteenth, each year to honor the end of slavery.
Fighting Discrimination
African Americans also experienced discrimination in Utah. After the Civil War, some Euro-Americans did not allow African Americans to the same public places as white members of society. For example, swimming pools were segregated, which meant that Black people could not swim in the same pool as white people. African Americans could go to movies, but they had to sit on the balconies rather than the seats in front of the theater, which was where white people sat. African American members of the LDS church could not go to the temple or hold the priesthood until 1978.
African Americans found ways to avoid mistreatment from other citizens by working together. They founded branches of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Salt Lake City and Ogden. Many Black women joined Utah’s NAACP chapters. Some African Americans found places to stay by reading the Green Book.
The Green Book was a guide that told Black tourists and travelers where it was safe for them to shop, stay, and eat. During the 1940s, Robert Freed and Ranch Kimball integrated the Lagoon Amusement Park to allow African Americans to come to the park. Although many people in America were not kind to African Americans, Black people used their right to travel by working together to find safe places.
Today
Today, African Americans continue to call Utah home. The Utah African American
Chamber of Commerce serves Black Utahns by creating networks and providing resources for Black-owned businesses. African Americans continue to shape Utah’s political, social, religious, and cultural life just like they did in the past.
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