Alan Cherry

Alan Gerald Cherry 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.

Biography Born and raised in New York City, 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. Cherry studied at Brigham Young University (BYU), 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. In 1979, Cherry sought and was called on a Mormon mission to Oakland, California. He later served in high local church callings, Doing this, Cherry met Janice Barkum, whom he married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1987, and with whom he has had three children. He spoke about his findings in 1988 at a symposium on the tenth anniversary of the revelation of the priesthood, and at other presentations in subsequent years. The interviews were edited into a video entitled Black Legacy: The history of Blacks in Utah.