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By Scott Tiffany
LDS Author Darius Gray Speaks to African-American Members in Harlem
NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- Darius Aidain Gray, president of the Genesis
Group, visited Manhattan's core
African-American church members in Harlem last week telling them, "I
am pleased to be here, it's been my dream to come here a long time. I
have prayed to be here and I am happy to be here."
Gray visited with about 40 members of the Harlem Branch at a potluck
dinner on February 28, 2001, held in honor of his visit to New York
City. Gray came to the city on a press tour promoting the Church's
release of the Freedman Bank records on CD-ROM. He told Harlem Church
members the disk was an invaluable resource to finding out "where we
came from." The CD indexes the names and biographical information of
nearly 500,000 African Americans who applied for bank accounts at the
Freedman Bank after the Civil War.
"As people of color, we have a rich history, not only in latter-day
times, but in historical times of the Bible," said Gray who is the
co-author of "Standing on the Promises: One More River to Cross," the
first of a trilogy of historical novels about black members of the
Church. "Sometimes, we have been led to believe that we are 'less
than.' But no one in God's family is less than. We are all God's
children, and we must not judge other children by the color of their
skin."
Gray presides over the Genesis Group, an official arm of the Church
created in 1971 as a support group for Americans of African descent.
Margaret Blair Youing, Gray's co-author of the book, also attended
the dinner.
See also:
More about Margaret Blair Young and Darius Aiden Gray's "One More River to Cross" at Amazon.com
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