Jane Elizabeth Manning James

Jane Elizabeth Manning James ( born September 22, 1822 † April 16, 1908 ) was an early black Mormon a convert.

Life

They lived for a time with Joseph Smith and his family in Nauvoo. She was the first African American woman who was proven as a Mormon pioneer to Utah. With her husband Isaac James had eight children. Their daughter Mary Ann was the first black child who was born in Utah. When she left her husband Isaac in 1869, she asked several times in the First Presidency if she could receive the endowment and the sealing with Walker Lewis, a prominent African- American Mormon elders, with their children. The late 1856 Lewis was as the first black Mormon elder Elijah Abel Joseph Smith ordained a priest. Jane was assumed that Lewis was for temple ceremonies are available. But their requests were always ignored or rejected. After Isaac died in 1891, she asked if she could be sealed according to the law of adoption. In his correspondence with church leaders she gave as the reason, Emma Smith had offered her, to seal as a child with the Smith family.

Your request has been rejected again. Instead, the First Presidency decided that she was adopted as the minister of Smith. This was done in a specially prepared ceremony on May 18, 1894 with Joseph F. Smith served as deputy to Joseph Smith.

The Mormon, founded by President Joseph Fielding Smith Genesis Group has built on the cemetery of Salt Lake City is a monument to her life's work.