In This Issue

Two years ago—in the winter 2020 edition of Utah Historical Quarterly—we published a series of essays addressing race and religion in twentieth-century Utah. As we shared with readers then, we had not planned a thematically orchestrated issue. Beholden to the historical research submitted to our editorial office, we often look for ways to group like articles, and sometimes the results pleasantly surprise us. Like the winter 2020 issue, the edition before you continues the conversation about the African American experience in Utah.

However serendipitous may be the configuration of articles in the current issue, both social and academic trends likely account for heightened attention to racial and ethnic communities here in Utah and nationally. In legislative halls, classrooms, and public discourse, we collectively question socioeconomic disparities between racial groups, unequal representation in public institutions, healthcare access and public health outcomes, educational opportunities, and a host of other issues faced by people of color. Where do social and cultural disparities come from, and how are they perpetuated? How have individuals from underrepresented communities created for themselves spaces where they can act out their own futures? How have individuals and institutions historically responded to voices and acts of protest? Although not new, such questions challenge us to consider anew the forces of history that create the world we inhabit. This edition of UHQ contributes to an understanding of pressing questions and issues, primarily concerning race, that we care about today.

We lead out with Tonya Reiter’s history of an ofttold, 1939 attempt by white residents of Salt Lake City to establish a segregated “Negro district” outside the boundaries of their own neighborhood—the spurious action of unsubstantiated rumors. Although Salt Lake City did not then formalize de jure segregation in housing, de facto segregation and racially discriminatory practices that preserved white property values at the expense of Black citizens—like those written in real estate codes—were prevalent at midcentury. We live today under the shadow of such practices, if one compares neighborhood demographics and property values. As we see from the findings of another essay in this issue, these disparities go back decades. Based on data from the 1900 US census, Brandon Plewe’s spatial analysis of ethnic groups in Salt Lake City at the turn of the twentieth century underscores the decisions and forces acting on immigrants arriving in an increasingly diverse urban city.

We also feature the quixotic campaign in Utah of Henry Wallace, the liberal former-vice-president-turned-third-party candidate who spoke assiduously for the kind of progressive policies advocated by some on the left today. As thoroughly detailed by John Sillito, the Wallace candidacy animated a core group of supporters, concentrated in the universities, concerned about social justice and civil rights.

Our next piece is a history of the prominent Pentecostal church, the Church of God in Christ, by Alan J. Clark and one of its pastors, Henry McAllister. While some readers may know something about the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Church in God in Christ and its long struggle to carve a place for itself primarily in Salt Lake City and Ogden finally gets attention in the pages of our journal.

A group of professors and students at Brigham Young University is currently working to encourage amends for their institution’s connection to slavery and racial discrimination. Grace Soelberg’s essay, our fifth, is one perspective among a multitude of others on applying the weight of history to address contemporary concerns.

Finally, we close the issue with Gary Topping’s homage to D. Michael Quinn, a prolific scholar and friend to many.