Murals of Four Remarkable Black Women in Utah’s History, Installed in SLC’s Richmond Park by Sema Hadithi & Better Days (S4 E15)

**Brad Westwood** (0:02)
Welcome to the podcast Speak Your Piece. This is a podcast about Utah's history produced by the Utah Department of Culture and Community Engagement.
I'm Brad Westwood, senior public historian. My job is to make the very best, the most interesting, the most accurate history accessible to the widest audience. We hope that there's one place, one podcast that you get your Utah history fix. We hope this is the place.
This is our third episode in our Utah Women's History Series, co-produced by Dr. Cassandra Clark, Utah's Women's History Initiative coordinator. Good morning, Dr. Clark.

**Cassandra Clark** (0:38)
Good morning, Brad. I'm glad to be back.

**Brad Westwood** (0:40)
Specifically, we will be speaking today about four African-American women who are the subject of a new public art installation, a mural unveiled on June 27th, 2022 at Richmond Park, and the location of Richmond Park is 444 East 600 South in Salt Lake City. This unveiling was part of Utah's Juneteenth celebrations.
The mural depicts Jane Manning James, Elizabeth Taylor, Elnora Dudley, and Mignon Barker Richmond, all of whom are at different times left their impact on Utah and Salt Lake City. The artist for this mural series is noted fine artist turned illustrator, Brooke Smart. The point of this episode is to acquaint you with these four remarkable women of color and to learn more about their partnering organizations. First, Sema Hadithi, African American Heritage and Culture Foundation, and Better Days 2020, which has recently been rebranded to just simply Better Days.
From Sema Hadithi, we have with us the Director of Special Events, Alice Faulkner Burch. Hello, Alice.

**Alice Faulkner Burch** (1:59)
Hi, Brad. Nice to be here. Thank you.

**Brad Westwood** (2:02)
So glad to have you.
Writer, speaker and entrepreneur, Alice has been busy as Director of Special Events in oral history, as the oral history lead for Sema Hadithi.
Alice was born in Oxford, California to Cleo and Elwanda Faulkner in 2017 She retired from a prominent Utah-based corporation after working there for 30 years. She has volunteered for the men's prison for five years and was secretary for seven years for the Utah chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. Our second guest is Better Days Utah Educator Director, Tiffany Greene. Welcome, Tiffany. Thanks, Brad.

**Tiffany Greene** (2:53)
Nice to be here.

**Brad Westwood** (2:54)
As the education director for Better Days, Tiffany Greene serves on the Black American Women's History in Utah Working Group for Sema Hadithi, a service-learning scholar grad from the University of Utah in secondary education. She graduated with an emphasis in history. Tiffany has also been a freelance writer, has worked for the Utah Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. Now, there's a mouthful. The Women's Democratic Club of Utah. She has been a part of the Better Days since 2018 Tiffany is also a local scout master in the Boys and Girl Scout America Organization.
I need to also say that the Wasatch Community Gardens, Utah Division of State History, and the Utah Division of Arts and Museums were also part of this historical effort. So friends, let's start right off. We are talking about four remarkable African American women who lived in Utah in the past. Alice, Tiffany, and Cassie, in an open discussion, let's talk about their historical significance, their personal stories as well as the broader context surrounding these four Utah women. First, let's talk about Jane Manning James.
Who is she and let's bring her story to life.

**Alice Faulkner Burch** (4:21)
Jane Elizabeth Manning James, I love her full name, is the first free black American woman to come into the valley with the Mormon settlers. There were free black Americans in this territory before her. But a lot of people think that this territory began when the Mormon settlers came and colonized the area. But she was the first one to come with them. She came with her husband. She was pregnant and she came with one child.
Her daughter, I think it's Mary Ann, was the first black American child born in the state of Utah.

**Brad Westwood** (5:13)
Wow, and did she spend her life here in Utah?

**Alice Faulkner Burch** (5:17)
She did.

**Brad Westwood** (5:17)
Alice?

**Alice Faulkner Burch** (5:18)
Yeah, from the time that she came, she never left Utah. She lived here. Everyone knew her as Aunt Jane, everyone. Everyone called her Aunt Jane, white Americans, black Americans. She was a prominent member of the LDS church.
She settled originally with her husband somewhere in the downtown area. And when they when they actually very first arrived here, they worked for Brigham Young, who was the leader of the LDS church at that time, and who led the members of the church here to Utah. And so she and her husband both, her husband, Isaac, they both worked for Brigham Young in his home. And then after a while, they worked on their own, they had had several different side gigs.