John Malveaux: During Aug. 20, 2016 Leimert Park Village Book Fair, I visited The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints booth DISCOVER YOUR ROOTS

https://discoveryourroots.org/

John Malveaux of 

www.MusicUNTOLD.com 

writes:

During the August 20, 2016 10^th annual Leimert Park Village Book Fair, I visited The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints booth titled DISCOVER YOUR ROOTS https://discoveryourroots.org/. I chatted with Wade Beams and learned that the African American Freedmen’s Bureau kept records from 1865-1872 of a wide range of data about the African American experience during slavery and freedom. The Bureau contracted The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to codify records of about 4.2 million hand written names of African Americans. The result is about 2.5 million names after elimination of duplication, etc. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will turn the names over to the new Smithsonian African American Museum on December 6, 2016.