Alan Cherry
Encyclopedia
Alan Gerald Cherry is an African-American who in the 1960s had the courage to join the Latter-day Saint or Mormon Church, against opposition. He was inspired by that period's general black surge toward greater freedom and opportunity.
Blacks were and to some lesser extent still are rare among Mormons. In those days Mormon practice prohibited women of all races and black males from serving as priests, but Cherry proudly chose to serve his God on whatever terms available. When combined with a lively speaking style and some gift as a comedian, this made him a person of some note, mostly in but perhaps outside his local Mormon circles. He was an inspiration to his new LDS fellow believers, and he was either a curiosity or a disappointment to the people he came from. Cherry once said, paraphrasing: It's hard to get New Yorkers worked up about things. They take life in stride. They've seen it all. After I found God, I rushed home to share it with my parents. 'Mom, I found the Truth!' 'That's nice, dear. Do you want butter on your peas?'
Born and raised in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Cherry as a teenager was in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest political rally for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr...
during which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. A few years later Cherry acted on a desire for religious freedom as fervent as Dr. King's desire for African American political and social equality. He joined the LDS Church in 1968 while in the US Air Force. By his own account in several speeches in Provo, Utah, given about 1975, his military status became an obstacle to his religious expression, although it is not to the grand majority of Mormons in the military. Cherry insisted on his own version of the dream: he sought a discharge. His course of action seen as dereliction of duty, he was punished by his superiors. When told the only immediate discharge he could have would be dishonorable, he persisted. The honors of men meant little to him, only the approval of God. After difficulties, they released Cherry to pursue his faith.
He expressed his religious zeal in part by doing a BA and an MBA at Brigham Young U, where he was an original member of the Young Ambassadors
Young Ambassadors
The Young Ambassadors are a song and dance performing group from Brigham Young University. Since their first international performance at world exposition 1970 in Osaka, Japan, they have performed throughout the United States and over 56 other nations. Their audiences have included the prime...
, a touring performing group. In 1978, after Mormon leader Spencer Kimball
Spencer Kimball
Spencer Kimball is a computer programmer most notable for his early work on the GNU Image Manipulation Program .In 1995, while students at the University of California at Berkeley, Kimball and his classmate Peter Mattis developed the first version of The GIMP as a class project...
received what he announced as a divine revelation allowing black Mormon men (but not women of any race or color) to act on behalf of God on Earth, Cherry sought and was called on a Mormon mission to Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
. He later served in high local church callings.
In 1985 Jessie Embry hired Cherry to interview black Mormons as part of Brigham Young U's LDS African-American Oral History Project. Doing this, Cherry met Janice Barkum, whom he married in the Salt Lake Temple
Salt Lake Temple
The Salt Lake Temple is the largest and best-known of more than 130 temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the sixth temple built by the church, requiring 40 years to complete, and the fourth operating temple built since the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo,...
in 1987, and with whom he has had three children.
Cherry has had an occasional acting career in LDS produced or oriented movies. He played an IRS agent in Mormon Kieth Merrill
Kieth Merrill
Kieth W. Merrill is an American filmmaker who has worked as a writer, director, and producer in the film industry since 1967...
's 1981 film Harry's War
Harry's War (1981 film)
Harry's War is a feature length independent film from American Film Consortium and Taft International Pictures, released in 1981. Starring Edward Herrmann, Geraldine Page, Karen Grassle, David Ogden Stiers, Elisha Cook, Salome Jens and Noble Willingham...
. He was also cast as a freed slave in the Mormon inspirational film, Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration
Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration
Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration is a 2005 film that focuses on some of the events during the life of Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, which was both filmed and distributed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
.