Description

This panel examines how Latter-day Saints shaped Idaho’s histories of slavery and freedom after the Civil War. John Dinger focuses on the murder of a Black Mormon sheepherder named Gobo Fango in Southeastern Idaho in 1886. Most scholars assume that white Mormons eventually acquitted the Gentile who had murdered Fango, but Dinger will demonstrate that Mormons were prohibited from participating fully in the trial. The second speaker, Dr. Amanda Hendrix-Komoto, recounts the life of “Mother George,” a Black trans woman who served as a midwife in a small Black community near Soda Springs, Idaho, in the early twentienth century. Mother George delivered hundreds of children, including those of African Americans and white Mormons. Dr. Hendrix-Komoto analyzes remembrances of Mother George to understand how Latter-day Saints perceived gender, childbirth, and race in that period.

Speakers
John Dinger (he/him)
Amanda Hendrix-Komoto (she/her)
Marie Stango (she/her)