Rev. Ira Martin, 1973

File — Box: 2, Folder: 6

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Reverend Martin was born in Mississippi in 1914. He attended school up through the tenth grade. His father was a deacon of the church and owned a farm. He moved to Utah in September of 1944, worked at a Navy supply depot packing supplies, and eventually moved up to oversee some kind of packaging. However, he had a work accident and had to be put on medical disability. He recounts that it was difficult to find a job due to discrimination against African Americans.

Reverend Martin was able to get a house without very much trouble. He recalls a time where he was forced to move out of a house he had already bought, but didn’t seem to be bitter about it. He ended up living in Ogden, which he says is where he encountered most of his problems. He often encountered discrimination eating out, sometimes with businesses but more frequently with patrons. He was once forced out of an eating establishment by soldiers eating there. He did not have problems with movie theaters because he went to drive-ins. In school, his daughter faced more struggles than his son because she had a tendency to fight kids who called her names. There were no businesses held by African Americans when Reverend Martin moved besides a hairdresser and a caretaker. Reverend Martin says that many African Americans were interested in baseball and softball as well as other outdoor activities for recreation. He states he had no trouble getting his own churches to preach at. He hadn’t heard anything about the KKK in Utah, and had never been on welfare. While he was in school, he never received any education on African American history.

Although he hadn’t faced many problems directly from the LDS church in Utah, Rev. Martin felt that their presence in Utah led to discriminatory hiring practices. Specifically, he recalls a newspaper headline “Remember the LDS First” in relation to job hiring, as well as job advertisements that listed “LDS only”. He also tells a story about a friend who applied for a job and was rejected, but reapplied listing himself as a member of an LDS ward. He was fired a week later when it was found he was not actually a member of the ward.

He thinks that young African Americans in Utah are doing better today than they were previously. He does discuss the problems with the welfare system and how it enables people to live without working. He says that he saw a lot of drug problems when he worked at the University Hospital in the E.R, and that he doesn’t think those are going away. He does think discrimination is less of a problem now, however. He cites one of the problems he had with discrimination was getting in trouble with the law for defending his parishioners.Audio CD A0038_B-32_01.

Dates

1973

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