This page was my attempt to present Anderson's article using only third party sources. The original article was deleted after it was argued to have inadequate sources of a non-notable subject (see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Devery S. Anderson (2nd nomination)). Anderson could become notable if he continues to lecture and publish on Emmett Till and Mormon history, resulting in additional media coverage and citation of his work. He is anticipated to publish books on Willard Richards and Emmett Till and two more articles on the history of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought from his six-part series. I have preserved this material for my own resource, since I don't know about retrieving material from deleted articles. |
Devery Scott Anderson (born 1960) is an American historian specializing in Mormon history and the 1955 Emmett Till murder.
Anderson is from Longview, Washington.[1] He is a graduate of the University of Utah.[2]
In 1991, while living in Longview, Anderson organized the Forum for the Study of Mormon Issues, an independent quarterly study group. After being scrutinized by his church leaders, Anderson refused repeated orders from his stake president to disband the group. After his temple recommend was confiscated and the matter was brought before the area's presiding General Authority, Anderson's case was included in Lavina Fielding Anderson's controversial 1993 article chronicling LDS ecclesiastical abuse.[1]
After moving to Utah, Anderson was involved with Sunstone, as a member of the magazine staff,[3] a volunteer,[4][5] a symposium organizer,[6] and frequent a symposium presenter.[7][8][9][10] He has also presented before the John Whitmer Historical Association.[11]
Anderson's research into Mormon history has also resulted in several articles in scholarly journals and two award-winning books. He has assisted academic Armand Mauss in his study of Mormon racial conceptions.[12]
In addition to his interest in Mormonism, while at the University of Utah Anderson began to research the murder of Emmett Till, a 1955 crime that helped spark the Civil Rights Movement. Anderson learned about Till from watching the PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize, which inspired him to further research. He has interviewed most witnesses to the crime who were still alive and became close with Till's mother. He has spent over 15 years preparing a book, to be entitled The Boy Who Never Died: The Saga of the Emmett Till Murder. During his research into Till's story, he has written for Southern Quarterly and spoken at colleges, schools, and a Martin Luther King Jr. banquet.[2] In 2009 he participated in an Emmett Till panel for the University of Utah lecture series on the civil rights movement.[13]
In his study of Till, Anderson maintains a website of his research, EmmettTillMurder.com, which is well regarded by scholars and researchers of the case.[14][15]
Since his studies at the University of Utah, Anderson has been working on a study of the Emmett Till murder[2] and a biography of Mormon Apostle Willard Richards.[16] He has been writing a six-part history of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. The first installment, published in the journal in 1999, won a Dialogue Writing Award for history and biography.[17]
Anderson's 2005 books, Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed and The Nauvoo Endowment Companies, 1845–1846, co-edited with Gary James Bergera, received the Steven F. Christensen Award for Best Documentary from the Mormon History Association in 2006,[18] as well as a Special Book Award from the John Whitmer Historical Association.[19]
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has numeric name (help)The following are reviews of Anderson's work:
The Nauvoo Endowment Companies
Joseph Smith's Quorum of the Anointed