Freemasonry's History of Racism
Draft 6/11/96, comments appreciated, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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The book "Christianity and American Freemasonry" by William J. Whalen (Our
Sunday Visitor:1987, pgs 23-25) discusses the racism of Freemasonry at some
length,
An organization dedicated to brotherhood, Masonry ironically remains
a bulwark of racial segregation in the United States. By 1987, decades after
most American institutions had accepted racial integration, only four of the
forty-nine Grand Lodges could count even one black member in their
jurisdictions. As the author of a recent scholarly study of black
Freemasonry observes, "The legitimation of social intermingling between
black and white Masons has remained anathema in mainstream Freemasonry."'
(Handbook of Secret Organizations by Whalen)
A lodge within the British military forces initiated Prince Hall
with fourteen free black men in 1775 after the men had been rebuffed in
their attempt to join St. John's lodge in Boston. Eventually the black
Masons received a charter from the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
England for African Lodge No. 459 (1784). Regular Masonry has continued to
deny recognition to Prince Hall lodges, and individual lodges have barred
black candidates by the simple method of the black cube.
Except for one curious exception, Alpha Lodge No. 1 16 in New
Jersey, and a handful of blacks reported to be initiated by lodges in New
York and Massachusetts, regular Freemasonry remains ninety-nine and
forty-four hundredths percent white. A Prince Hall Mason may not visit a
white lodge, nor a white Mason visit a Prince Hall lodge, without risking
Masonic punishment. Albert Pike, no friend of blacks, admitted in 1875
"Prince Hall lodge was as regular a lodge as any lodge created by competent
authority. It had a perfect right to establish other lodges and make itself
a Mother Lodge."
When the Grand Lodge of New Jersey accepted several blacks into
membership, other Grand Lodges decried the action and some severed fraternal
relations with New Jersey. Mississippi was one. The Grand Master of that
state wrote in 1908 "Masonry never contemplated that her privileges should
be extended to a race, totally, morally and intellectually incapacitated to
discharge the obligations which they assume or have conferred upon them in a
Masonic lodge. It is no answer that there are exceptions to this general
character of the race. We legislate for the race and not for the exceptions.
We hold that affiliation with negroes is contrary to the teachings of
Masonry, and is dangerous to the interest of the Fraternity of Free and
Accepted Masons."
The Prince Hall lodges include a number of distinguished gentlemen
on their rosters such as Supreme Court Justice Marshall, Mayor Tom Bradley
of Los Angeles, Dr. Benjamin Hooks of the NAACP, Mayor Andrew Young of
Atlanta, and Mayor Coleman Young of Detroit. Of course, none of these black
Masons would be allowed to visit a white Masonic lodge.
Whether Masonry influenced Southern mores or was simply influenced
itself is hard to determine. Even during the civil-rights battles of the
1960s, knowledgeable blacks discovered that many of the leaders of the
segregationist movement, such as Governors George Wallace of Alabama, Orval
Faubus of Arkansas, and Ross Barnett of Mississippi, were also active
Masons.
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