MWPHGLMD THE LIGHT
NIGGERDOM IN REGALIA! BY JOSEPH A. WALKES, JR (FROM POMEROY’S DEMOCRAT AUGUST 28, 1871)
“LET MASONRY USE THE PEN AND THE PRINTING PRESS IN THE FREE STATE AGAINST THE DEMAGOGUE.” - ALBERT PIKE (MORALS AND DOGMA, PG. 47) In his book, The Story of Freemasonry, W.G. Sibley concedes that race prejudice exists to some extent among Freemasons, although properly it can have no place in so cosmopolitan an institution, and while it has not barred any race from Freemasonry (sic); it has denied recognition in some localities to the Masonic bodies of the Negro race..! An incident is recorded in American Freemasonry, that is so vile and contemptible; so loathsome and repulsive; so revolting and obnoxious; in a word, so unmasonic that it makes a mockery of the very tenets and dogmas that is the foundation of Freemasonry; and belittles those who are true to its principles. The doctrine of Brotherly Love in which Freemasons are taught; that by the exercise of it is to regard the whole human species as one family. The high and low, rich and poor, who as created by one Almighty Parent, and as inhabitants of the same planet; are to aid, support and protect each other. Freemason’s are taught that on this principle, Masonry unites men of every country, sect and opinion; and conciliates true friendship among those who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance. But events recorded in American Masonic history often belittles
these honorable and exalted expressions. COMPLAINTS OF “NEGRO
RULE!” “Mississippi,” noted the famed and scholarly Prince Hall Freemason, W.E.B. MEMBERS OF THE 41st and 42nd Du Bois, “was a curious state in which CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. to study Reconstruction.” Bro. Du Bois Standing are Representatives Robert C. De, recorded that in 1860, there were 353,849 Large of South Carolina and Jefferson H. Caucasians and 437,404 Blacks, of whom Long of Georgia. Sitting from left to right: less than 1,000 were free. After the Civil Senator of the United States H.R. Revels of War it was required that the State Would Mississippi and four other Representatives; assimilate a voting population of nearly Benjamin S. Turner of Alabama, Josiah T. 450,000 former slaves, which in turn Walls of Florida, Joseph H. Rainey and R. would have a political significance as never Brown Elliot of South Carolina. Though the seen before. By 1867, there was 46,636 “Old Charges of Freemasonry” specifically white voters registered compared to declares that politics must not be brought 60,137 Black voters. By 1869 the political within the doors of the Lodge; the Grand importance of the Black vote was being felt Master of the Caucasian Grand Lodge of as Blacks were being elected to positions of Mississippi, Thos. S. Gathright protested importance. And though the spectacle of Black suffrage within his state, and recorded Blacks voting for public office shocked the his feelings in his address before the Grand White south, Lodge in 1870. “Negroes are not Masons, but by the laws of Congress, they are voters. An exciting canvass has just passed in our BLACKS WERE NOT State, and officers have been elected by the REPRESENTED IN votes of a people, formerly our slaves, and now regarded by us as unfitted for the high PROPORTION TO THEIR dignity and the weighty responsibility of NUMBERS; YET THEIR VERY acting the part of legislators….”
PRESENCE IN GOVERNMENT FOSTERED RESENTMENT AND
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