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.

“Mississippi,” noted the famed and scholarly Prince Hall Freemason, W.E.B. Du Bois, “was a curious state in which to study Reconstruction.” Bro. Du Bois recorded that in 1860, there were 353,849 Caucasians and 437,404 Blacks, of whom less than 1,000 were free. After the Civil War it was required that the State Would assimilate a voting population of nearly 450,000 former slaves, which in turn would have a political significance as never seen before. By 1867, there was 46,636 white voters registered compared to 60,137 Black voters. By 1869 the political importance of the Black vote was being felt as Blacks were being elected to positions of importance. And though the spectacle of Blacks voting for public office shocked the White south,

COMPLAINTS OF “NEGRO RULE!”

MEMBERS OF THE 41st and 42nd CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. Standing are Representatives Robert C. De, Large of South Carolina and Jefferson H. Long of Georgia. Sitting from left to right: Senator of the United States H.R. Revels of Mississippi and four other Representatives; Benjamin S. Turner of Alabama, Josiah T. Walls of Florida, Joseph H. Rainey and R. Brown Elliot of South Carolina. Though the “Old Charges of Freemasonry” specifically declares that politics must not be brought within the doors of the Lodge; the Grand Master of the Caucasian Grand Lodge of Mississippi, Thos. S. Gathright protested Black suffrage within his state, and recorded his feelings in his address before the Grand Lodge in 1870. “Negroes are not Masons, but by the laws of Congress, they are voters. An exciting canvass has just passed in our State, and officers have been elected by the votes of a people, formerly our slaves, and now regarded by us as unfitted for the high dignity and the weighty responsibility of acting the part of legislators….”