The Grand Orient of France removed the Bible from its altars decades before the American Grand Lodges withdrew recogniton. Wiliamson believes the real reason for the non-recognition of the Orient may have been more sinsiter. The background for this article is contained in The French Incident.
WHITE AMERICAN versus PRINCE HALL MASONRY
As Related to
THE GRAND ORIENT OF FRANCE
By
Harry A. Williamson
March, 1953
Up dated by
Joseph A. Walkes, Jr. FPS
The Grand Orient of France opens it Temple doors to all Masons of Known Obedience even if these Masons do not accord reciprocity
The reader will note that the number of this sheet is “89,”[1] which is to indicate that these remarks are a continuation of personal investigation concerning white or English speaking Grand Lodges toward both the Grand Orient of France and the Prince Hall Fraternity. What shall follow will be included in the digest complied by me under the title of:
“Concerning the Holy Bible
in
English-speaking Freemasonry
And the
Grand Orient of France.”[2]
The above digest will provide ample evidence I have engaged in extensive research into the various phases of the subject, not only through the examination of numerous Grand Lodge proceedings, magazines, pamphlets, other works including correspondence with French Masons, but through personal contact with various members of the Grand Orient; I have not depended upon the prejudices of any white American Masons for information is any form.
I might add that copies of the above digest are in the possession of the following Brethren of the Prince Hall Fraternity should anyone desire to examine the same:
Aldrage B. Cooper, Grand Master of New Jersey[3]
John G. Lewis, Jr., Grand Master of Louisiana[4]
William O. Green, Grand Master of Michigan [5]
Baxter F. Jackson, of Prince Hall Lodge No. 33, New York
This has been prepared because I have before me a copy of the 1952 proceedings of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Iowa, and on pages 10 and 11, there is reference, in the address of the Grand Master, concerning the invitation which had been extended to the Master of Lodge “Volney,” at Laval, France, Brother Marius Lepage, to view the session of Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Michigan by its Grand Master, William O. Greene, in return for the courtesies accorded him while sojourning in France.
The Grand Maser of Iowa said, in part;
“Immediately following the receipt of the invitation from the Grand Master of Michigan I received another letter from the President of the Grand Masters Conference. There were circumstances connected with the visitation of the Representative of France which we as Prince Hall Masons were not conversant. President Hall was deluged by a flood of letters and telegrams and telephone calls from informed white Masons apprising him of the Masonic facts. I am taking the liberty of quoting from the letter that Grand Master sent me and in which he quoted from a letter from a distinguished white Mason who had show himself in the past to be unusually friendly.”
The quotation from this “distinguished” Mason, as communicated by Brother Hall, read as follows:
Unquestionably our first concern should be for the unification of Masonry in America regardless of race or creed. Such a trend is certainly in progress, but the trail is a long and perilous one, and it’s probable that those who traverse it may be hampered and discouraged by trial and tribulation, but the preservation of our Democracy will eventually demand some kind of working agreement. Even the most rabid dissenter will in time have to agree in the saneness of such a forward looking program.
Having established the right of Prince Hall to independent action and having evinced a need for world-wide Craft unity even if it be a more loose working agreement, we next attempt to gauge what undercurrent thinking might develop in influential Masonic circles at home and abroad to any effort on the part of Prince Hall to recognize France’s Grand Orient.
You are probably aware that England, Scotland and Ireland recognize no color bar in Masonry, nor is the American concept of exclusive jurisdiction completely accepted by these Grand Lodges; however all three do insist that the Holy Bible be recognized as the Volume of the Sacred Law and as one of the Three Great Lights. Thus even though America to all intents and purposes ignores Prince Hall’s recognition of the Grand Orient, there is no doubt in my mind that England, the Jurisdiction which gave Prince Hall Life, would condemn such action. These are I think the principal reasons your Grand Master’s Conference should consider when inviting a visitor from the Grand Orient of France.
There is an old adage which runs that before one attempts to discuss any important matter, he should first know his subject, and all aspects related thereto.[6]
That Brother Amos T. Hall, President of the Conference should have allowed himself to be so easily influenced without first having investigated the subject for him self, is, to say the least, in my opinion, unbelievable.[7]
That Brother Hall should have been so readily influenced by the prejudices of any white Mason, is likewise, unbelievable. The American Craft is prejudiced toward the Grand Orient upon premises which not a single Mason has proved beyond the shadow of doubt.
If the Grand Orient is now atheistic, why did the Grand Lodge of England extend fraternal recognition to the former when it was really atheistic for nearly 70 years?
This distinguished Mason begins by saying: “Unquestionably our first concern should be for the unification of Masonry in America regardless of race or creed.”
It is pure wishful thinking for that Mason to imagine that race and color prejudice in American Masonry will be eliminated during the next four generation, and he must just as well face the truth.
It is true that in some northern jurisdictions there are many Masons who depreciate the fact that race and color are two of the outstanding factors in American Masonry which operate against “universality.” I am personally acquainted with a number of such Masons or in touch with them through correspondence and greatly appreciate their liberal attitude, but these Brethren are in the hopeless minority while the anti-(Black) element are in an overwhelming majority, particularly, in the southern sections of this land of ours; it is nonsensical for one to attempt to move a stone wall by butting it with his head.[8]
Let us examine the recent records of some of the white Grand Lodges for these will provide ample evidence to prove the “trend” referred to by that Mason is a fallacy.
1- In 1947, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts issued a declaration which in substance stated, that in its opinion, the only legitimate Freemasons of color within that state, were those identified with Prince Hall Grand Lodge therein, further, the two racial Masonic institutions could work side by side without mutual embarrassment or commitments; they could operate on “parallel lines,”
I wonder how many of the leaders of my branch of the Craft have ever been aware of the full impact of what followed against the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts by Grand Lodges throughout the country. The fact is, that impact was so strong and effective that in 1949, the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was compelled to rescind that declaration. [9]
I know as an actual fact that the Prince Hall Fraternity has some very good friends in the Massachusetts jurisdiction, but the pressure was so strong against that grand body, that it was compelled to use language in the resolution which rescinded that action which I have every reason to believe was not of the liking of the committee which prepared the rescinding resolution of 1949.
An examination of the rescinding resolution reveals that, in order to maintain the previous good feeling of many other jurisdictions, it was necessary to indicate that if the subject of the Masonry of the (African – American) would disturb the peace and harmony of Masonry in America among the whites, the (African – American) subject must be cast aside.
In view of the above fact, does that distinguished Mason still believe that unification of Masonry within this country regardless of race and color is remotely possible? [10]
There is another phase of the race question which is not generally talked about and I ask why has it been necessary to erect so many “Jewish” Lodges in certain jurisdictions? It cannot be charged to differences in Language as would be the case with those of non-English tongues. [11]
Anent the Massachusetts action of 1947, let us observe what happened to that Grand Lodge:
(1) - Although delivered prior to that action, it might be well for our Prince Hall Leaders to read the address of William J. Bundy, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina before the 1947 session of the Conference of Grand Masters of North America as can be found in the proceedings of that body, it was in line with the expressions against Massachusetts.
(2) - In 1947, the Grand Lodge of Texas severed fraternal relations, and what now follows is Article XV, page 34, of the Constitution and Laws of this grand body:
This Grand Lodge does not recognize as legal or Masonic any body of negroes working under any character of charter in the United States, without regard to the body granting such charter, and they regard all negro lodges as clandestine, illegal and unMasonic, and moreover, they regard as highly censurable the course of any Grand Lodge in the United States which should recognize such bodies of negroes as Masonic Lodges.”
While this has no relationship to this subject, the above regulation means that Alpha Lodge, No. 116, at Newark, NJ, is, in the opinion of Texas, a clandestine, illegal and unMasonic organization although New Jersey is recognized by the Texas jurisdiction.[12]
(3) - On page 139, of the 1947 proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky and in Opinion No. 45, Albert C. Hanson, Grand Master stated as follows:
Sec. 105, Book of Constitution states: “ a candidate for initiation must be a free-born white man, of the age of twenty-one years or more and of good report.”
(4) The Grand Master of Florida issued an Edict severing relations with Massachusetts.
(5) The 1947 proceedings of the Grand Lodge of California contains the very uncomplimentary remarks of its Grand Master, John Randall Moore.
(6) In 1948, the Grand Lodge of Louisiana adopted a resolution of non-intercourse with Massachusetts but held over tentatively until 1949 for final action.
(7) That about the remains of a African-American soldier who had been killed in Korea, and who was denied burial in the segregated section of the cemetery owned by Arizona Lodge, No. 2, at Phoenix, Ariz., which lodge works under the Grand Lodge of that State. (see New York Times, January 6, 1952.)
(8) In his address of 1948, Chester H. Tarlow, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of California very severely condemned the action of Massachusetts and said in part, as follows:
“Massachusetts cannot convince any Prince Hall Mason in California that he had not been recognized by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts (white).”
The same Grand Master is quoted further:
“We pray that some clear thinkers and some kind friends in some of these Jurisdictions may whisper good counsel, gently admonish Massachusetts of her error, and succeeding in convincing her that she is following a false Messiah, not out of, but into, a Masonic wilderness.”
(9) This is rather strange story to relate but it was given me early in 1953 and has reference to a Lodge working under the District Grand Lodge of the Canal Zone which belongs to Massachusetts:
“When I was in the Canal Zone a group of Masons in my own Blue Lodge organized a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan and for no reason whatever began prosecuting the Jews in their own Lodge, and the colored people outside of their lodge.”
The remainder of the story has been omitted for good reasons but a group of that lodge succeeded in breaking that Klan chapter up. It is cited to illustrate that this feeling of race prejudice in the minds of some folks does not only include the men of color, also, that it is found among those not in official station. [13]
(10) It is now impossible for a Prince Hall Mason to visit the Masonic Temple in London, England.
(11) The Constitution of the Grand Lodge in the States of Kentucky and North Carolina, both contain a regulation that a candidate must be a white men.
In view of the forgoing illustrations all of which are of recent date, I am wondering whether or not that distinguished Mason will really believe there is a “trend” toward a better understanding by his group as a whole, also, will he be able to over come the attitude of those grand bodies which I have mentioned., at least.
I might add that following the declaration of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1947, our Grand Lodges throughout the country added fuel to the flame of prejudice by inserting advertisements in an edition of a Boston African-American newspaper extending congratulations to Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts upon “its recognition” by the white grand body therein; copies of that edition were very widely circulated among the other Grand Lodges.[14]
The reader will note the following quotation taken from the letter to the President of our Grand Masters’ Conference:
Thus even though America to all intent and purposes ignores Prince Hall’s recognition of the Grand Orient, there is no doubt in my mind that England, the Jurisdiction which gave Prince Hall Life, would condemn such action.”
It is very evident that distinguished Mason is not familiar with the African-American Masonic history, because, it was the Grand Lodge of Ireland which gave Prince Hall and his associates “Light in Masonry,” and not England.
That same Mason is not aware of the fact that the United Grand Lodge of England, through its Board of General Purposes, has absolutely no use for Prince Hall Masonry; this can be proved through the documents to be found in the File marked “E” in my collection in the New York Public Library and the story about the contents of that file is as follows:[15]
Following the bombing of the City of London by the German air force, the United Grand Lodge of England sent appeals to various Grand Lodges in the United States for funds to not only assist those whose homes had been destroyed but for the Masonic Hospital in that city.
At it annual session held in June, 1941, the Prince Hall Jurisdiction in New York, upon its own initiative, sent a charity donation of $50.00, to the United Grand Lodge of England for its needs.
Believe it or not, that charity donation was returned to the Prince Hall Grand body in New York as being unacceptable upon the premise that it could not recognize more than one Grand Lodge in any of the American States; that it adhered to the doctrine of exclusive Jurisdiction and was in fraternal relations with one Grand Lodge in the State of New York.[16]
That letter in which the donation was returned bore the signature of Mr. Sydney A. White, the Grand Secretary of the English Grand Lodge.
The officers in charge of my Grand Lodge at the time either did not know or did not have the moral courage to resent such an insult and it became necessary for Brother Harry E. Davis of Cleveland, Ohio, and myself to uphold the dignity of the Prince Hall Fraternity in this incident. The file referred to contains much correspondence with English Masonic and Ambassadorial officials and other persons.
That letter of Mr. Sydney A. White completely refutes the statement of that distinguished Mason that England does not adhere to exclusive jurisdiction.
A very recent indication of the attitude of official English Masonry toward the Prince Hall group has reference to my inquiry for membership in the Correspondence Circle of Quatour Coronati Lodge, No. 2076, which is seeking members throughout the world in order to retain its Charter.
The reply date at London, February 20, 1953, advised me that because my Grand Lodge is not upon the official list of bodies recognized by the United Grand of England, I am ineligible for membership therein; the letter bears the signature of “J. N. Deshwood, Secretary.:
The visitor to Michigan, Brother Marius Lepage, published an account of his observations and experiences on this trip to the United States and Canada, in the Aug-Oct, number of Le Symbolism published at Laval, France, and several of those were:
There is another sad aspect to American Masonry. The American Masonry is very proud of its philanthropy and charity. It forgets the foundation (basic for) the Order, the true fraternity (brotherhood).
It affirms that God is the Father of man, that as a result, men are all brothers. But this human fraternity of divine origin is not put into practice, no more among Masons than non-Masons. Here we touch on the delicate racial problem, always acute, if not worse, in the United States.
There is African-American Masonry, Prince Hall from the name of its founder, powerful, organized like the white Masonry, with the same symbols, the Bible, the invocation to the Great Architect, and having a Great (Grand) Lodge for each state. This Masonry, absolutely orthodox, is systematically ignored by the white Masonry. The near-unanimity of white American Masons rejects the African-Americans, because of racial prejudice which hangs heavily over the United States, and which means that in a few years the country will be faced with some un-resolvable problems. [17]
I found out that the racial question has hardened while evolving. In fact, we are present at the slow but inevitable birth of a African-American community at the heart of the American State. I have seen this African-American elite which did not exist forty or fifty years ago. I have talked with great African-American bankers, jurists, lawyers, engineers. I have visited African- American hospitals and stores everywhere.
* * * * * *
In the course of several lectures I explained to my African-American listeners the various aspects of French thought. I felt that African-American Masonry in the United States is much nearer ours than white Masonry. These brothers who have been persecuted and oppressed for generations have acquired a mentality just like ours. I found among them a spirituality akin to what we find in the French Temples when I speak there. Also, it was with a heightened feeling that I listened to the Grand Master of one of the African-American Lodges put the question orally and in a written report to his brothers - - Concerning the question of the Bible, its different interpretations, evaluations, by American Masonry as compared with those of the Grand Orient. There is room for questions that are most interesting. I wonder which is worth more and which is most in accord with the Christian conceptions of Freemasonry.
* * * * * * * *
Everywhere I went in Canada as in the United States, I ended up talks by translating the motion adopted by the Convention of the Grand Orient of France in the September, 1957 session: “ The Grand Orient of France opens its Temple doors to all Masons of known Obedience even if these Masons do not accord reciprocity.
The above is a declaration which the American grand bodies would never dare to give expression to.
I shall not attempt to discuss anything in connection with the metaphysical aspects of the workings of the Grand Orient because of space limitations, also, this had been done at length and in detail in the digest previously referred to.
There is one fact which I would like to bring to the attention of that distinguished Mason, to wit: The American grand bodies refused to recognize the Grand Orient of France because the latter does not require the presence of the Bible on the Altars of its lodges. The Prince Hall bodies require the use of the Bible on the Alters of its lodges and yet the white Grand Lodges here refuse to even accord us the status of a legitimate body irrespective of the fact they do not possess Masonic control over men of color. Now I ask, does that make sense?
My suggestion is, that before our Conference of Grand Masters goes on record in this matter they had better engage in extensive research upon the subject and not be led by the nose by Masons who are possessed with Masonic prejudices. You can rest assured that American Masonry, both white and black, can learn much from the workings of the Grand Orient; there would be fewer poorly informed Freemasons in both group.[18]
Notes
[1] Bro. Williamson did extensive research on this subject. His Masonic collection is in the Schomburg Library in Harlem, New York Public Library and in the Iowa Masonic Library in the Joseph A. Walkes, Jr. Collection.
[2] This is a 29 page collection by Bro. Williamson on the subject, I may one day place it on my web page.
[3] Bro. Cooper is the author of “Footprints of Prince Hall Masonry in New Jersey (Press of Henry Emmerson, New York, 1957. He was a close friend of Bro. Williamson.
[4] Bro. Lewis was an extraordinary Prince Hall Freemason, see “Jno. G. Lewis, Jr.- End of an Era: The History of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Louisiana 1842-1979” by Joseph A. Walkes, Jr. (Grand Lodge of LA, 1986)
[5] See the French Incident www.freemasonry.org/jawalkes
[6] This should also apply to the bogus so called Masons who impact our communities and also the National Grand Lodge.
[7] See Chapter XVIII Dobbs vs Williamson, “History of the Shrine, Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Inc., Prince Hall Affiliated: A Pillar of Black Society 1893-1993” by Joseph A. Walkes, Jr., (The Shrine, 1993), pp 213-235.
[8] While this was written decades ago, the situation has not changed as “Confederate” white Grand Lodges refuse to recognize Prince Hall Freemasonry and continue to bring shame on themselves and American Freemasonry.
[9] Examine what took place with the white Grand Lodge of Washington, when it did the same thing. See “Part 2: The Storm That Produced Light on a Dark Subject” in Black Square and Compass: 200 Years of Prince Hall Freemasonry by Joseph A. Walkes, Jr. (Richmond, Virginia, Macoy Publishing & Supply
Company, Inc, 1981) pp 134 – 138.
[10] I wonder what Bro. Harry A. Williamson would think as he looks down from the Grand Lodge above and see how many of the mainstream and universal Freemason have recognized Prince Hall Freemasonry.
[11] In Black Square and Compass, there is mentioned of an Jewish Prince Hall Lodge in New York, and in my History of the United Supreme Council, Northern Jurisdiction, I showed that Jewish Scottish Rite Masons were very much involved with slavery.
[12] In my Prince Hall’s Mission: The Rise of the Phylaxis Society (Kansas City, Mo, Midtown Printers, 1995) p.176, Alpha Lodge is looked on as a token lodge.
[13] See my Relationship with Black and Jews in Masonic America.
[14] This is interesting, as I had a copy of that newspaper, but do not know for sure if it is in the Walkes collection in the Iowa Masonic Library.
[15] Microfilm of the Williamson collection is in the Walkes collection at the Iowa Masonic Library.
[16] We must never forget or forgive, what Prince Hall Freemasonry has endured by our counterparts.
[17] The French Freemason saw the future of the 1960’s that would change America.
[18] There is little doubt that all Freemasons should examine the works of Harry A. Williamson, this great Prince Hall Masonic collector and scholar. There are at times, some of his writings have been in error and needed to be corrected, but the over all amount of his work, makes all of us, especially Prince Hall Freemasons, much better than we are. Please note that the term “Negro” is not used, and has been replaced by African-American in keeping with my belief that that the term Negro has no meaning.