The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

Chapter 3 - Overview of Rites 107
demonstrate their riches and ability. An outsider could denounce this kind of
expenditure as fraternal waste and dysfunctional boasting, and argue that black
Masonic lodges would do better to spend these amounts for charity, scholarships,
and homes for the old people and orphans instead. However, one has to consider
the psychological impact of a splendid temple on the race pride:
While the Order has worked hard to make charity a reality, it has spared
absolutely no effort or expense in its attempt to give its ideal of property
ownership substance. [...] [E]ach state hopes that its edifice will be the
largest and most expensive in black America. [...] The psychological
importance of the Temple must be understood. For the Masons the
Grand Lodge Temple is more than a material object. It is an
indispensable symbol of black manhood; it demonstrates as nothing
else 'the mental ability and financial sacrifice ... [and] evidence[s] the
business genius and race consciousness of our group...' It 'represents the
thrift, industry and business tact' of both colored Masons and non-
Masons, and serves as 'a source of pride and inspiration to the entire
Colored Race.' 290
3.3.7 Black Masonic Partisan Politics and
the Civil Rights Movement
We know that the Masonic doctrine does not allow the discussion of politics
in the lodge room. However, as Muraskin states, "[t]he prohibition on partisan
politics in Masonry, while inhibitory, has never been universally enforced." 291
Moreover, the Masonic press has been involved in politics. The most frequent
offenders were, among others, the black Masons of Illinois. This fact may
explain the following statement of the Grand Master of Illinois from 1916, who
warned the members against using the lodge for political meetings and Masonic
symbols for promoting political ideas: "Brethren using Masonic Lodge literature
for political purposes and for publishing and circulating lodge emblems of
masonic [sic] cuts, and titles, and numbers of other things which are unmasonic,
are liable to discipline. 292
Black Masons have recognized how important it was for the black citizens to
vote, a right the blacks had finally earned after a long time of political nonentity.
Voting was expected to be essential for the life of the community, for living
under laws in the making of which the community has had no part, and being led
by officers in whose selection the population has taken no activity is similar to
290
Ibid, p. 157; citing from Review (Georgia; 1946), Proceedings (California, 1952), and Review
(Georgia, 1938). Bold print added.
291
Ibid, p. 224.
292 Ibid.