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

Chapter 10 - Conclusion 821
However, not only the question of religion but also the issue of race is a
dividing factor in international Freemasonry, as has been shown in Section 3.3
on Prince Hall Masonry. Jurisdictions that are in favor of the admittance of
colored people into their lodges are themselves in danger of losing recognition
from other Masonic jurisdictions who are against it. While some lodges had strict
rules against the initiation of non-whites, others evaded the problem of
segregation in a rather cowardly fashion by calling this question a political one -
and since it is forbidden to talk politics in lodge, there simply was to be no
discussion of whether colored people were to be admitted or not. Statements like
this, where the Masonic doctrines of "not meddling with politics" and "obeying
the ancient landmarks" were used as a scapegoat, were published in Masonic
journals and periodicals, thus influencing their readers. It can be assumed that a
separatist and racist attitude was quite common even in the America of the 19 th
century:
The universality of Masonry - embracing all types of men, all
nationalities and colors - will, of course, include the negro, and there
can certainly be no legal or just objection to this class of persons
becoming Masons. There are other questions, more serious, to be
considered in this connection, than the legality of these lodges. [...]
[T]he recognition of colored lodges [...] would point directly to
social equality and would provoke the most bitter prejudice of race;
which, talk of the common brotherhood and of the equality of men as
you will, is still an existing fact which we all instinctively, and to a
greater or less degree act upon; and all the legislation, political or
Masonic, and all the efforts of so-called philanthropy, can never
remove. The recognition of these lodges, and the making of them a part
of the Grand Lodge, will intensify this prejudice, and more than
probably result in a rupture and division of the Grand Lodge - the
creation of rival jurisdictions, each struggling for supremacy in the State
- engendering a rivalry for membership, and result in making Masons of
persons whose feet should never tread on the Masonic pavement. Why,
then, shall we agitate the question? 1993
In the above-quoted letter to the editor of the Masonic Review the notion is
expressed that the Masonic doctrines of old are more important than the new
sociological and intra-racial developments in the United States: "Can the
recognition of colored lodges be made without the perpetration of deception on
every Mason in the State? Every person, when he stood at the altar as a Mason,
was assured that it should not interfere with his religion or his politics. Take up
any paper [...], and tell me that this question of negro equality [...] is not a
political one." 1994 American Masons with their "landmarks" are especially prone
1993
Quoted from "Past Master" in a letter to the editor, printed in The Masonic Review, vol.
XXXVII., from 1870, p. 39/40.
1994
Ibid, p. 40/41.