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

Chapter 3 - Overview of Rites 87
administratively recognized, but that they are "personally recognized" by the
brethren. Is this the first step towards a new Masonic era?
3.3 "Negro Freemasonry" (Prince Hall) in the
U.S.
... [T]he study of Prince Hall Freemasonry in the United States is the
story of a major social foundation of the black bourgeoisie, an
institution that allows us to better understand one of the key segments of
black society. 237
In this chapter, Freemasonry for colored people in the United States will be
viewed as a sociopolitical institution. We will emphasize its fundamental role as
a vehicle for the ruling elite of the Afro-American middle class to solidify the ingroup's
class definition and its identity, self-pride, and distinction from the black
mob. A striking point, however, is that there exists a separate Freemasonry for
colored people at all. Throughout Masonic literature, we will find the antitheses
of "Caucasian/Negro Freemasonry," "white/black Freemasonry" (often seen as
synonymous with "regular/irregular Freemasonry"), as well as pejorative
expressions like "Niggerdom in Regalia." 238 In addition to their political
incorrectness, these terms also give us the paradoxical feeling that in our modern
times where slavery and apartheid have been overcome, there remains
segregation within a social institution that lauds itself above all to be tolerant
towards race and creed.
Historically, we will see that the development of politics and black
Freemasonry in the United States is strongly connected. The destruction of the
slave system facilitated the spread of the Order among the blacks in the South. It
is quite understandable that the white governments were against the unifying of
masses of slave blacks in a secretive fraternity. The white South anticipated the
danger emanating from blacks meeting together without supervision and getting
well organized. However, after the Civil War, black Masonry had the
opportunity to spread in the reconstructed South.
In a modern American Masonic encyclopedia (CME) we can read the
following idealistic statement concerning "black Freemasonry":
This is a misnomer. There is actually no strictly black or white
Freemasonry. Men of all races are members of Masonic bodies that are
predominantly one color or the other. Except for off-shoot, or renegade,
bodies calling themselves 'Masonic' there is no color or religious
restriction within Freemasonry. This is not to say there are not
237 Muraskin, p. 42.
238 Walkes, Black Square & Compass, p. 80. Cited from "Pomeroy's Democrat," August 26 th , 1871.