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

Chapter 3 - Overview of Rites 89
adorn the craft; the impropriety in making them our equals in one place,
when from their social condition [...] we cannot do so in others, their not
being, as a general thing FREE BORN; [...] finally, their not being, as a
race, persons of 'good report,' or who can be 'well recommended' as
subjects for initiation; they very seldom being persons who have any
trade, estate, office, occupation, or visible way of acquiring an honest
livelihood, and working for the craft, as becomes members of this
ancient and honorable fraternity, but likewise something to spare for the
works of charity, [...] 'eating no man's bread for naught [...].' 245
While the racist lodge statements mentioned above are historical, we can
observe similar objections in more modern times. Thus, the Grand Lodge, A.F.
& A.M. of Texas, states in its Constitution and Laws from 1948 that "[...] they
regard all Negro lodges as clandestine, illegal and un-Masonic, and [...] they
regard as highly censurable the course of any Grand Lodge in the United States
which shall recognize such bodies of Negroes as Masonic Lodges." 246 That the
economic reasons for excluding the colored people are but alibi reasons becomes
obvious when we consider the strong antipathy of many whites towards the black
race. Several Caucasian Masons did not dispute the common creator of both
black and white Masons, but declared the latter unfit for certain things, which
they based on their conception of "scientific ethnology":
No Negro ever born is the social or moral peer of a white man ... To
return to the question [...], we will say 'the colored folk' are the creatures
of the same Creator as ourselves, but so are Kentucky mules. The
Negroes have many good traits, but they cannot make Masons any more
than they would make good husbands for our daughters. 247
The exclusion of black Masons from the white fraternity cannot be based on
religious arguments, either. Black Freemasons do not enter this institution with a
kind of "bush religion" but manifest their belief in monotheism and swear on the
Bible. When they remain unrecognized by certain white American lodges in
spite of this, it must be a case of pure racism, as a former Grand Master of the
Grand Orient de France states. He further remarks that French Masonry has
always had friendly relations with the Prince Hall fraternity:
Depuis toujours, les loges maçonniques françaises comptent, en leurs
rangs, des francs-maçons de couleur, et le Grand Orient de France
entretient des relations fraternelles avec la maçonnerie de Prince-Hall,
dont les représentants qualifiés viennent chaque année saluer
solennellement son assemblée générale, c'est-à-dire le convent. Ils sont
reçus avec les mêmes honneurs que les dignitaires des autres puissances
245
Quoted in Walkes, A Prince Hall Masonic Quiz Book, p. 79.
246
Ibid, p. 78/80.
247
Ibid, p. 86, from fraternal correspondence from the 1940s.