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

90
Chapter 3 - Overview of Rites
maçonniques. Par contre, la Franc-Maçonnerie blanche américaine leur
interdit l'entrée de ses temples... Et c'est bien de racisme qu'il s'agit,
puisque la Franc-Maçonnerie de Prince-Hall s'est ralliée au
monothéisme et prête serment sur la Bible. 248
Sadly, however, a racist attitude still seems to be prevalent in a number of
today's Caucasian Masonic bodies who have not yet recognized black
Freemasonry as their equal. Having made the experience that many North
American Caucasian lodges refused them recognition, the black Masons turned
towards their European brethren with the hope to be met with nondiscrimination.
Thus, the Grand Master of Alabama expressed his hope that European
Freemasons would "[t]each the American Mason that though they may not
recognize us, the time is coming when the Masonic world will, and then it will
be too late, when the VOX POPULI will recognize us." 249 As could be expected
from the humanitarian outline of the Grand Orient of France, it declared openly
that racial discrimination was un-Masonic, and reproached the English and
American Masonic streams for being dogmatic and racist:
Le dogmatisme a toujours porté en soi toutes les tares du passé politique
dont il relève. L'une de ces tares, la plus grave peut-être, c'est le
racisme. La franc-maçonnerie anglo-saxonne et, spécialement la francmaçonnerie
des U.S.A., n'échappent pas à la malfaisance de cet autre
dogme: la supériorité de l'homme blanc qui entraîne la ségrégation
raciale. 250
European lodges ran the risk of encountering the disfavor of white American
lodges when they recognized black ones. This was the case with the German
Grand Lodge of Hamburg, for example, which recognized the black Grand
Lodges of Ohio and Massachusetts, thus causing relations to be severed with the
white Grand Lodge of New York.
However, since World War II, there have been a few instances where colored
Masons sat peacefully in lodge together with white American and French
Masons: this was the case in the military lodges stationed in Europe: "[...] à
l'époque récente où l'armée américaine tenait ses quartiers en France, il n'était
pas rare de rencontrer, dans une loge du Grand Orient de France, un franc-maçon
noir de Prince-Hall assis entre un franc-maçon blanc français et un franc-maçon
blanc américain." 251
It is astonishing how even in times of great difficulties, white lodges rejected
the help and intermission of black lodges. For example, when the Grand Lodge
of England asked foreign Masonic bodies for financial aid during the German
bombing in the Second World War, it refused and returned the donation of the
248 Mitterrand, p. 59/60.
249 Cited in Muraskin, p. 204.
250 Mitterrand, p. 59.
251 Ibid, p. 60.