Apologetics

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Freemasonry arrived in America by way of British Colonialism, in the 18th century, during a time when slavery was legal and racial attitudes were clearly not what they are today. One of the requirements to join a Masonic Lodge is to be "free-born." Although some slaves at the time earned their freedom, they were not welcomed to be a part of the fraternity. While brotherly love, relief and truth are supposed to be the three great tenets on which the Order was founded, they were as hypocritical to the Masonic Order of that day, as were the drafters of our Declaration of Independence — some of whom were Masons themselves.

Even though this declaration was based upon certain "truths" that all men are created equal and are entitled certain rights ("unalienable rights") that the government should never take away, history tells us that this obviously didn't apply to slaves. These rights included "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," but as we know, not for the black man. Herein lays the irony on which our country was founded, and the hypocrisy of the Masonic worldview of the "Brotherhood of Man."

Interestingly though, while there were no men of color among the Freemasons prior to 1775, on March 6 of that year, fifteen men of color were initiated into Freemasonry by Sergeant John Batt of the Irish Military Lodge No. 441, attached to the 38th Foot of the British Army-one year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Among them was a man who would become their first Master (Masonicly speaking, of course) and is now immortalized by African-American Masons. His name was Prince Hall, and this group of African-American Masons, located in Boston, began meeting as a Lodge; and were formally chartered by England in 1784 as African Lodge No. 459.

Since then, due to slavery and racial segregation, the descendants of African Lodge were left with no other choice but to develop a separate Grand Lodge system, known today as Prince Hall Masonry. Unfortunately, racial feelings of the era caused Freemasonry for African-American men to develop independently. While there are those among the ranks of Non-Prince Hall Masons who would deny the legitimacy of Prince Hall Masonry, Prince Hall Grand Lodges have the exact same beliefs, follow the same rituals, and teach the same biblical heresy as taught by all regular Freemasonry throughout the world.

The United Grand Lodge of England (U.G.L.E.), generally recognized as the Mother of all Masonry, saw fit to grant recognition to Prince Hall Masonry in this country. Yet, there are lodges in this country that refuse, to this day, to accept the U.G.L.E. acknowledgment that Prince Hall Masons are legitimate, and still continued to bar black men from entering their lodge rooms.

Nevertheless, whether they are Prince Hall or non-Prince Hall, there are some Masons who would argue, "There are black men in some lodges, therefore there is no racism in Masonry." Such logic lends itself more to tokenism rather than fact. Conversely, there are those non-Masons who would say "There are no black men in some lodges, therefore all Masonry is segregated."

If active Masons would be honest, they would affirm that both of these statements are false. Yet, even if they are not honest, we know they are not true based on the personal testimony of men who have left Freemasonry.

But the bottomline is, even if all Grand Lodges on both sides recognized the other, they will still forever remain racially segregated. Why? Because neither Grand Master, of any state, is going to humble himself to relinquish his "gavel of authority" in order for the fraternity to be truly recognized as ONE. The social and political power of a Grand Master is on the same magnitude as that of a U.S. Governor.

The problem is due, in part, to the fact that in the United States and Canada each jurisdiction is aligned primarily by state and province. As a result, there is a Prince Hall and a non-Prince Hall Grand Master in every state and province. A possible solution argued, is to have all Grand Lodges in each respective country unite as one jurisdiction in that country, much like it is elsewhere in the world (i.e. the Grand Lodge of India, the Grand Lodge of Turkey, etc. and of course, the United Grand Lodge of England). However, the likelihood of this happening is remote, in my opinion, for three reasons:

1. First of all, as a starting point, I believe there must first be unanimous "recognition" across the fraternal "Tressel Board" before there could ever be an unanimously united jurisdiction in the US or Canada.

2. Secondly, Prince Hall Masons are a minority in numbers compared to the rest of Freemasonry, and to relinquish control to the majority would result in the likelihood of a future African-American Grand Master to have the same probability of there ever being an African-American U.S. President. White Masonic votes will never let that happen. Additionally, there is too much rich African-American history rooted in Prince Hall Masonry to risk it being marginalized by the white majority.

3. Finally, there is too much racism rooted in Southern states like Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and South Carolina to allow racial reconciliation among black and white Masons to ever exist.

Unfortunately, as it relates to the issue between black and white Masonic fraternal relations in America, "Recognition" is simply a Masonic term that ultimately means "Separate, but Equal," much like the concept of "separate restrooms and drinking fountains" during the Civil Rights Era. Consequently, the oxymoron of "segregated fraternity" is a permanent scar against Freemasonry.

The sad commentary about Freemasonry is the fact that they claim to "make good men better," yet even after nearly 300 years of existence in America, the Lodge is far behind mainstream society when it comes to racial reconciliation. The fact is, admission of blacks into "regular" Masonry, and the 'recognition' of Prince Hall (black) Masonry, is a recent phenomenon, which began only as recent as 1987.

But, as Freemasonry in America has been in the business of "making good men better," one should expect that they, of all people, should have been at the forefront of change in the 1930's and beyond. In fact, Freemasonry should have set the example for society even long before the Civil Rights Era of the 1960's. Indeed, they should have set that example during the Slavery period of the 18th century when Freemasonry first arrived in America. But instead, many colonialists at that time -- who were also Masons -- including George Washington, own slaves themselves.

Masons love to point out that lodges exist to promote Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth, as in the following mission statement of the Grand Lodge in NC:

"Mission Statement

The mission of Freemasonry in North Carolina is to raise the moral, social, intellectual, and spiritual conscience of society by teaching the ancient and enduring philosophical tenets of Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth, which are expressed outwardly through service to God, family, country, and self under the Fatherhood of God within the Brotherhood of Man."

But in the final analysis, the Truth of the matter is, this is as hypocritical a statement for ALL of Freemasonry as it is for North Carolina.

Mike Gentry
Founder,
Order of Former Freemasons
www.fish4masons.org

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