Published Monthly by The Phylaxis
Society Public Affairs Office
and Masonic Information Center
May 1999
Case Number 99-0171, Court of Appeals Number: 02-97-00320CV. Style: Robert E. Connor, Jr. Most Worshipful Grand Master and The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Texas and Jurisdiction Free and Accepted Masons v. Brenda Rorie, Grand Worthy Matron and Masonic Grand Chapter Order of the Eastern Star. The Supreme Court of Texas denied the petition for review.
The late legendary Jazz Great Duke Ellington of Social Lodge No. 1, Washington, D.C. were Black recipients of Pulitzer Prizes this year. Brother Ellington received the coveted honor 25 years after his death in 1974. The special music citation was given posthumously to Brother Ellington who would have been 100 years old on April 29. The Pulitzer board said the award was given "in recognition of his musical genius, which evoked aesthetically the principals of democracy through the medium of jazz and thus made an indelible contribution to art and culture." Considering all of the hoopla this year, surrounding his life and work, Brother Ellington would have been very pleased as the music world shows its love from Washington to Moscow, America's most prolific and acclaimed composer is being celebrated with concerts, lectures workshops, exhibits and album reissues. The suspense over a successor to NAACP President Bro. Kweisi Mfume of Mount Olive Lodge No. 25, Baltimore, Maryland should he resign to seek election as Baltimore's next mayor has not surged into a national competition. Most NAACP board members expect Brother Julian Bond ST. James Lodge No. No. 4, Atlanta, GA. to have locks on the NAACP Presidential post. Brother Wellington Webb, Mayor of Denver, Colorado, the incoming president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, recently led a delegation of 12 mayors on an enlightening visit to three African countries - Senegal, Ghana and Nigeria. Brother Otis L. Jones NVS; 524 Hillridge Drive; Fairborn, Ohio 45325 is the new Military Affairs Director for the Phylaxis Society. All military personnel are asked to make contact with him prior to PCS move, so the Society can keep up with you. Brother Jesse Jackson, Harmony Lodge No. 88, Chicago, Illinois arrived in Belgrade on a mission to win freedom for thee American soldiers held by Yugoslavia. He was expected to meet with Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic and the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patrarch Pavle. The 100+ Most Influential Prince Hall Freemasons (Men of Mark) will appear in the next issue of the Phylaxis Magazine. Many Prince Hall Grand Masters have submitted their photographs to appear in this annual event, printed by the Phylaxis Society. As usual a number of political officers, such as Mayor who are Prince Hall members will not appear, as there names' were not submitted in time for publication.
The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts A.F.&A.M. presented the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts F & A.M. with a set of 51 years of Prince Hall Annual Proceedings, from 1873 to 1923. The presentation was made at the Quarterly Communication of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts by M. W. Fred Kirby Bauer and received by M. W, John Garvey Bynoe of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge. In his remarks M. W. Bauer said that the Proceedings could now be "where they belong" at the Prince Hall Grand Lodge. In accepting he observed that "now our brethren can read for themselves of the many outstanding Prince Hall Masons, who contributed so much to history of this great Commonwealth. The writings, and actions, of Lewis Hayden, George Middleton, John T. Hilton and so many others along with a running history of our Grand Lodge, are contained in these proceeding& We are very grateful to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts."
For many years, the Prince Hall Grand Historian, Brother Ray Coleman FPS, former Second Vice President of the Phylaxis Society, have been doing most of the research relative to the Prince Hall Grand Lodge at the Grand Lodge Library of the white Grand Lodge in downtown Boston. The white Grand Lodge had most of the Prince Hall Proceedings, especially the older ones, while the Prince Hall Grand Lodge could only locate, for the most part, those from 1948. Brother Coleman and the librarian Sis Cynthis W. Alcorn put their heads together and were trying to figure out how the Prince Hall Grand Lodge could get one complete set, and then perhaps make a copy of them, so that each grand lodge could have one. In the mean time the white Grand Lodge Standing Library Committee made a decision to have the old proceedings bound in sets so they could be better preserved. When Brother Coleman came to do some research, he found that the proceedings were all packed up and ready to go to the binders and would not be available for a month. Brother Coleman informed the librarian that if they were bound, he wouldn't be able to get a copy without ruining the binding. The Grand Lodge librarian then ordered a halt to the binding and began the process, the result of which the Phylaxis Notes is reporting to have a complete set for each Grand Lodge. Sis Alcorn, who is a member of the Masonic Library and Museum Association, contacted each member in hopes that they had copies of Prince Hall Proceedings, which could be added to the collection. She did get many replies, but she found that the Iowa Masonic Library had a complete set of the Proceedings from 1873 to 1915. The white Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was able to add 1916-1923 to makeup the 51 years. Once the proceedings were located, they informed Iowa that they would like to borrow them to have them copied. Iowa agreed but had a problem on how to get them to Massachusetts. They had previously experience problems with the U.S. Mail losing books and were reluctant go that root. Checking with UPS and Federal Express they found that neither of them could guarantee safe delivery of these valued volumes. Because of this, they made arrangement with Massachusetts to have the books reproduced in Iowa, at the expense of the white Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. The cost of having this project completed on archival quality paper (acid free) and also having the original volumes rebound and shipped to Boston was rather expensive. Cynthis presented the costs to the Grand Master M. W. Arthur T. Johnson and the Standing Library Committee. The agreement was that a check would be sent to Iowa before the project had begun.
The chairman of the Standing Library Committee, R. W. Homer M. Shellenger, took up the cause and he and the Grand Master, together with the committee allocated the necessary funds and sent them to Iowa in March, 1998. Thus the project, which was begun in January, 1998 with the Massachusetts Librarian contacting all the museums and libraries was now ready to be consummated.
The most time consuming portion was having the archival quality productions made. The firm which handled the work had to carefully remove the binding of each volume, then copy, back to back, all pages of each volume. It took approximately one month each to do the first four volumes. In mid-June, when the fifth volume was delivered, it was completed in two weeks time. "The remaining volumes seemed to go a bit quicker after mid-June," reported Bill Kreuger, who was handling the operation for the Iowa Library. "By mid-August all the volumes had been reproduced."
The copies then had to be cut down to the actual size of the page (they were on 8 1/2 x I I paper). After they were cut down and put in proper sequence, they were delivered to the binders to be made into eight volumes. It was now October 1.
By mid-November, the sixteen volumes (8 for Prince Hall and 8 for the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts) were sent via UPS to the Samuel Crocker Lawrence Library ( Grand Lodge) in Boston.
Originally they planned to make the presentation at their Annual Session, but for some reason it was delayed until March. It should be noted that throughout all of this project, the Prince Hall Grand Lodge was never notified about what the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was doing. Brother Coleman was informed in November, but sworn to secrecy. It was a complete surprise when Grand Master Bynoe received an invitation to come to the Quarterly Session of the white Grand Lodge to receive these volumes. Information received from the Prince Hall Craftsman, official organ of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge F & A.M., Jurisdiction of Massachusetts vol. xxxi, No. 3, Winter, 1999.
The Phylaxis Society has always urged the Prince Hall Grand Lodges to send copies of their annual Proceedings to the Iowa Masonic Library; Box 279, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406 so they could be preserved.
At the 26th Annual Session of the Phylaxis Society, Brother Joseph A. Walkes, Jr. recorded a video on Masonic Writing - Walkes Style, and he used his latest book, History of the United Supreme Council, A.A.S.R, Northern Jurisdiction as the subject. He explained the degree of research that went into writing the book, and answered criticism raised by Dr. John W. Boettjer, 33, Editor of the Scottish Rite Journal of the white Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction and also those of Leon Zeldis 33", Past Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council of Israel concerning comments in the book on page 11 and 12.
The comments deal with Jews, the Scottish Rite and the Slavery of Blacks. Bro. Walkes had raised the issue, and suggested that Prince Hall Freemasonry may want to investigate the matter, as there was strong reason to believe that all were interconnected. Walkes mentioned that he does not want to be viewed as anti-Semitic, a term that Yosef A, A. ben-Jochannan or Dr. Ben says is used for the solitary purpose of "keeping the (Black)" who refuses to be controlled "in his or her place" - as a slave. (We The Black Jews Volumes I & 11 by Yosef A.A. ben-Jochannan, page 2). Walkes mentions that "these are not the Jews that we know" or as Dr. Ben writes "For so long as I can recall, white Jews in America have vehemently denied the existence of any legitimate African Jews, recognized only fellow Caucasian Euro-Jews from any place. Furthermore, white Jews have only conditionally accepted the Black Jews of North Africa and Southwest Asia. thus, the so-called entry of Ethiopian/African or Black/Falasha, Jews into Israel under the nefarious terms, "Exodus" and "Moses" fooled no one who is familiar with the history of the white Jews in Israel and West Asia. From 1947 C.E., white Jews, officially through Israel's Knesset (parliament) consistently denied "The Right of Return" to Black Jews. Of course, white Jews from anywhere, everywhere on the planet earth, particularly from the former Soviet Union, were freely admitted.
To add injury to insult, even the disgusting requirement that all Ethiopian Jews must be recircumcised by European Jews in order to be accepted as Jews upon entering Israel is racist. To require all adult males of the Falasha community to have their "penis pricked," symbolically or not, was and still is Jewish racism and religious bigotry. Such racist beliefs are no different than those inflicted upon European Jews by their fellow Caucasian, Europeans, Christians, Muslims and atheists, which eventually led to Europe's holocaust. On the other hand, not a solitary African (Black) woman, man or child of any religion was involved in any aspects of the genocide, holocaust or enslavement of Jews in Europe. The opposite is, true for European, Euro-English and Euro-American who were committed to genocide holocausts, and or enslavement of countless Africans - Black Jews included. This fact is raised in Brother Walkes book, on the Jewish founders of the Scottish Rite in America and the slavery of Blacks. The video cost $30.00 US and can be ordered from the Phylaxis Public Affairs Office.