Published Monthly by The
Phylaxis Society Public Affairs Office
and Masonic Information Center
September 1999
For years, Americans
have ignored the fact that a Black man was a pivotal figure in polar
exploration, one of the century's great achievements. Bro. Matthew Henson, a
companion of Adm. Robert E. Peary on many of his explorations, was there in 1909
when together they became the first men to set foot on the North Pole. (In
reality Henson was standing on the spot when Peary showed up).
Their grave sites are a few feet from each other in Arlington National Cemetery. A tribute to Henson has been put together at a new Web site. www.matthewhenson.com. Matthews was a member of Celestial Lodge No. 3 of New York City. The records of the Lodge shows that on November 5, 1901 they received his petition for the degrees. There is no record on the date he received his degrees, but at the January 18th, 1907 meeting he was in attendance at the lodge, and gave a description of his trip to the North Pole with Peary, and at the July 3rd, 1908 meeting the Lodge voted to purchase a bundle of Masonic literature, and to give to Bro. Henson who was to set sail for the North Pole on July 7th. Journalists praised Atlanta Mayor Bro. William Campbell of H . R. Butler Lodge No. 23 for his quick, courageous response following the recent tragedy in which a man opened fire in two office buildings, killing 12 people in Atlanta. The journalists noted how quickly Mayor Campbell appeared on the scene and how he gave reports regular, and detailed briefings about the crisis as it unfolded. They also noted how Campbell prevented rumors from surfacing because he provided so much information. Judge Benjamin Hooks MPS, former Executive Director of the NAACP, and long time Grand Secretary of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Tennessee is now Grand Master. Bro. Tony Pope MPS of Australia has discovered quite a number of clandestine Black groups claiming to be Masonic in Detroit, Michigan. The Phylaxis Society Non-Prince Hall Commission under the direction of Bro. Stephen Hill FPS of Seaside, California keeps up with these clandestines, has been able to add these new groups to his list. All members of the Phylaxis Society are requested to inform the Society of any such groups in their area, so the Society can investigate them and find out who they are. Remember, we are dealing with Black-on-Black crime, and these groups are not regular bodies, and therefore can not be classed as Freemasons. Bro. Wallace McLeod, well known Canadian Masonic scholar and writer has reviewed the History of the United Supreme Council, Northern Jurisdiction, written by Bro. Joseph A. Walkes, Jr.. The Review will appear in the Royal Arch Mason Magazine, and will be carried in a later issue of the Phylaxis Notes.
The report dated Monday, 2 August 1999 reads: 'The first open forum discussion on Prince Hall recognition was held Saturday. It was a success in many ways and a severe disappointment in others. Attendance was low with only about 15 brethren attending. However some came a good distance to attend and report back to their lodges. As expected, the opposition was spreading lies to support their position, these included: The White Grand Lodge considers the Prince Hall Masons clandestine and therefor their Master Masons oaths prohibit this action; or the action would merge the two Grand Lodges. The later was easily overcome by reading the resolution. The former required some work. Once "clandestine" was denied and the regularity of Prince Hall Masonry was explained, that argument fell away too. The next step they used was to try and intimidate by throwing around a bunch of titles. "I am a Past Master, Grand Lodge certificate holder and past District Lecturer... " That tactic didn't work either and they started to get angry.
The
next thing we knew, we were hearing a not so subtle threat
if this meeting were being
held down on Sand Mountain some would get lynched." The Master of the Lodge
got a little miffed about this one and let them know it. The opposition left
shortly thereafter. The good news is that about 9 out of the 15 in attendance
were in favor or recognition. Several of those in attendance who favor
recognition, but were previously not stating the same publicly, got very upset
at the tactics the opposition used."
In February 1935, the
Prince Hall Masonic Historian, Harry E. Davis wrote: "Of American masons in
discussing Prince Hall matters is that they have assumed attitudes and presumed
to act in judgment without any proper study of the subject. Instead, stock
arguments have been lazily repeated, and in this manner, many refuted statements
have been kept alive when a little honest research would have given a correct
understanding."
George W. Crawford,
Past Sovereign Grand Commander of the United Supreme Council, Northern
Jurisdiction in his book Prince Hall and His Followers wrote: "The (Prince
Hall) Mason is not interested in the vindication of his Legitimacy merely as a
means of justifying a claim to recognition by white Masons of America. A man
would be interested in removing the stigma of bastardy, not so much because it
might bar his reception into polite society, but to vindicate himself in the
eyes of his own self respect."
"one of the saddest things" Harry E. Davis, Author of A History of Freemasonry Among Negroes in America, would write, "about controversy is that it frequently obscures every other element concerning a topic except the point controverted (Prince Hall) Freemasonry has suffered much from this blight of controversy. In Masonic, as well as in political history the (African-American) has been the vortex around with a veritable torrent of passion has whirled In the midst of these tempests men do not take time to assemble and analyze simple facts, the scientific poise is lost, the historian is superseded by the advocate, and a wealth of information is neglected."
The events that recently took place in Alabama is a reminder of the parable of good old dame Partington who vainly tried to sweep back the Atlantic Ocean with her mop and slop pail!
Brown of the Tony
Brown Journal is well known in the Black community. One of his recent books
Black Lies, White Lies was well received, and then along came a new book Empower
the People: Overthrow the Conspiracy That Is Stealing Your Money and Freedom.
The book is an attack on Freemasonry or what he calls Illuminati Freemasonry,
the secret Order of the Devil within Freemasonry. He finds Freemasons under
every bushel. He calls President Bill Clinton a Freemason, which of course he is
not, and he talks of "Freemason Clinton's "clarification" is a
typical oblique Masonic message. (page 3 1) and he writes that Ronald Reagan was
rumored, holds the distinction of being the first President to take the oath of
office facing the Obelisk, the Masonic phallic shaped Washington Monument. (Page
115). Reagan of course was never a Freemason. But then Tony Brown goes nuts when
he writes beginning on page 116. "White Freemasonry, the Scottish Rite and
York systems, is entirely separate from the Black Prince Hall Grand Lodge which
is considered by the White wing to be
However, there is no
evidence that Blacks are not equally drawn to Luciferian or Satanic activities
in Masonry or other occult groups. Of the 250, 000 Black American Masons, the
Internet list the Reverend Andrew Young, former Mayor of Atlanta and U. S.
Ambassador to the United Nations; former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood
Marshall; Ebony and Jet publisher John A. Johnson; W. E. B. DuBois,
intellectual; Carl Stokes, first Black elected mayor of a U. S. city
(Cleveland); Julian Bond, civil-rights-era activist; educator Booker T.
Washington, Mayor Marion Barry of Washington, D.C.; Scottie Pippen, basketball
star, and Jesse Jackson, a Christian preacher and two-time Democratic
presidential candidate. Most of the distinguished Freemasons still living are members
of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge, and none of them would be allowed to visit most
White lodges without risking punishment. A footnote to the "list of Famous
Freemasons" on the Internet said: The most perplexing and discouraging
thing on the above list is to see all of the Black Americans who foolishly have
joined Freemasonry. Even if they let Jesse Jackson join a Lodge other than the
discriminating Prince Hall Lodge, how can Jesse imagine the old Anglo-Saxon
bigotry of ancient Freemasonry has changed? The Masons are simply using Jesse
Jackson as window dressing. There has NEVER been a more tragic case of Uncle
Tom-ism than this one! I would not use the appellation of Uncle Tom to describe
any of these Black Freemasons, but I would recommend Revelation 18:4 "Come
out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive
not of her plagues." The force of Gold does not abide with
In the latest issue of the Phylaxis Magazine is found Chapter 5 of the book, Hidden In Plain View: A Secret Story of the Quilts and the Underground Railroad by Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard, Ph.D. The book was recently published by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York City. Chapter 5 was cut by the editor, and the Society received permission from the authors to publish it in the Phylaxis Magazine. The Chapter raises some very interesting facts, that the Society believes its members may want to take a closer look at. Our Brother George Green MPS, Director of the Harry A. Williamson Masonic Hall of Fame, have raised some of the same questions in his research for the Hall of Fame, as to what exactly was going on in Canada with John Brown and the Prince Hall Freemasons in what is known as the Chatham Convention in Chatham, Ontario in May 1858, which stands as one of the most remarkable and no doubt historical event of the past century, and yet few have taken a closer look at it.