Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity♦Free and Accepted Masons♦State of Florida and Belize♦Central America
Jurisdiction♦Incorporated♦Prince Hall Affiliated
KAISERSLAUTERN MILITARY COMMUNITY GERMANY, DISTRICT 44 EUROPE
Anthony T. Stafford Military Lodge №16
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Masonic Education of Prince Hall in Michigan
All Men Free And Brethren: Prince Hall And Black Freemasonry
An Incomplete Brotherhood... Recognition & Amity
The Conundrum in the American South
Special Guest
MWGM Wilbert M. Curtis
MWPHGL of Texas
The Masonic Roundtable
Special Guest
Matt Botts, Worshipful Master
Diversity Lodge No. 330
MWPHGL of Virginia,
The Legacy of Prince Hall
Prince
Hall is considered as the Father of Black Masonry in the United
States. With his efforts, it became possible for people of
African-American descent to also be recognized and enjoy all
privileges of Free and Accepted Masonry.
Black
Freemasonry began when Prince Hall and fourteen other free black men
were initiated into Lodge No. 441, Irish Constitution, attached to
the 38th Regiment of Foot, British Army Garrisoned at Castle William
(now called Fort Independence) Boston Harbor on March 6, 1775.
When
the British Army left Boston in 1776, Prince Hall and his brethren
were granted with authority to meet as African Lodge #1 (Under
Dispensation) to go in procession on St. John's Day. They were also
given permission to bury their dead, but they could not grant degrees
or perform any other Masonic "work."
For
nine years, Prince Hall and his comrades, together with others who
had received their degrees elsewhere, assembled and enjoyed their
limited privileges as Masons. Thirty-three masons were listed on the
rolls of African Lodge #1 on January 14th, 1779.
On
March 2, 1784, Prince Hall petitioned the Grand Lodge of England,
through a Worshipful Master of a subordinate Lodge in London (William
Moody of Brotherly Love Lodge No. 55) for a warrant or charter.
It
was granted on September 29, 1784 and was delivered in Boston on
April 29, 1787 by Captain James Scott. Under its authority, African
Lodge No. 459 was organized one week later, on May 6, 1787.