Appendix III

Letters

Extracts from the Letter Sent by William H. Upton,
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Washington,
to William Sutherland, Grand Master
of the Grand Lodge of New York,
on the Subject of “Recognition of Negro Lodges”

(The Recognition of Negro Grand Lodges by the Grand Lodge of Washington, June 15, 1898, in Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of New York, 1899, 36–39.)

William H. Upton, Grand Master, The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Washington
Office of the Grand Master,
Walla Walla, Washington,
December 8, 1898

To Most Worshipful William A. Sutherland,
Grand Master of Masons, Rochester, N.Y.

We did several distinct things, for most of which we have been criticized; but we have been most severely denounced for things which we did not do at all, for example, for “recognizing Negro Grand Lodges.”

May I be pardoned for calling attention to what the Grand Lodge did do, and pointing out some things which she did not do?

She received a respectful petition from two men who claimed to be brother Masons, and referred it to a committee, two members of which were two Past Grand Masters well-known, wherever Masonry is known, for exceptional ability and Masonic knowledge—and both, it so happened, natives of slave states. In that did she transcend her right?

After a year, she received a report from that committee which has been praised in the highest terms by Masonic scholars of international reputation, in American and foreign lands—and not one statement of fact in it has been refuted or rendered even doubtful by those who have denounced it.

On the recommendation of that committee, she adopted certain resolutions. What were they?

In the first, the Grand Lodge expressed, as its OPINION, an opinion which, I supposed, has ever been accepted as an axiom, throughout the Masonic world, except in a few Southern States of America where even Landmarks are made to bend before race prejudice. The second resolution is divisible into two parts: In the first part of it the Grand Lodge merely expressed her adherence to what has been her practice throughout the whole of her existence, viz.: to refrain from undertaking to bind the consciences of our members upon a question which is essentially one of history. If this be a crime, this Grand Lodge has been guilty for forty years, and others have been guilty for a century and a half.

The second part of that resolution was an answer to the query, How far back must a Man’s Masonic pedigree be traced before we can know that he traces to Prince Hall? The answer was obvious; it is universally admitted that the first Negro body claiming to be a Grand Lodge traced to Prince Hall, and that is consequently affiliated with two other similar bodies claiming the same descent. Hence the Grand Lodge, for the guidance of its OWN MEMBERS, and dealing with a matter of its private concerns, with which it would be gross impudence for any other Grand Lodge to interfere, again had the hardihood to express AN OPINION, viz.: the “opinion” that “FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRACING SUCH ORIGIN,” id est, origin from Prince Hall, the three Negro bodies above referred to might be treated as though they had been Grand Lodges; that is to say, that in her “opinion,” to trace to either of these three is—What? To prove legitimacy? Not at all:—IS TO TRACE TO PRINCE HALL. Now whether this opinion is correct or erroneous, the largest question now before the Masonic world is, Has an American Grand Lodge a right to have and express an opinion without the consent of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky and her confederates? I have no doubt as to how posterity will answer that question, and very little as to how freemen will answer it.

And when you remember, most Worshipful Grand Master, that it is upon this resolution that our enemies have based their absurd and silly statement that we have “recognized Negro Grand Lodges”—ignoring the fact that the Grand Lodge adopted the report of the committee, which expressly declared that “No proposal to enter into relations with the Negro Grand Lodge is involved.”—I think you will hardly wonder that I am reminded of the line, “fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

The third resolution, also related solely to our internal affairs. We do not admire the spectacle, exhibited in some States, of two bodies of men each calling itself a Grand Lodge of Masons and each applying opprobrious epithets to the other. If there are to be two Grand Lodges in this State, we desire that they should at least cultivate the Masonic virtue, harmony. We are quite aware that a single Grand Lodge is the ideal; and we might charter lodges of Negroes, healing any that we find irregular, had we desired to do so. Personally, I do not doubt that it will come to that, fifty or a hundred years from now, as it is in foreign countries; but we know what an outcry this would have been in the ex-slave States—to say nothing of the fact that most of us are not without some degree of race prejudice in our own breasts. And so we adopted a modus vivendi that seemed to us, at the time, not wholly without merit. Inasmuch as we declared our purpose to tolerate no colored Lodges except as shall be “established strictly in accordance with the landmarks of Masonry,” I do not see how the legality of our action can be questioned—except by denying that, subject to the Landmarks, the Grand Lodge of Washington “has supreme jurisdiction over all matters of Ancient Craft Masonry” in this State, and has the sole right to decide as to what Lodges in this State she will regard as regular. Upon the very different question, as to whether her action was wise, the Grand Lodge would, of course, gladly receive suggestions from any friendly source, but she will expect those suggestions to be made in language not heretofore unknown among Masons and gentlemen—not in the dialect recently adopted by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky—whose committee sought to conceal naked ignorance and misrepresentation beneath a garment of vulgar obscenity.

I have written thus fully, Most Worshipful Grand Master, because the Grand Lodge of Washington values the good opinion of the Grand Master and the Grand Lodge of New York; and I have ventured to trespass so extensively upon your time, because I am convinced a grand master will not begrudge time expended if it enables him to view the action of a brother in a truer light, or saves him from being a party to a great injustice.

Fraternally Yours,
William H. Upton,
Grand Master of Masons

Commentary on William H. Upton’s Letter

Grand Master Upton’s great prudence here cannot escape notice. The Grand Lodge of Washington did not give absolute recognition to the black lodges; it was solely concerned with the lodges of its state and conferred recognition on them individually after having verified each lodge’s origins. By doing this, the grand master was simply invoking the principle of “territorial exclusivity.” If only one grand lodge is sovereign in each state, it is its decision to determine whether it will grant recognition to the lodges in that state. It would seem that the other grand lodges forgot this principle in these particular circumstances and began meddling in the internal matters of the Washington Grand Lodge. Upton’s indignation seems perfectly justified. It will be noted that he dealt with the Grand Lodge of New York, to whom he furnished detailed, courteous explanations about the position of his own grand lodge, in an entirely different manner than did the grand lodges of the South, which had not hesitated to insult the Grand Lodge of Washington in a way that was hardly Masonic and allowed their racist prejudices to be seen clearly. Upton was mistaken when he predicted blacks and whites would mingle in the same grand lodges in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, he was a pioneer in bringing together the most enlightened Masons.

Letter from Harry W. Bundy, Grand Secretary of the
Masonic Temple of Denver, Colorado, to Harry A. Williamson, April 3, 1946

On the Subject of a Young Black Becoming a Member of the Masonic Youth Organization DeMolay (Harry A. Williamson Collection, Schomburg Center).

Harry W. Bundy
Grand Secretary,
Of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted

Masons of Colorado

Masonic Temple
Denver 2, Colorado

Mr. Harry A. Williamson
1914 Prospect Avenue,
Bronx 59, New York

April 3, 1946
Dear Brother Williamson,

I have come home from a visit to the Western section of Colorado where the York Rite bodies were holding their annual festival. This was terminated Friday and I then left for Gunnison, another city in that area, where the DeMolay chapters of the State were holding their annual basketball tournament. I had quite a surprise on that occasion and will relate it to you.

I arrived in Gunnison while the tournament was in progress, going immediately to the gymnasium where a large crowd was in attendance. In the crowd I noticed a young Negro boy, the only colored person in the entire gymnasium of the Western State College, which was sponsoring our De Molay tournament. I casually asked if the boy were a student at Western State. The DeMolay official said “No, he is a member of Valley Chapter, Order of DeMolay, at Rocky Ford, Colorado.” I asked him if he was sure of that and he said yes, that they wondered what to do when he presented himself for registration as a player in the team yesterday but since he has a card issued by the Chapter and the boys assured us that he was entirely acceptable to them and four of them offered to room with him so they let him go ahead, pending my decision. As you may imagine I was quite pleased at the democratic attitude of the youngsters and also somewhat surprised that the only instance in the United States should have occurred in one of the chapters in my jurisdiction and without any record of the instance coming to my attention until it was an accomplished fact and a year’s time had elapsed.

I found no objection on the part of any of the 150 DeMolay boys from 15 different chapters to his presence. I certainly had none except from the standpoint of the boy himself in thinking of the hurt that is bound to come to him when in later years, he may expect men of the Masonic Order to be as democratic in their attitude. I called him aside later and had a heart-to-heart talk about the matter. His father is a cobbler in Rocky Ford, Colorado, a sort of roadside philosopher, much respected and liked by the whites of that community. Claude, the boy in question, told me that when he informed his father he had petitioned for membership in the DeMolay chapter, his father told him that if by any chance he was elected, he would probably be the only Negro boy in the United States belonging to that Order and that the responsibility of his would be in proportion to the whites, as 1 to 100,000, and the subsequent attitude of the whites toward the Negroes in connection with fraternal matters might rest on his shoulders. With that in mind he allowed his son to go ahead.

He was regularly elected and received the Degrees in Valley Chapter. He makes no attempt to mix socially with the whites when there is a social event where girls are present although he would be welcome. His delicacy is probably unappreciated to the extent that it should be. The advisor of the Chapter when questioned, said that having been Master of the Lodge two years had learned a lecture in which he was told that Masonry regarded no man in his race, creed, or opinion and that it was the internal and not the external qualifications of a man, which should be considered, and when the petition was presented to him, that for the life of him, he could not see any reason why it should not take its course with petitions from any other boy.

I asked him if there was any objection from the Masons. He said that all approved of the action taken and that the only trouble he had was with one of the Mothers Circle who, to use his expression, “just raised Hell about letting a nigger into the DeMolay organization.” Knowing that there would be some repercussions from her associates in the city of Rocky Ford, he looked at the data in connection with the boy’s petition and called her on the phone asking if she knew that it was her son who brought the petition in! Since that time she has been extremely cooperative, and there has been no friction whatever.

Harry W. Bundy