User:Basil Rathbone

Status of Negroes in American Freemasonry

U.S. Masonic Grand Lodges have traditionally discriminated against Black men from joining Freemasonry. Today in the U.S. South Grand Lodges south of the 'Mason-Dixon' Line can not count a single Black person among it's membership. In the North and West a similar situation existed up until the 1980's, even with the removal of the stricture against Blacks because Masonry considered them 'men not free born' Masonry is primarily 'white'.

Prince Hall Freemasonry, which Black men do join, is considered by the vast majority of U.S. Grand Lodges to be 'irregular' and 'clandestine' Masonry. In the U.S. and Canada the majority of membership in the Ku Klux Klan up to the 1960's consisted of white Masons of 'Regular' Grand Lodges.