What is some Important things i need to know about Prince Hall the Father of Black Masons?

Question

I want to become one I just want to know what I need to know about him.

Answer 1

The Founding of the First African Masonic Lodge and The Father of Civil Rights

The creation of the first African Masonic Lodge came about due to the unrelenting efforts of Prince Hall and these fourteen others who were taking the "initial steps to form America's first Black institution".

On September 29,1784, after Prince Hall's petition to the Grand Lodge of England for permission to establish a lodge, he was granted a charter from the Grand Lodge of England for the African Lodge #459. The African Lodge met regularly at the Golden Fleece, a tannery shop on Water Street in Boston Massachusetts. Later in 1827, the African Lodge declared itself independent and was renamed as the African Grand Lodge #1.

The remarkable efforts of Prince Hall not only established the first Black institution in the United States but also established a firm foundation on which other Blacks in this country could build. Prince Hall used Freemasonry as a device to help his fellow brothers and sisters in the struggle for equality, freedom and advancement.

Sources: Diamond Arthur. Prince Hall (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1992). Grimshaw, William. History of Freemasonry (New York: ***** Universities Press, 1969). "Who is Prince Hall? And other well known Prince Hall Masons," http://www.miadspring.com/~iohnsonx/whoisph.htm June 1996

An aspect of Prince Hall's petition writing that is normally attributed to men like Marcus Garvey was the "Return to Africa Petition." Long before the Harlem Renaissance, Black Panther movement, and Malcolm X came Prince Hall in colonial Medford, Massachusetts. There were no other black thinkers like him at this time, and the abolitionist movement had not yet quite taken root in New England. Prince Hall was writing petitions for freedom and retribution long before Frederick Douglass began telling his story. The most important thing is that he was here in Medford, while New England closed its eyes to slavery, and the injustice created in the system.

Prince Hall had to contend with enormous obstacles, and before any notion of civil rights became collective thought he was pioneering on a call to have some blacks from Massachusetts return to Africa. This petition may have fell upon deaf ears in the House of Representatives but it is a trumpet and banner for all who seek justice on an unequal playing field.

Jay Griffin, "Afro-Americans in Colonial Medford"

Answer 2

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