National Compact

Courtesy Theron Dunn, Lodgeroominternational.com Download the Magazine Here

Brother Theron:

We will explore the National Compact at our next convention. Brother Walkes wrote about the National Compact on several ocassions. Our goal in Albuquerque will be to lay out historic facts and let the facts take us where they may. Although Brother Walkes was not misquoted, the comments below put his statement in a fuller context. He appears to suggest that the jury is still out. Of course the Phylaxis Society cannot establish policy on the the issue--that will have to be done by the respective grand lodges. We can seek out the facts of the matter and present them as we see them, and that is what I will encourage our officers to do.



The following is extracted from "Union Grand Lodge," The Phylaxis Society WEB Site, Joseph A., Walkes, Jr., author.




Let us turn to the National Grand Lodge. In my book, A Prince Hall Masonic Quiz Book, I presented in Part 3 what I would consider an accurate history of the National Grand Lodge or Compact. I noted that "The National Grand Lodge was a phenomenon of Prince Hall Freemasonry. Defining it within strict confines of Masonry is impossible, but with the circumscription of the Black experience it is somewhat understandable. It is, I wrote< as much an American peculiarity, oddity, and curiosity as the doctrine of "Exclusive Territorial Jurisdiction" or Rob Morris's Conservators Movement which swept mainstream American Masonry. Neither can be defined within the strict confines of Masonic law or fully justified, both are debatably un-Masonic and yet they happened."



I listed all of the dates that our present day Prince Hall Grand Lodges pulled out of the National Grand Lodge. By 1877 we were under the impression that the National Grand Lodge had died, as all of the bodies which was a part of the Compact had left it. However the 1877 and 1878 proceedings of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Ohio prove without a shadow of a doubt that the National Grand Lodge was not dissolved in 1877 but was alive and active. After its triennial session of the National Grand Lodge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , 16 to 18 May 1877, it addressed a letter to all of the African-American Grand Lodges both states that was under the National and those called "State Rights" or independent Grand Lodge, now called Prince Hall Grand Lodges, inviting them all to send delegates to a National Convention to be held in Wilmington, Delaware , in May 1878 for the purpose of discussing and if possible settling the difference between the National and the so called "States Right" factions. A copy of this letter appears in the 1877 Proceedings of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Ohio. Ohio sent delegates to this convention in Wilmington. Two newspapers printed accounts of both the 1877 and 1880 sessions (this was the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, 18 May 1877 and Every Evening, Wilmington, Delaware, 13 May 1880.) This information came from John Sherman a anti-Prince Hall historian from Boston.



There was a book published "The History of the National Grand Lodge by Matthew Brock, a Past National Grand Master and designated Historian of the National Grand Lodge. He wrote: "…from 1847 to 1877, the spread of Masonry amongst Colored people advanced very rapidly on account of the impetus provided by the former National Grand Lodge. But unfortunately, this was also the period which the fabric , which was weaved by the founders of the National Grand Lodge, would be mottled with wounds and gore emanating from … dissensions within the Colored Masonic fraternity. As a heritage of these historical cleavages, Masonic authors affiliated with Lodges and Grand Lodges opposed to the National Grand Lodge, have chosen to ignore historical facts which do not speak favorably of their present allegiance. In fact some have in cases "invented" or fabricated facts for which they could not being forth original records to corroborate their affirmations, and in general , have adopted a most unscientific, unhistorical, and dishonest approach to the events of the time, which has given both the Black race and its Masonry a bad name. All this has been done by the so-called "Prince Hall American Masons" to erase the scar of illegitimacy form their organizations, and to degrade the National Grand Lodge." Unquote.



While Matthew Brock may be correct in some of the things he writes, he utterly fails to address the actions of the then National Grand Lodge Secretary and later National Grand Lodge Grand Master George Levere of Knoxville, TN, in continuing the Grand Lodge, when all that made up its body, withdrew, and the question concerning his election to that office, also is in question.. Brock also fails to note what actions the then National Grand Master Richard Gleaves took in dissolving the National Grand Lodge, which he called an irregular group.



I am not here to debate the issue, but this is left to the leadership of Prince Hall Freemasonry to decide. The Phylaxis Society monitors all web sites on the internet that concerns Prince Hall Freemasonry, and many have been burning up the air waves, calling the National Grand Lodge clandestine, and all manner of names. However, I have publicly stated that you can not call your "Grandmother" clandestine, without calling yourself irregular. While some within the National Grand Lodge have involved itself in the affairs of a number of pure bogus Black Grand Lodge, which is a worry, however the fact remains to be answered what are we going to do with the National Grand Lodge? Like the events in Florida we come from the same source, we trace our blood lines to Prince Hall and African Lodge 459, then what is to be done. In America each Grand Lodge is sovereign, and no one body can warrant a Grand Lodge. Grand Lodges come from three Lodges who in turn can trace their blood lines to a Masonic authority.