Alas, Freemasonry also gets a bad rep not just for being elitist, but also racist. In the beginning of Masonry as we know it here in the United States, African Americans were forbidden to join lodges, and not just because most were slaves or former slaves (because one requirement for an applicant to become a Mason is having to have been "free-born"). All that changed when a man named Prince Hall and 14 other black men became Masons through a British Masonic military lodge stationed in Boston in 1775.
The next year these men petitoned the UGLE (United Grand Lodge of England) for a charter so the could become their own lodge. In 1784 their request was granted and Prince Hall Freemasonry was born. In 1827 Prince Hall Masons declared independence from the UGLE just as the Most Worshipful Massachusetts Grand Lodge A.F.&A.M did 45 years earlier.A problem quickly arose for black men wishing to become Masons in the newly formed United States: the members of a Lodge must agree unanimously in an anonymous vote to accept a petitioner to receive the degrees. As a consequence of the unanimity requirement, if just one member of a lodge did not want black men in his Lodge, his vote was enough to cause the petitioner's rejection. Thus, although exceptions did exist, Masonic Lodges and Grand Lodges in the United States generally excluded African Americans. And since the vote is conducted anonymously, this created a second problem: since no one knew who had voted against the applicant, it was impossible to identify a member as pursuing a policy of racism. This allowed even a tiny number of prejudiced members to effectively deny membership to black petitioners, and in some cases even exclude black men who had legitimately been made Masons in integrated jurisdictions. Thus there arose a system of racial segregation in American Masonry, which remained in place until the 1960s and which persists in some jurisdictions even to this day.
Today, predominantly black Prince Hall Grand Lodges exist in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Liberia, governing Prince Hall Lodges throughout the world. After nearly two centuries of controversy, the Grand Lodge of England was asked to decide the matter of Prince Hall Masonic legitimacy. Carefully studying the records, the Grand Lodge of England concluded that the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was indeed entitled to Masonic recognition, and this against the tradition that, per state, only one recognized Masonic body should exist. As a result, most (though not all) "mainstream" (i.e. predominantly white) Grand Lodges in the United States and elsewhere have extended full fraternal recognition to their Prince Hall counterparts.
I am a PROUD Prince Hall Freemason and I embrace both A F & A M, and Prince Hall Freemasons as my Brothers.
