Over 30 years ago I joined the DeMolay. I was impressed by all the elaborate pagentry. I had a black friend who wanted to join. I asked if is possible for him to join. I was told that blacks had their own lodges and he would have to join one of them. I was so upset by that concept that I left the DeMolay. Does anyone know if this policy has changed? Any help appreciated.
Go look at their website:
Where was this? This doesn’t sound like a policy that would’ve been condoned by the DeMolay I joined.
I joined DeMolay about 21 years ago, in Colorado. I grew up in WASP country, plus membership was usually friends-of-friends. Therefore, the makeup of DeMolay in my home state was pretty white. I only saw one member of DeMolay that was black. He was from one of the Denver chapters.
But I never heard of any segregation policy. DeMolay chapters usually covered whole towns or cities; I couldn’t imagine two being supported in one city for the sole purpose of segregation.
Segregation seems to be in direct opposition of the fraternal nature of DeMolay.
I had an experience similar to insider’s, but that was around 1961 or 62. I also quit upon learning of their policy. However, I assume that the civil rights movement of the 60s would have overturned such policies.
The Order of DeMolay derives its existence from the Masons.
Masons have a hierarchical system of lodges, where all the local AF&AM, or “Blue Lodges” in a given state are subordinate to a “Grand Lodge” for that state. For many years, the acceptance of blacks into Masonic lodges was dicey, at best. For this reason, a parallel system of Masonic lodges developed for black members to reap the benefits of a fraternal society. These were called “Prince Albert” lodges – although using much the same ritual, the Prince Albert lodges were not part of the extant hierarchy of state lodges.
Some states accorded mutual recognition to Prince Albert lodge members, granting them all the rights and privileges as if they were visiting members from another AF&AM lodge. Others resisted this effort. As recently as 1995, Alabama’s Grand Lodge voted down a resolution that would have required Alabama’s lodges to accord mutual recognition to Prince Albert lodges.
With this history, it’s not difficult to imagine DeMolays in some states rejecting blacks, especially the farther back you look in time.
Although I am not a Mason, I have an interest in fraternal societies, and am active in the Knights of Columbus, which has its own (albeit ended fifty years ago) shameful history with regard to racism. It’s fair to say that the racist views espoused by these lodges (and the long-ago K of C councils, for that matter) were manifestly antiethical to the principles each organization supposedly stood for. Nonetheless, they happened, and, in some cases, such as the Masonic Grand Lodge of Alabama, may still be happening.
- Rick
For what its worth in the early 80’s in Missouri. I was invited to join by a friend. He told me specifically all I had to be to qualify was by white and believe in God. I declined since I found the first part offensive and didn’t qualify on the second.
I take it then that there is no coincidence that Jacques de Molay was the last Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Templar?
I believe the all Black Masonic Lodges are called “Price Hal” rather than “Prince Albert.” To an old-line, whites only Mason, such all-Black lodges are “clandestine” lodges and are not truly Masonic.
I think some state’s Grand Lodges have declared amity with Black Masons. I take this to mean that a Black man may join a previously Whites only Lodge, and vice versa—this can only be a good thing.
I’m not really one to brag about it, but I was a DeMolay. From 10/3/78 to age 21, although my activity stopped when I went to college. Not that it was bad, I got drunk the first time at a non-sponsored DeMolay party. Most of my high school hell raising buddies I met through DeMolay, and it was my niche. When I joined I did not ask about racial policies, I learned later.
The one who got me in was the athletic manager. His first year he did grunt work, by his senior year he was calling other schools and planning game schedules. Anyway he had a lot of brothers for friends. They were my friends as well.
One of the best DeMolay memories was when he got the Chevalier award (a top honor for a DeMolay), a number of the bro’s were there. The principle (and still football coach) was there, and he is black. This didn’t phase the DeMolay’s, we all came from intergrated high schools. But I could see the look on some of the older Freemasons faces. My girlfriend, who was from Pasadena, Tx. (at the time few black, increasing hispanic) was cool about it but was surprised it had happened. Hispanics were having no problems becoming freemasons.
Ironically, I was from Robert E. Lee chapter. Even more so, it was located in Montrose, on Montrose street. In a heavily gay neighborhood and just around the corner from Rice University. Essentially about the funnest part of town.
We did win in the state initiatory(?) degree competition in 1980, against Grand Prarie and Reagan (Houston). They were likely the #1 and 2 largest chapters in the world and had kicked our butts since way back.
Never came a Mason, and their racial policies was a factor of me never even considering it. Also, they are old guys and I am just not in to all that initiation stuff.
If the Freemasons could revive the old 18th century Hellfire club and get some hotties around and I may change my mind.
There was a reason I left that quote in my last reply. What is the coincidence with DeMolay being the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar? How does that relate to its racial policies? I don’t disagree, just trying to get the connection.
The Order of DeMolay is named after Jacques DeMolay, the aforementioned last leader of the Knights Templar. The ritual glorifies his death at the hands of Phillip the Fair of France, and the destruction of the Order.
Originally begun as a laic branch, Knights Templar was a military order, in some respects similar to the Jesuits, and attracted considerable wealth and power as a focus for Crusader enthusiasm. Finally, they were the focus of many unsavory allegations, the general opinion being that they were brought down by an alliance of the French king and the Pope (Innocent II?) to break thier independent power and sieze thier property.
When I joined, 1962, there simply were no non-racist organizations, period. I was a “brat”, living on an Air Force base, as I recall, there were no black members in our group. But the thing is, it was so normal, I would likely not have noticed that there were none. Today, of course, if I found myself in an organized group of more than thirty persons that had no minority members, I would notice and investigate.
Another odd memory: The Bible used by the group in ritual was a bound version of the Apocrypha, the “unofficial” Gospels not included in the mainstream Bible.
No idea why.
Hi guys. Love the capes. I was a Job’s Daughter from around '85 to '90. FWIW my bethel had a black and an asian member. There were a couple of black guys in DeMolay. I never heard of any problems getting them in. Of course, this was southern California in the fairly recent past, but they’ve definitely made progress.
This has nothing to do with the DeMolay racial policies. I was just asking a general question about the naming of the order.
There were two black kids in Salt Lake Chapter when I joined in the mid-80s, and several others through the years I was active. And this in white-bread LDS World HQ City, when the LDS Church only recently (relatively) allowed blacks into its priesthood.
The fact that there are chapters with no black members does not mean there’s an institutionally ground basis for this. As others have said, many chapters are made up of friends of friends (that’s how I got in). The Order of DeMolay itself does not now condone or enforce any kind of limitiation on membership based on race, and has never done so.
Chased a couple of Rainbow girls, lost my virginity to one. I wonder how they feel about the rainbow symbol being used for gay pride. Of course, a couple of teenage girls…
It never ceases to amaze me how many attendant organizations the Masons have. We’ve mentioned Job’s Daughters and DeMolay, and Rainbow Girls. There’s the Order of the Eastern Star, the York and Scottish Rite Temples, the Shriners (possibly the same as York or Scottish, dunno), and others.
- Rick
Although there are Masons and Round table organisations in the UK, they are tiny minority things and are often viewd with a lot of suspician by our public, especialy in the law enforcement and legal fields.
At the moment most of publicly funded organisations, such as the police and Crown Prosecution service, are finding ways of making it compulsory to declare membership by making it a condition of employment for new staff.
They are trying hard to compel existing staff to declare and there is a hint that lack of declaration for or against will not be good for promotion prospects.
The idea is that membership of a secret society is not compatible with being held accountable when carrying out public duties.
That is a measure of how much secret societies are distrusted over here.
So far I’ve binned all my declaration forms, even though I have nothing to do with such societies, since my actions are fully accountable in my work I do not see why I should make comment about my private life unless it impinges on that work.
I wonder what the US view of this is.
The U.S. view is the Mason’s are a bunch of old guys in a club. Hardly threatening.
Freemason’s are hardly a secret society. Most members freely announce it, and the rituals have been published several times and are quite obtainable.
Well, for goodness’ sake, George Washington was a Mason. How could the British possibly consider it a threat to –
Oh. Right. Never mind.