Stone Collection: Volume 93 - Item 41
41. Lewis Hayden, Caste among Masons: Address before Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Massachusetts, at the Festival of St. John the Evangelist, December 27, 1865 (Boston: Edward S. Coombs & Co.,. 1866). (72 p.)
Address by the Grand Master of a black Masonic lodge in Boston, Massachusetts, in which he advocates the elimination of distinctions based on skin color among Masons in the United States. The speaker also reports on the status of black Masonic lodges in Richmond, Virginia, Petersburg, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina. An appendix contains a document concerning the African lodge in Charlestown, Massachusetts, dated June 25, 1792, a document concerning the African lodge in Menotomy (now Arlington), Massachusetts, dated June 25, 1797, and an exchange of letters between Governor Andrew of Massachusetts and the officers of the black lodge in Boston, dated December 21, 1864, and January 20, 1865, respectively.