Pike on Black Masons: "When I have to accept negroes as Brothers or leave Masonry, I shall leave it" (letter dated 1875; printed in Washington Grand Lodge…
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet provenDisputed: argued, often by a hostile witness
Year: 1875
SUMMARYPike on Black Masons: "When I have to accept negroes as Brothers or leave Masonry, I shall leave it" (letter dated 1875; printed in Washington Grand Lodge Proceedings, 1898) [Connections: Masonic color line, asylums, castles, wight, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDThe 1897 Washington committee report (card above), in its reprint from the 1898 Proceedings, quotes "a letter by General Albert Pike written in 1875": "I took my obligations to white men, not negroes." It continues: "When I have to accept negroes as Brothers or leave Masonry, I shall leave it." The same letter is reported to concede that Prince Hall Lodge was "as regular a Lodge as any Lodge created by competent authority" (Wikipedia, citing Darrah 1954, p. 319). Masonicinfo.com (Ed King, a Mason) says the full letter is dated 13 September 1875, is addressed to Josh D. Caldwell, and is printed in William H. Upton's Negro Masonry (1902), pp. 214–15. King says Darrah's 1954 version cut "about five paragraphs." Against this: Wikipedia cites a 1945 letter by Willard W. Allen (via Arturo de Hoyos, 1996) saying that in his "closing years" Pike "became a very staunch friend of Negro Masonry." King says Pike "gave a complete copy of the Scottish Rite rituals to Prince Hall leaders."
DISPUTEDThe original letter was not seen this session. Mike Wells, quoted on masonicinfo, calls it authentic only "if the letter is not fraudulent." The wording varies between printings ("to white men, not negroes" / "from white men, not from negroes")
PATTERNPike conceded that Prince Hall Masonry was legitimate and refused it in the same letter. The bar he states is color, not regularity
LENS (WW9)By this letter's own logic, the split was never about rules. It was about color
OPENFind the 1875 manuscript or the Upton 1902 scan (pp. 214–15). Date the ritual gift to Prince Hall and document it
SOURCENegro Masonry committee report, Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Washington 1898 (reprint PDF); Pike's Racism (masonicinfo.com); Wikipedia: Albert Pike.