What Is Prince Hall Freemasonry? History, Recognition, and Joining

Any honest history of Freemasonry in America must give a central place to Prince Hall. His story begins in revolutionary Boston, passes through a long and painful chapter of exclusion, and arrives in our own time at a recognition that most Grand Lodges now acknowledge was long overdue. For a man of any background considering the fraternity, it is essential reading.

Prince Hall Freemasonry is the oldest continuously operating fraternal organisation founded by Black Americans. It consists of a network of independent Grand Lodges, most bearing the name Prince Hall, which confer the same three Craft degrees as any regular lodge. Today it numbers tens of thousands of members across the United States, the Caribbean, Canada and Liberia.

§Prince Hall and African Lodge

Prince Hall was a free Black man living in Boston in the 1770s, a leather worker by trade and a tireless advocate for abolition and the education of Black children. On 6 March 1775, he and fourteen other free Black men were initiated into a military lodge attached to a British regiment stationed in Boston. When the regiment departed, the men were granted limited permission to meet, but not to confer degrees.

Having been refused a charter by the white lodges of Massachusetts, Prince Hall applied to the Premier Grand Lodge of England. A warrant was issued in 1784 constituting African Lodge No. 459, and it arrived in Boston in 1787. African Lodge thus held a charter from the same Grand Lodge that had chartered many of America's earliest lodges. Original records, including correspondence with London, survive and have been studied closely by historians. A useful introduction is published by the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts at princehall.org.

§A separate path

After the American Revolution, American Grand Lodges formed independently of England, and in the decades that followed, African Lodge was left without contact or recognition from them. In 1791 Prince Hall was appointed Provincial Grand Master, and in 1827 African Lodge declared its own independence as a Grand Lodge. Further Prince Hall Grand Lodges were formed in other states as the movement spread.

For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the predominantly white Grand Lodges of the United States refused to recognise Prince Hall Grand Lodges, typically citing technical questions of jurisdiction and origin. Masonic historians now broadly accept that these objections masked the racial prejudice of the times. It is a sobering chapter in a fraternity that teaches the equality of all men.

§The road to recognition

Change came slowly. The United Grand Lodge of England extended recognition to the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1994. Connecticut became the first US mainstream Grand Lodge to recognise its Prince Hall counterpart in 1989. Through the 1990s and 2000s, Grand Lodge after Grand Lodge followed. Today the large majority of US jurisdictions extend mutual recognition, permitting brethren to visit one another's lodges. A minority, mostly in the South, have yet to do so, and in those states visitation between the two remains restricted.

Recognition is a technical Masonic term with practical consequences, and it is explained in What Is a Grand Lodge?. Where two Grand Lodges recognise each other, their members may visit each other's lodges and are regarded as regular Masons by both.

Whichever lodge you are drawn to, the first questions are the same. The free Readiness Quiz checks the essentials in five minutes.

§Prince Hall Freemasonry today

Prince Hall lodges are known for their strong ritual standards, close fellowship, and a long tradition of community leadership. Over two centuries, members have included abolitionists, civil rights leaders, educators, clergymen, soldiers, athletes and entertainers. Prince Hall Masons have built schools, funded scholarships and supported their communities in times when few others would. Appendant bodies within the Prince Hall family include Scottish Rite, York Rite, Shriners and the Order of the Eastern Star. What Is an Appendant Body? describes these organisations.

Prince Hall lodges are open to men of every race. Equally, mainstream lodges are open to Black men and have been for generations. Many American towns have both a Prince Hall lodge and a mainstream lodge, and a candidate is free to petition whichever feels like home.

§How to find and join a Prince Hall lodge

1. Find the Prince Hall Grand Lodge for your state. Most have a website listing their constituent lodges and contact details.
2. Reach out with a short, sincere message. What to Say When You Contact a Lodge offers sample wording.
3. Attend open events, dinners or community activities to meet the members.
4. Ask for a petition when you feel ready, and be prepared for an investigating committee. The Investigating Committee explains what happens.
5. Await the ballot. What Is the Masonic Ballot? describes how members vote.

The requirements are the same as in any regular lodge: a man of good character, of lawful age, believing in a Supreme Being, coming of his own free will. Who Can Join the Freemasons? and How to Find a Masonic Lodge Near You apply equally to Prince Hall lodges.

§Choosing between lodges

If you live in a jurisdiction where both Prince Hall and mainstream lodges are present and recognise each other, visit both if you can. Lodge culture varies more between individual lodges than between Grand Lodges. Look for the one where you feel welcome, where the members show up, and where you would be glad to spend your Tuesday evenings for the next twenty years. How to Choose the Right Lodge gives a checklist for exactly this decision.

Prince Hall's own words, written in 1797, still carry force: give the right hand of affection and fellowship to whom it justly belongs, let their colour and complexion be what it will. It is a principle every lodge, of every lineage, should be proud to keep.