Ballot Set Aside in North Virginia

[Tamrin]

Ballot Set Aside in North Virginia

M.W. Cabell F. Cobbs
Grand Master, Grand Lodge A.F & A.M. Of Virginia

[Excerpt - Linked above]

Recently, it was necessary to set aside the ballot in a Northern Virginia Lodge and order the acceptance of a black petitioner who met every moral and character test for admission in the Lodge and Craft. Brethren who had voted adversely to him both inside and outside Lodge declared that their rejection was motivated by racism.

On appeal by the Worshipful Master, I personally investigated the matter, set aside the law and directed a reballot. I attended the stated communication at which the petition was once more called up for action. No one present other than the vouchers and the investigating committee knew the petitioner. The committee report was favorable. I called upon anyone present to give any reason for the rejection of this man - - an officer in our armed forces, a Sunday School teacher in a large white church and a man whose probity seemed beyond question. No reason was forthcoming. Once again, he was rejected, and it was clear the sole reason was his color. Accordingly, I again set the ballot aside and directed the Secretary to record the individual’s election to receive the degrees in Masonry. On August 7, he was initiated an Entered Apprentice in the presence of some seventy Brethren and now is being instructed on his catechism.

[Tamrin]

Indirect Discrimination

[The Parameters of Brotherhood: Gender, Race and Ethnicity in Fraternal Orders - Excerpt - Linked Above]

This ability to discriminate without technically undermining the principle of brotherhood manifested itself in other ways. Use of the blackball “gave a small minority within each lodge the power to reject anyone whom they might find unacceptable and provided a simple mechanism by which orders could exclude members of stigmatized groups without publicly contradicting their rhetoric of equality and universality.” Often, however, the efficacy of this indirect method of insuring racial boundaries was supplemented with direct articulation of racial exclusion. In1892, the Modern Woodmen of America ..., the “only major order that did not specify the exclusion of blacks” were forced by other fraternal orders to enact a “whites-only regulation” after allowing a black membership. In 1891, 97.6 percent of 386 fraternal organizations in Connecticut excluded blacks,” demonstrating a microcosm of the national norm.