# Museum of African-American Freemasonry opened  at Prince Hall Grand Masonic Temple



## kosei (Jun 30, 2011)

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/06/24/3178429/museum-of-african-american-freemasonry.html
FORT WORTH -- Treasures from the 136-year history of African-American Freemasonry in Texas will be unveiled today with the grand opening of the Wilbert M. Curtis Texas Prince Hall Library Museum. 
The museum in the Prince Hall Grand Masonic Temple, 3433 Martin Luther King Freeway, opens at 9:15 a.m. with a ribbon cutting. 
For more than a year Curtis, the lodge's grand master, led the effort to create and fill the museum, said Frank Jackson, the lodge's grand junior warden. 
"Everyone who wants to preserve artifacts from their Texas lodges can send them here," Jackson said. 
Plenty of people have, said Willie High Coleman Jr., chairman of the lodge's charitable foundation. Some of it is genealogical gold. 
"We have records of membership applications," he said. "The applicants would have to tell everything about their families. For some of them, there's no other record that thorough." 
The Lodge Room displays ornate furnishings and ritual items used by Prince Hall members for more than 60 years. 
The collection includes an 1876 charter for San Antonio Lodge No. 1, the first lodge in Texas. Along one wall are massive portraits of past grand masters. 
Smaller portraits depict such lodge members as William "Gooseneck Bill" McDonald, the first African-American millionaire in Texas. 
"Gooseneck is probably the reason that the Prince Hall Grand Lodge is in Fort Worth," Coleman said. 
African-American Freemasonry was born when Prince Hall received a charter in 1776 from the Grand Lodge of England and established the first lodge, in Massachusetts, Jackson said. 
"He was the first leader of African-American Masonry," he said. 
Freemasonry is a fraternal organization with charitable endeavors, said Burrell Parmer, senior warden for San Antonio Lodge No. 1. 
"But it's for the individual person to look into their heart and decide whether they want to exemplify the principles of Masonry: relief for widows and orphans, morality and being a stand-up individual and brotherly love," he said. 
For all of its existence in Texas, Freemasonry has also been a rallying point for men and women of character, Jackson said. 
"Preachers, teachers, lawyers, doctors and bankers who helped develop communities and led their neighbors during catastrophes," he said. 
This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives. Terry Evans, 817-390-7620


Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/0...rican-american-freemasonry.html#ixzz1QlSgkyTK


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## MikeMay (Jun 30, 2011)

*Re: Museum of African-American Freemasonry opened  at Prince Hall Grand Masonic Templ*

I love history.  I'm pleased that people are putting forth the effort to keep the historical aspects of Masonry...too much is being lost as men put down their working tools and pass on without letting family know what to do with the items they themselves had.


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## Benton (Jul 1, 2011)

*Re: Museum of African-American Freemasonry opened  at Prince Hall Grand Masonic Templ*

Very neat!


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## Ceasare (Jul 2, 2011)

What will the hours of operation be?  Admission fee or donation?  I will be in FT. Worth the week of the fourth and I am so there!!!!


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## kosei (Jul 5, 2011)

*Re: Museum of African-American Freemasonry opened  at Prince Hall Grand Masonic Templ*

hours of operation are 10 a.m-4 p.m Monday-Thursday. Call 817-534-4612 to make an appoinment.


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