The William Upton story is one that is not well known and screams to be told. He was the first Grand Master to recognize Prince Hall Masonry in 1898. And when it didn’t stick but was reversed by his successor, he wrote in his will that no marker of any kind was to be put on his grave until such time as white and black Masonry would recognize each other in Washington State.
It took until 1990, a century later, for recognition to return and stay. And that was an occasion, soon after, to finally provide William Upton with an appropriate gravestone. The ceremony in 1991 was jointly performed by Mainstream and Prince Hall Masonry.
Now I had in my possession for a limited time, lent to me by my Grandmaster, A DVD of this special ceremony. But being a computer challenged product of the 50s, I had no idea how to get it into something like You Tube so I could share it with everybody.
To the rescue came Bro. Shane Stevens of this site who edited and converted this DVD ,which was burned from an old tape, into a 6 part You Tube video.
Now I had the making of a great story which could be told to millions. I created a special Prince Hall Recognition site at Phoenixmasonry – www.phoenixmasonry.org – and President David Lettelier implemented it.
This new section at Phoenixmasonry not only has all 6 parts of the video of which just one is posted here, but also the paper “Light On A Dark Subject” by William Upton and “William Upton” and “Prince Hall Memorial” by yours truly.
It’s a start on a special Prince Hall section that will further educate and inform all who so desire. We at Phoenixmasonry hope it will grow with the rest of the site and continue our mission to help provide Masonic education material free of charge.
Phoenixmasonry is a member of the Masonic Library and Museum Association at: http://www.masoniclibraries.org
Bro’s, As i read this story of Princehall Mansonry, My feeling had to back in the History of Freemasonry in the Philippines. I’m from the Franco-Hispano-Filipino-Freemasonry. We are not recognized by the Grand Lodge of the Philippines which mean no Fraternal relation. Can some brethren give advice to make the two Lodges in good relationship. Accept the three embrance of our brotherhood.