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[[image- black and white photo of group marching in parade]]
[[image- black and white photo of three men on motorcycles]]
[[image- black and white photo of four men marching, one carrying a flag]]
and white fezzes worn by nobles and daughters who are members of the fraternal order.
According to Bossie Benjamin Simmons, a past grand master of Prince Hall Masons in the state of Virginia, who is presently serving as the Imperial Director of Publicity for the Black Shrine organization, the red and white fezzes are one of the most familiar items of dress attire associated with shrinedom.
On all public occasions, members dress in their gaily colored costumes and wear their fezzes, emblematical of an old Arabic symbol of learning and prominence. This is mostly done during parades, outdoor programs and indoor pageants and activities, sponsored by Prince Hall Shriners and Daughters of Isis members in temples and courts in America and overseas. Participants are Prince Hall nobles and daughters who are members of drill patrols, marching and riding units, drum and bugle corps, horse and motorcycle patrols, ladies auxiliaries and oriental bands and chanters.
The purpose of these parades and programs is to publicize the Imperial Council of Shriners, to stage a festival and public show and to set the stage and scene for the Prince Hall Shrine Order in such a manner that brings nothing but dignity, honor prestige to the Prince Hall family of masons.
Simmons said that the fez worn by nobles and daughters gets its name from the original place of manufacture, Fez or Fes in Morocco where it was the insigne of a nationally famous school and the mark of an outstanding student. The headgear caught on quickly in that country, spread to other countries, and was carried by visiting pilgrims into the northern coast of Africa.
Simmons went on to explain that in shrinedom the fez has great significance. It represents a pyramid. The top is flat. The flat top stands for the uncompleted portion of the pyramid, the tassel represents a cable used to raise the capstone and place it on top of the pyramid, or its may represent the Imperial Potentate who is assigned to finish the job. As Pyramid houses wisdom, so the fez, worn by Black Shriners, houses wisdom in the brain. The color of the tassel -black- signifies the unseen reason why the job was left unfiished.
Under the fez, the wearer's head is the vault where the treasures of the order is preserved. The red fez, worn by male Shriners, represents the skill and wisdom of the men who erected the pyramids. The white fez, worn by women, who are members of the Imperial Court, Daughters of Isis, is for Isis, the Egyptian Goddess of the Moon.
On the shrine fez is a sphinx head, symbolic of strength and intelligence. Sphinxes were guards. The crescent, with its points down, is representative of the moon, symbolizing the setting of an old faith and the rising of a new in the brotherhood of all mankind.
The jewels embedded in the fez also  has a symbolic and special meaning. The scimitar has three edges, symbolizing the three principal stages of human life ... youth, manhood and age. The sphinx head represents the order coming out of Egypt. The crescent represents the two dispensations, Christian and Arabic. One side represents Jesus Christ and the human family and the other