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His most enduring contribution toward the creation of a black consciousness and pride was organizing, a year before the Declaration of Independence was signed, the first Negro Masonic Lodge, which now bears his name. He and thirteen other blacks were initiated as Masons in 1775 by John Batt of Irish Lodge No. 441, which was attached to a British regiment stationed near Boston. They were authorized by Batt and John Rowe, Provisional Grand Master of North America, to form African Lodge No. 1. In 1874, after the war, they were granted a charter from the Grand Lodge of England as African Lodge No. 459, with Prince Hall as Master.

Black Americans have added cause to join in the celebration of their nation's Bicentennial. It marks the two-hundred-first anniversary of a major step forward in American brotherhood under the leadership of Prince Hall. But an even greater tribute to this great American patriot is the dedication of the more than a quarter million members of 43 Grand Lodges of the Prince Hall Masons to the noble principles by which he lived.

Adapted from the writings of.
Charles H. Wesley, Ph. D.