Alpha Lodge No. 116

Alpha Lodge No. 116. This is a regular lodge under the Grand Lodge of New Jersey which had, for many years, a mixed membership of whites and Blacks but, since 1929, has been entirely Black. The suggestion has been made that its history may have begun with the annual address of Grand Master Whitehead of New Jersey in the Grand Lodge Communication of 1864, near the close of the Civil War, when there was a great deal of interest in universal brotherhood.

At the Annual Communication in 1870, application was made by several Blacks, claiming to be Freemasons, for a warrant for a lodge at Newark to be called Cushite Lodge. The special committee recommended that pr*fanes must pursue the same process for becoming Masons as were open to all others. At the session in 1871, nine white brethren applied for a charter for a lodge to be known as Alpha Lodge, which was granted, with the number 116. On January 31, 1871, petitions for the degrees were received from one white man and twelve Blacks, including those who had petitioned for Cushite Lodge. This news spread rapidly, with the result that a petition signed by 212 white brethren was presented to the Grand Master, alleging that the charter had been obtained through deceit.

The charter was suspended until the Communication of the Grand Lodge in 1872. At that meeting, a motion to return the charter to Alpha Lodge was carried by a majority of one vote. Promptly thereafter, on January 30, 1872, the lodge initiated the Rev. John H. L. Sweres and Abram T. Cooke, a barber, both black, and raised them in April of the same year. From 1873, Alpha Lodge gradually became more and more a Black lodge. On Dec. 3, 1878, Abram T. Cooke was elected Master, being the first Black to become Master of a lodge under any of the recognized Grand Lodges of the United States. The last two white members were suspended for non-payment of dues in 1929, since which time the Lodge has been composed entirely of Blacks.

This affair caused some disturbance in other jurisdictions. In 1872, the Grand Lodge of Delaware instructed its lodges to have no fraternal relations with Alpha Lodge. In 1908, the Grand Master of Mississippi severed relations with the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, and was sustained by his Grand Lodge. Fraternal relations were restored between the two in 1928. Several of its members have served, and continue to serve, the Grand Lodge in varying and important capacities. The work of the Lodge is in every way creditable, and large numbers of white Freemasons visit it because of its unique character.

Macoy Collector's Note: A monumentally important historical entry documenting the integration and early struggles for universal brotherhood within mainstream American Grand Lodges.