From the Winston-Salem Journal, the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day:In the annals of landmarks in race relations, the Jan. 5 installation of Joseph Adegboyega as the new Worshipful Master at an Ancient Free and Accepted Mason Lodge in Winston-Salem won’t rival Brown vs. The Topeka Board of Education or President Eisenhower sending the 101st Airborne to desegregate Central High in Little Rock.
Perhaps that’s a good thing, a sign that nearly 44 years after the Civil Rights Act, race relations continue to improve and artificial barriers continue to fall.
That’s the way Adegboyega wants to look at his accomplishment. While he’s rightfully proud that he is the first black man to hold high office in a traditionally white AF&AM lodge in North Carolina, he also thinks that it’s about time.
It is indeed.
Congratulations to Wbro. Adegboyega and the brethren of Piedmont-Pioneer Lodge #685. According to their website, the lodge began in 1945 as Pioneer Lodge No. 685. A fitting name and heritage.
A link (thanks to the Burning Taper for spotting it) to a paper by Wbro. Adegboyega
ReplyDeletefrom 2003 on the subject of Prince Hall recognition in North Carolina.