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Tuesday, August 05, 2025

Albert Pike's Masonic Statue To Be Reinstalled in Washington D.C.


by Christopher Hodapp

The National Parks Service has announced it will restore and re-install the iconic bronze statue of Scottish Rite sage Albert Pike on its former plinth in Washington, DC's Judiciary Square. On June 19, 2020, the statue was toppled by rioters, covered in paint, doused with lighter fluid, and ignited, a victim of the national Confederate-related statue-toppling mania that went on in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

According to a press release from the NPS issued yesterday,

Micro-abrasive cleaning of the Albert Pike statue to remove corrosion 
and paint in order to review the conditions of the bronze prior to repairs 
NPS photo
The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation’s capital and re-instate pre-existing statues.

Originally authorized by Congress in 1898 and dedicated in 1901, the statue honors Pike’s leadership in Freemasonry, including his 32 years as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient Rite of Scottish Freemasonry. The statue has been in secure storage since its removal and is currently undergoing restoration by the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Training Center.

This action supports both the Executive Order on Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful and the Executive Order on Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, which direct federal agencies to protect public monuments and present a full and accurate picture of the American past.

Site preparation to repair the statue’s damaged masonry plinth will begin shortly, with crews repairing broken stone, mortar joints, and mounting elements. The NPS is targeting October 2025 for completing the reinstallment of the fully restored statue.
Upon the announcement, Washington D.C.'s longtime non-voting delegate to Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, announced her intention to introduce a new bill in Congress to prevent its reinstallation and to, instead, donate it to a museum, saying, "a statue honoring a racist and a traitor has no place on the streets of D.C."

Before its toppling, detractors had long objected to the statue on the grounds that Pike had owned several slaves when he lived in Arkansas, and served for just five months in the Confederate Army as a Brigadier General before resigning in disgust, making it the only statue of a "former Confederate soldier" in the District. There has also been a longstanding, unsubstantiated allegation that Pike had been a founder of the post-war Ku Klux Klan, claiming he had written their original rituals. And, oof course, there's a whole raft of conspiracy theories about Pike, topped by the absurd notion that he was a Luciferian whose rituals turned Freemasonry into Satanic ceremonies.

Pike was a complex, intellectual and deeply profound man in his day, and attempting to portray him as a "racist and a traitor" ignores just how complex he really was, reducing his lifetime to just two misleading adjectives. And wrapping up such a superficial judgement with lies and conspiracy theories is a deliberate attempt to rewrite history to win likes and clicks.

(See Scottish Rite SJ Grand Archivist Arturo DeHoyos' statement from 2020 about Pike's real writings and activities HERE.)

Pike's statue had first been erected by the Scottish Rite SJ across from the location of their original 'House of the Temple' headquarters. For thirty years, protesters and the press characterized Pike's sculpture as a "Confederate monument," despite the fact that it was never anything of the kind. His statue was not erected by pro-Confederate veterans groups, or by alleged Ku Klux Klan members (it predated the 1920s resurgence of the KKK by many years). The statue was originally erected on a tiny sliver of land between two diverging diagonal streets. The streets and the statue were moved slightly when a new highway on-ramp was built there in the 1950s. The 11-foot tall bronze sculpture by Italian artist Gaetano Trentanove was erected in 1901 and donated to the city by the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction to commemorate their own 100th anniversary. 

Out of their first 90 years, Albert Pike had served as the AASR-SJ's Sovereign Grand Commander for 32 of them—over a third of the Supreme Council's entire lifespan at that time. The original House of the Temple held their headquarters, their auditorium for putting on degrees, their vast and growing library, and Albert Pike lived and died there. So did his TWO successors. That made this particular corner historically significant.


The sculpture did NOT depict Pike as a Confederate soldier, nor did it commemorate or celebrate the five months in which he served as a general in the Confederate army. It was a Masonic representation of Pike's lifetime accomplishments as an author, philosopher, orator, lawyer, historian, polyglot, and a soldier (not only in his brief stint in the Confederate army, but also in the Mexican-American War). He wasn't atop a horse; he had no sword dangling from his belt; there was no declaration of heroship, and no phony bromide about 'healing a divided nation' that are the hallmarks of Civil War statues. Pike stood there with a book in his hand and the inscription Vixit Laborum Ejus Super Stites Sunt Fructus. "He has lived. The fruits of his labors live after him." Yet few - if any - who tore it down had any interest in actually looking up what the fruits of his labors really were.

There were no references to the Confederacy, only that Pike had been a "soldier" and the banner in the hand of the Grecian figure is not a Confederate flag or symbol, but a Scottish Rite one featuring the double-headed eagle. It was purely a Masonic statue and an homage to his life's many accomplishments. Nevertheless, it was felled by the mob and hauled away to an unspecified location by the District's Parks Department.







This morning, an NPR reporter sent me an email asking for a comment about the statue's restoration. Unfortunately, I returned her call too late for her deadline. The last thing any Freemason wants is for this whole controversy to bubble up again and used to fling mud on the fraternity. I've never been of the opinion that Pike needed to be beatified by Masons, and he didn't either, if his own writings were any indication. He once wrote: “When I am dead, I wish my monument to be builded only in the hearts and memories of my Brethren of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and my name to be remembered by them in every country, no matter what language men may speak there, where the light of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite shall shine, and its oracles of Truth and Wisdom be reverently listened to.”

Besides, Washington Masonic sites get enough vandalism from the lunatic crowd without giving them another one. But I despise it when the hysterics go out of their way to spread lies about the fraternity, especially when the truth is easily discovered.

For more than you'll ever want to know about Pike and the statue, see Albert Pike, Statues, History and Hysteria from back in 2017. In the 1980s and 90s, it became something of a crusade for perennial presidential candidate and famed nutcase Lyndon LaRouche to demand its removal.

Every time this particular subject arises, I always add the same post script. In February 1993, the Philalethes magazine published a piece about the Pike statue controversy that was raging back then. It was written by the Reverend Howard L. Woods, a Christian minister who served for ten years as the Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Arkansas F&AM. In 1991, he had been invited as the Lecturer for the Philalethes Society, the first Prince Hall Mason ever asked to do so, and still many years before Prince Hall recognition became widespread. GM Woods wrote before more recent scholarship has brought to light more of Pike's writings and verification that Pike did indeed provide his revised Scottish Rite rituals to help the Prince Hall aligned Scottish Rite.*(see note)

The Reverend Grand Master Woods' perspective in 1993 deserves to be repeated now, both for our own members and the general public. It still rings true 32 years later.
The Albert Pike Statue: Let It Stand
There is no love lost between Prince Hall Masons and the memory of the late Albert Pike, Masonic Historian, writer, alleged ritualist for the Ku Klux Klan, but, if Freemasonry is to remain the bulwark of free-thinking people, then, "Let the statue remain!"
Like the natures he wrote about, Albert Pike showed the light and dark sides of his own soul, when with one breath he spoke of his willingness to give up his Freemasonry rather than recognize the Negro as a 'Masonic Brother' and with another breath, declared that every man should be free, for a free man is an asset, while a slave is a liability. Mankind is that way, and as long as the statue stands, America and Freemasonry will survive.
Let the statue be torn down and America and Freemasonry will be in jeopardy, for one would have to wonder, "What would be next?" As a Prince Hall Mason, an African American and supposedly free-thinker, I can see a higher power than the mortal mind of Albert Pike guiding his pen as he wrote such beautiful words of life without an occasional helping hand from someone "bigger than you or I."
Let the statue stand, even if it is proven that Albert Pike did write ritual for the Ku Klux Klan; more ignoble deeds have been done by others without sacrifice of their historic heroism.
Let the statue stand as a reminder that the good and evil of men are in equilibrium within us, and we all should strive for perfection now and in the future, not in the past. Let the statue stand!
 --Rev. Howard L. Woods, Grand Master, Prince Hall Masons of Arkansas.

*NOTE: Between 1887 and 1891, Albert Pike happily shared personal, autographed copies of his Scottish Rite Masonic degree rituals with his counterpart, Thornton A. Jackson, in the parallel Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction for black Prince Hall Masons, in order to assist their fledgling organization. Pike's correspondence has not survived, but in writings of the period, Jackson described Pike as his friend. Later comparisons of their two sets of rituals confirmed that the Prince Hall AASR-SJ today remain very close to those Pike wrote in the years before 1887.

Post-riot photos by Brother Efrian Olujimi Dalle

4 comments:

  1. "For thirty years, protesters and the press characterized Pike's sculpture as a "Confederate monument," despite the fact that it was never anything of the kind."
    Interestingly enough, when I took a tour of the House of the temple in 1994, my tour guide commented, when discussing the fact that Pike is entombed in the house of the temple, the pike is the only Confederate general to have a statue in the District of Columbia.

    Maybe tour guides shouldn't have been using that as a trivia point in their tours of the building?
    But, don't take my word for it, it was discussed on the Masonic round table that that is how it has been referred to by people within the fraternity, including those speaking while in positions, providing tours and information on the fraternity.

    Meanwhile, Pike himself said he did not want any monument built to him, but here we are, ignoring his wishes, and thinking we have the moral high ground.

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    Replies
    1. While what you’ve said is true, it doesn’t make the destruction of a monument to who was a man of faults and contradictions, as most of our historical figures were, and will continue to be, for they are mere mortals, humans, not gods. Last night I had the pleasure and privilege of attending the 3rd visit between F&AM and PHA, at a PHA Lodge, this year. This may seem insignificant to many, but for it to happen in Florida, where recognition between the two had not taken place until recently, it’s a huge feat. Not because it benefits Freemasonry as a whole, but because it unifies the Brotherhood and our humanity as a whole. And although PHA was started for former slaves, and the separation from “mainstream” Freemasonry was intentional at the time, through time, which heals all wounds, it has moved from being considered as separate by race to inclusive by race, as “mainstream” Freemasonry has as well. There are men of all races in the fraternity, white and Hispanic and Asian, etc, in PHA (mostly in their Military traveling lodges), and in F&AM, AF&AM, FMI, etc.. The unification of the fraternity is not symbolic, it’s not a bid to save a legacy either, it’s the evolution of what we as Freemasons have been called to do, become united under the banner of fraternity and brotherhood. Pikes statue is not a monument to a man, per se, but to an idea, that all men come short of perfection, and maybe considered good, but Freemasonry helps make them better, not perfect. Even those who toppled the statue come very short of being perfect and have their flaws, and yet what they seek is laudable. But, I can’t help but think of the fact that they toppled more out of ignorance than out of knowledge of why they were toppling monuments. Most in those mobs had no clue as to what they were doing, and simply followed the crowd and committed destruction. That’s no basis for a sound society. The monuments to most historic figures are mostly to the ideals of those they represent, and yes, events that were unsavory to say the least, but instead of removing them and destroying history (less we remember or we shall repeat it) we should have counter balance monuments. We as Freemasons, and Pike wrote extensively on this, are humans with human flaws and good and bad within us all, it’s the inner turmoil of man that we learn to subdue through our labors in Freemasonry. This is why his monument should be preserved. Wilfredo Soto, SR 32°

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  2. I feel like it is the wrong message to emphasize that he was only a little bit traitorous and only a little bit racist and also really really smart and spiritual n stuff.

    How smart and spiritual could he have actually been, given the other facts of his biography? Is it not vaguely possible that he wanted to seem more than he actually was? This might as well account for the fact that this super smart and super spiritual guy plagiarized constantly.

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  3. I should add, perhaps, that the question today is not "should the statue have been erected initially, and what were the motives of those who did so", nor is the question "should the statue have been toppled in 2020, and what were the motives of those who did so". I would note that referring to them as "rioters", by the way, is not a plain and neutral description, but a politically loaded choice.

    The question today is "should the statue be restored, and what are the motives of those urging it". And here, you are oddly silent. We do not hear about a broad push to avoid talking about racism in public life, about a deliberate attempt to burnish the reputation of the Confederacy, about a retrenchment of a social commitment to the destruction of racism and its influences. The proposed restoration is not neutral, and its context is not 1901 nor is it 2020. Its context is 2025, and those who are arguing for its restoration are not doing so because they revere Pike for his contributions to Freemasonry, nor because they value the Southern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite (not "the Scottish Rite", but only one subpiece of it, mind you).

    No, they are doing so because *they* perceive him to be a hero of the Confederacy. They are wrong, of course, but it is *their* motives that control the narrative here, and not those of 1901 or 2020. They wish us to believe that the American history of racism is a lie, that the Confederacy was a heroic cause, and that Pike was a noble war hero. Or at least, that's how it seems to me.

    If it seems different to you, well and good, but your defense of the restoration of the statue needs to refer to the context in 2025, which is what controls the meaning of a restoration now, in 2025. The references to 1901 and 2020 are rather off the point.

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