On this day, March 6th, in 1775 a man named Prince Hall and 14 other men of color were initiated into Freemasonry. This work was conducted by Sergeant John Batt of the Irish Militia Lodge No 441, attached to the 38th Foot of the British army When the 38th Foot left Boston in the colony of Massachusetts three weeks later, Batt gave them a “Permet” which allowed them “to walk on St. John’s Day” and “to bury their dead in manner and form.”
African Lodge No. 1 was born on July 3, 1775. In 1847 the African (or national) Grand lodge became Prince Hall Grand Lodge honoring the first Master of African Lodge. Since then many Prince Hall Masons have honored Prince hall as well as “Blue” Lodge Masonry and continue to do so as more and more Grand Lodge Jurisdictions world – wide grant them recognition. The United Grand Lodge of England took a giant and historic step forward on December 14, 1994 when it resolved that “the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts should now be accepted as regular and recognized.” The first Grand Lodge to recognize the Prince Hall Grand Lodge within their jurisdiction was the Grand Lodge of CT. Since that time 31 other Grand Lodges in the USA have accorded various types of recognition to the local Prince Hall Grand Lodges, the latest being Virginia.