Originally posted by Rockpuck
I find it odd someone who supposedly was very racist in regards to Africans, was honored by Native Americans for his work to preserve their rights?
The "very racist" stuff comes from anti-Masons, not actual history.
Pike was born in a white supremacist society, and adopted some of those views early in his life. However, as he grew older, his views began to change.
This can easily be seen by comparing his later writings with his earlier pre-Civil War writings. It is also interesting to note that the more he
became involved in Freemasonry, the more he began to drop the previous attitudes toward race that had held as a non-Mason Pike did not become a Mason
until he was in his early 40's).
When Pike completed his final revisions to the rituals of the Scottish Rite he presented a copy to Thornton A. Jackson, 33°, the African-American
Sovereign Grand Commander of the Prince Hall Scottish Rite. In a letter written in 1945 to Bro. George W. Crawford, Bro. Willard W. Allen, the black
Sovereign Grand Commander of the Prince Hall Scottish Rite at that time, wrote:
Incidentally, it is not necessary to remind you of what practically
all Masonic scholars know very well, viz., that in the closing years of General Pike’s Masonic career, he became a very staunch friend of Negro
Masonry.
That tradition continues today. When the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction USA, completed the Revised Standard Pike Ritual in 2001, a meeting was
held in which Bro. Fred Kleinknecht, Sovereign Grand Commander, presented the revised ritual to the two Grand Commanders of the two Prince Hall
Supreme Councils in the US.
[edit on 28-8-2009 by Masonic Light]
