The Society's membership was composed of regular Freemasons throughout the world. Their subjects of study and research also cover a wide range of interest and issues. The Society's core research discipline is focused on analyzing, researching and solving key issues in Freemasonry and can be applied to the Prince Hall Masonic Order.

The Society was Established with Three Aims:

1. Foster Masonic Research amongst Prince Hall Freemasons.
   
2. Educate Freemasons and primarily Prince Hall Freemasons about Prince Hall and Universal Freemasonry.
   
3. Encourage the ‘Thought’ process within all Freemasons.
   The Father of Prince Hall Freemasonry
   ... to the South and to the West
   by David L. Gray {CRM2}
   Since 1885, the Masonic Jurisdiction of Ohio has had beneath her soil the remains of Brother who played a huge role in giving birth to it in 1847. On March 3rd, 1847, seven men who were residents of Cincinnati departed for the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their sojourn was invoked by their desire to be initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry. Brothers William Darnes, John Johnson and Joseph C King had previously made the journey to Pittsburgh and had been made Master Masons. On this return visit, they were accompanied by Shelton Morris, George Peterson, Asbury Young and L. C. Fluellen. After spending two days in Pittsburgh, on March 5, 1847. St. Cyprian Lodge held a meeting with Martin R. Delany as Worshipful Master. The petitions of Young, Fluellen, Peterson and Morris were received and they were elected by ballot to be raised to the degree of Master Mason that day. Also present at this historic occasion was Brother Richard Howell Gleaves (primary establisher of St. Cyprian Lodge No. 13 and its first Worshipful Master), who would also one day become the Grand Master of the Ohio (1857-1861) jurisdiction and National Grand Master (1865-1877) of the National Grand Lodge. In this same year Delany would be appointed by the National Grand Lodge as its District Deputy of the Western District (all jurisdictions west of Pennsylvania).
   
   The seven men from Cincinnati whom Delany made Freemasons, went home to establish Corinthian Lodge No. 17 under the jurisdiction of the First Independent Grand Lodge of North America (Pennsylvania), with the blessing of St. Cyprian Lodge on April 11, 1847. While Delany seems to have began shifting his interesting back to publishing and medicine. It was in this year when Delany would meet Frederick Douglass and together they would establish 'The North Star'. Previous to this, Delany had established a newspaper called 'The Mystery', which he sold to the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1847. They would rename it the 'Christian Recorder'.
   
   Masonically, we hear from Delany again on June 24th, 1853 at St. Cyprian Lodge No. 13 where he delivered his Treatise, "Origin and Objects of Ancient Freemasonry: Its Introduction into the United States, and Legitimacy Among Colored Men." This published work by Delany is the earliest printed work on Prince Hall Freemasonry, which also makes him the first published Prince Hall Freemason. In this work Delany credited Africa as being the place where Freemasonry originated. These thoughts were not revolutionary during this time, as several popular White Freemasons had posed similar thoughts earlier that decade and late into the 18th century. The central argument which Delany was attempting to make, was that the Black man had an inherited right to become Freemasons and therefore they are legitimate.
   
   Richard H. Gleaves, as previously mentioned was a Past Master in the Lodge over which Delany served as Worshipful Master. Gleaves was also National Grand Master of the National Grand Lodge from 1865 to 1877, and during this same time he was serving as Lieutenant Governor of the state of South Carolina from 1872 to 1877 (reconstruction era). Now enters Delany, the lawyer, author, publisher, doctor, explorer, lecturer, inventor, Black Nationalist, Civil War Field Officer and in his own right an accomplished Freemason into the South Carolina run for Lieutenant Governor. The Prince Hall Masonic jurisdiction of South Carolina was still young then, but like most Southern Jurisdictions it had spread there through the African American Episcopal Church and the fact that you were a Freemason carried a lot of weight in the Black Community in those days. As these Brothers, R. H. Gleaves and M. R. Delany found themselves in a competitive run for Lieutenant Governor for the State of South Carolina, Delany sends an appeal to the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania to restore his membership. The Committee on Appeals reported on June 24th, 1874,
   
   "� that in the case of Bro. Martin R. Delany that he had inquired and received a letter from St. Cyprian Lodge No. 13, stating that he had been suspended for non-payment of dues some 14 years back (1860). That he had been written to with no response on his part.
   
   "Further, that before leaving Pittsburgh, over fifteen years since, he borrowed $50.00 from the Lodge which he never repaid:
   
   "That, not withstanding, had the Brother applied for reinstatement, they, no doubt, would have done so.
   
   "The Committee therefore report that from the evidence of the records he is a suspended member."Resolved, that the Report of the Committee be approved.
   
   "Moved that the appeal of M. R. Delany be returned to him with our disapproval. Moved that the statement just read from the W. Master of St. Cyprian Lodge No. 13 be forwarded to the M. W. National Grand Master (Gleaves), with the request that it may be read in the Grand Lodge of South Carolina. Carried!
   
   

   It never surprised me that Delany never responded to letters sent to him from St. Cyprian Lodge, since he was involved in so many things and traveling so much around the world - that it's likely he never received those communications, especially if the letter was sent around 1860. In 1859 Delany had set sail to explore the Niger valley in hopes of arranging a settlement of emigrants there. He also found himself at the world scientific congress in 1859 in London, where he was named a delegate by Prince Albert at opposition of the American delegation headed by the president of the University of South Carolina, which received Delany's appointment of delegate as an insult and stalked out.
   
   Yet, what has always surprised me was the level of seemingly betrayal which Gleaves inflicted upon Delany. Why would the committee find reason to forward their findings to Gleaves and have it read in the South Carolina Grand Lodge unless this was an attempt to discredit the character of Delany during their race for Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina? Both men were likely using their Masonic affiliations and accomplishments to gain votes and Gleaves may have been able to expose Delany as a fraud? We will never know all the facts of this incident, but the timing of this whole thing remains questionable on Gleaves part in my opinion.
   
   Martin Robison Delany was born on May 6th, 1812 in Charlestown, Virginia (now West Virginia). His parents were Samuel Delany (a slave) and Padi Peace (a 'free' woman). Delany was proud to know his Fullah and Mandinka African roots. His family moved to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania where Delany was able to attend school with other children. At the age of nineteen, he moved to Pittsburgh alone where he would he begin his journey in life.
   
   In response to being excluded from White Literary Societies, Black men and women in several cities formed their own such groups. In Pittsburgh Martin Delany and Molliston Clark formed the Theban Literary Society in 1832 with the goal of eliminating the moral gloom that "hung around" the community.
   
   Martin began to study medicine in 1833 with Dr. Andrew McDowell and becomes a cupper, leacher and bleeder. He would open his own practice a few years later in Pittsburgh.
   
   Delany was active in the Philanthropic Society, which was a fugitive slave and self defense organization and in 1837 formed Young Men's Literary and Moral Reform Society of Pittsburgh. This would lead to him and the men of the Philanthropic Society being deputized by the mayor of Pittsburgh in 1849 to quell the weekly drunken riots. These were Black police officers in 1849 America! He would leave Pittsburgh this year to tour the south and see slavery with his own eyes. His experiences during this journey would lead to his novel 'Blake'. In the next year, he was elected to the Board of Manager of the Pittsburgh Anti-Slavery Society.
   
   Brother Delany married at the age of thirty one in 1843 to to the bright and attractive Kate A. Richards, who was the daughter of a very wealthy and influential property holder in Pittsburgh. The couple had eleven children, seven of whom survived and each named after a well-known African heroes.
   
   After resigning from the North Star in 1849 due to differences with Frederick Douglass, Delany once again turned his attention to medicine. From 1850 to 1851 he attended Harvard Medical School, studying successfully under Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes. He left in 1852 due to White student backlash but distinguished himself as a practitioner during the cholera epidemic of 1854 in Pittsburgh. He was also appointed to a subcommittee to furnish the Municipal Board of Charity with medical advice concerning the health needs of indigent Blacks and Whites.
   
   Between his matriculation at Harvard and his practicing medicine again in Pittsburgh, Delany found time in 1851 to invent a braking device for trains. With the help of McCune Smith in New York City, he validates his idea, but gives up when the patent is refused because a 'free colored man' was not considered to be a citizen.
   
   It was 1861, the Civil War had began and Delany was forty-nine years of age. Delany took up arms along with hundreds of thousands of other Blacks in the Civil War. He recruited black enlistees throughout the Midwest, not excluding his eldest son Toussaint Delany who took part in and survived the bloody assault on Battery Wagner. In 1865 Delany raveled to Washington D.C. to meet with President Lincoln concerning the condition of Black troops by suggesting the appointment of Black officers to oversee the Black regiments. Lincoln would agree with Delany and commissioned him Major in the United States Army and assigned him to the 104th Regiment, U.S.C.T. The war would end before Major Delany's regiment was fully trained, making Delany the first and last Black Field Officer of the Civil War. Lincoln wrote to Edwin Staton, (Secretary of War) concerning Martin Delany, "Do not fail to have an interview with this most extraordinary and intelligent black man." Even though his run for Lt. Governor of S.C. wasn't successful, he would serve in the Freedman's bureau, and magistrate in South Carolina during reconstruction.
   
   Major Dr. Martin R. Delany returned to his wife and family in Wilberforce, Ohio in 1880, where he would play a small role in the community there. He died in 1885 at the age of 73 and was buried at Massie Creek Cemetery in Wilberforce, Ohio.
   
   REFERENCES:
   
   Wesley, Charles H. "The History of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the State of Ohio 1849 to 1971". (1972). Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Ohio. Columbus, OH2.
   
   Walkes, Joseph A. "Black Square and Compass". (1979). Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co., Inc. Richmond, VA3.
   
   Morais, Herbert M. "The History of the Negro in Medicine". (1969). Publishers Company, Inc. New York4.
   
   Kemetic Voice. (March-April 1998). Kemetic Institute. Chicago, Illinois
   
   Bennett, Lerone, Jr. "Before the Mayflower - A History of Black America". 1987. Chicago
   

   LEARN MORE ABOUT DELANY:
   
4. Martin R. Delany Homepage
   
5. The Mystery
6. Schoolnet