Prince Hall Initiates Black Freemasonry Through British Military Lodge

Prince Hall and 14 other free Black men in Boston are initiated into African Lodge No. 441 by a British military lodge attached to an Irish regiment stationed in Boston in 1775. After American Masonic lodges refuse them a charter, Hall obtains one directly from England's Grand Lodge in 1784, founding Prince Hall Freemasonry — the first Black civic organization in the United States.