ABSTRACT
In 1860 a black-sponsored John Brown anniversary celebration in the Tremont Street Temple was disrupted by an angry Boston mob. The first meeting of the Massachusetts State Council of Colored Americans convened on the 2nd of January 1854 at Leonard A. Grimes' Twelfth Baptist Church in Southac Street. The first fraternal organization established by city blacks, and one destined to have a long and contentious history, was the fraternal order of Masons organized at the start of the War for American Independence. If the motive of the Army Masons was to embarrass their American brethren, their effort was all too successful. Unlike the fraternal and benevolent associations which drew their membership exclusively from Boston and functioned almost exclusively on the local level, association for the purpose of promoting the social and political equality of the race had, necessarily, to develop a state-wide organization.
