Rev Jesse Jackson, who was made a Freemason by Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Illinois on May 25th, 1987, joined the brothers of Washington Lodge No. 21 and others masons to talk about racism and the importance of engaging people.
Close to 40 masons from the U.S., Canada and other places attended the Zoom conference that was held on October 31, 2020. Rev Jackson said that the discipline practiced in Masonic lodges helped him organize other parts of his life including his work on civil rights.
Rev Jackson was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. Senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He is widely acknowledged as one of the leaders of the civil rights movement.
Rev Jackson said that one of the things he loves about masonry is that it teaches that “life is sacrificial not transactional.”
“The core principles, the disciplines involved. We are spiritual is [a] discipline build into its concepts. So the idea of having one brother across […] race, gender, religion. That’s masonry. Life is sacrificial not transactional that’s masonry.”
To the question why he became a Freemason, Rev Jackson said that, ” In the South growing up, the men of masonry had stature and dignity and a sense of covenant with each other. I admire that very much. As I grew older and we […] work in Chicago, brothers came to me when I joined […] and to serve. So I remember that I served diligently.”