Temperance and racism1996

Temperance and Racism restores the Templars, now an almost forgotten footnote in American and British social history, to a position of prominence within the temperance movement. Lodge rituals, sociable evenings, and denunciations of drink attracted a largely youthful membership in North America and Britain. The group's ideology of universal membership made it unique among fraternal organizations in the late nineteenth century and led to pioneering efforts on behalf of equal rights for women.

The Templars' policy toward blacks, however, was more ambiguous.

Millions of women and men joined the order after the American Civil War, yet mounting tensions arose over membership for recently freed slaves. The organization split apart in 1876 when Templars in the American South, who wanted to...