Share
By Carl H. Moneyhon |
Jan 1, 2008
The Mosaic Templars of America, started in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1882, was an important African American organization typical of many others that attempted to promote racial unity and uplift during the era from its founding into the early twentieth century. The Mosaics reflected the goals and aspirations of its two middle-class founders—both of whom had been born in slavery—particularly their desire to encourage economic and social progress among blacks. John
E.
Bush, a teacher and school principal who became a prominent Republican politician and officeholder, was one founder. In the 1880s he was the clerk-in-charge of the office of the railway postal service. Bush originated the Mosaics in response to white criticism of Little Rock blacks who had failed to save enough money even to bury family members. He found support in his efforts from a clerk in the postal service, Chester
W.
Keatts. Like Bush, Keatts was active in local Republican politics at the time.A major activity of the Mosaic Templars was promoting savings among African Americans. To accomplish that end the organization provided life-insurance policies that initially paid up to $500. Members paid modest fees in addition to their dues that went as payments for their policies. Insurance was not the central purpose of the Mosaics, however. Bush and Keatts wanted the group to provide members with moral uplift, education, assistance in finding employment, and even support for members’ businesses. A history of the order published by itself in 1924 indicates that Mosaic activities ultimately aimed at encouraging African Americans to have greater faith in themselves. The founders saw themselves as racial leaders whose role was to elevate the race socially, morally, intellectually, and financially. The ritual of the organization, written by Bush and Keatts and not drawing on the rituals of other secret organizations, reflected this perceived role. Bush and Keatts chose the life of Moses as the ritual's basis, observing that because the condition of African Americans resembled that of the biblical children of Israel, the story of Moses offered the best exemplar for those who wished to improve their situation.The ideas of the Mosaics and an aggressive recruiting policy produced a steady growth in membership and an early expansion beyond Little Rock. By 1895 the order had twenty-seven Temples in Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and Tennessee, numbered approximately twenty-five hundred members on its rolls, and produced an annual income of about $3,000. By 1905 the membership had increased to nearly five thousand, and local Temples listed assets of $15,000.An even greater spurt in development took place after 1905. In that year, responding to the increasing business of the National Temple, Mosaic leaders embraced a states’ rights program and decentralized operations into virtually autonomous state-based Grand Temples. The National Grand Council maintained considerable control over local affairs, however, because charters, insurance policies, seals, and paraphernalia had to be purchased from the National Temple, and some dues still had to be sent to Little Rock. Under the new plan Grand Temples were incorporated in all the other southern states; in northern states including Missouri, Kansas, West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Nebraska, and the District of Columbia; and in the Caribbean and Central America. By 1924 the Mosaics counted 108,000 members in its Temples and its Chambers, the order's local chapters for women.The growth of the Mosaics allowed national leaders to engage in a variety of financial activities. In 1884 the annual meeting of the Grand Lodge authorized the incorporation of the Mosaic National Building & Loan Association. Its purpose was both to aid members in purchasing homes and in securing release from pressing mortgages and also to provide general financial aid. The association was financed through the sale of stocks. The association was a success, but Mosaic leaders never intended it to be permanent. They saw it as a means of increasing the financial resources of the organization. Achieving that goal, in 1895 they disbanded the Building & Loan Association, repaying all the stockholders.In 1911, based on an experiment by the Texas Grand Temple, the National Temple authorized the state Temples to issue policies for the purchase of monuments for the graves of deceased members. That year the Mosaics also created a juvenile insurance program, and the next year the organization added a burial insurance program. As with its life insurance program, the Mosaics funded these new efforts with assessments on all members to create a fund necessary to pay out benefits. Originally the monument and burial funds were managed at the state level, but in 1915 the National Temple assumed control over the funds in response to criticisms of state operations.Financial matters occupied much of the attention of the National Temple, but its leaders held on to their idea that the organization should provide more than economic assistance. In 1905 the organization added what it called the Uniform Rank Department, designed to instruct young Mosaic boys and girls in calisthenics, military drills, and strict discipline. The head of this department held the title of major general and had to be familiar with military drills. Mosaic leaders initiated this activity because they believed that military training was desirable for its physical and disciplinary value. Because most southern states would not allow blacks to join state guard units, the Mosaics responded by creating their own military department.In 1917 the Mosaics also attempted to provide medical assistance to its members. The Medical Department had been created in 1908 with the initial purpose of screening new members for health risks. In 1917 the Mosaics attempted to expand this operation into a full-scale health program. That year they purchased property in Hot Springs, Arkansas, for the construction of a hospital and sanatorium for members. This hospital was never constructed, but in 1927 the order opened the thirty-bed Mosaic State Hospital in an annex to the National Mosaic Temple in Little Rock. From 1929 -- 1932 the Mosaics operated a training school for nurses in this hospital.By the turn of the century national African American leaders recognized the Mosaics as an important self-help organization. John Bush rose to particular significance as a friend of Booker
T.
Washington's and a supporter of Washington's educational policies. Bush became a charter member of Washington's National Negro Business League and served on its national executive committee. He became a popular speaker at league meetings and ultimately was invited to deliver a commencement address at Washington's Tuskegee Institute. Washington, in turn, spoke in Little Rock in 1905 at Bush's invitation, then acknowledged the achievements of the Mosaics once again in 1913 when he spoke at the dedication of the order's new national headquarters at Little Rock.Although successful for five decades, the Mosaic Templars did not have the leadership or the resources to survive the deaths of their founders or the Great Depression. Chester Keatts led the organization as National Grand Master from its formation in 1882 until he died in 1908. Leadership was unsettled for a time after William
Alexander succeeded Keatts only to be assassinated by a disgruntled Kentucky Mosaic in 1913. His successor S.
J.
Elliott never achieved the stature of either Keatts or Alexander. John Bush—in many ways the real force behind the Mosaics—served as National Grand Scribe-Treasurer, controlling the assets of the order, from the beginning until he died in 1917. Bush's sons succeeded him but did not bring the same talents to the management of Mosaic affairs that their father had. In the 1930s they proved unable to keep the National Temple afloat when the economy collapsed.Despite the failure of the national organization, the states’ rights policies adopted by the Mosaics in 1905 meant that local Temples remained alive even after the failure of the National Temple. In the early twenty-first century a few of these remained active in the Caribbean. The organization also has had a continuing impact on Little Rock—though an impact probably never imagined by its founders. The auditorium in the national headquarters building continued to be a venue for entertainment into the 1950s when performers such as Ella
Fitzgerald and Cab
Calloway performed there. In 2001 the Arkansas legislature created the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center to be placed in the headquarters building, which the city of Little Rock had purchased so that it would be preserved. A disastrous fire in 2005 destroyed the building, but the reconstruction that began in 2006 will allow the site to still be home for the center.
[See also Benevolent Societies; Fraternal Organizations, African American; National Negro Business League; and Washington, Booker T.]
1
2
|
Next
Copyright © 2009 by Oxford University Press
0 COMMENTSON THIS ARTICLE
BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT
COMMENTING RULES & FAQ