The Panorama of African American Fraternal Federations

Byeagerly organizing fraternal groups, African Americans laidtheir own claim to a type of voluntary membership association thatwas central to the workings of U.S. civil society and politics from themid-1800s to the middle of the twentieth century. African Americansorganized large numbers of translocal fraternal federations duringthe same eras that similar organizations were built by native whitesand immigrant ethnic groups. In some instances, African Americanscreated fraternal groups that paralleled major white organizations;in others, they created entirely distinctive fraternal federations. Bothtypes of African American fraternal orders made important marks onU.S. civil society, and the stories of the most prominent parallel anddistinctive orders are fascinating and well worth telling—set againstthe backdrop of an overview of the larger range of African Americanfraternal groups that existed in the same eras