The Alabama Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia
A Brief History
By (author) Marilyn T. Peebles
Not available to order
Publication date:
16 August 2012Length of book:
68 pagesPublisher
UPAISBN-13: 9780761858157
The Knights of Pythias fraternal organization was founded in 1865 by an Act of Congress. When African American men were denied membership, they created their own organization in Vicksburg, MS, in 1880. Its founder, Thomas Stringer, believed that fraternal organizations could provide the black community with business networks, economic safety nets, and political experience at a time when Jim Crow laws were being constructed all around them. In Birmingham, Alabama, these Pythians became the cornerstone of an African American business community that included the first black-owned and operated bank in the state. They provided burial, life, and disability insurance for members and became a source of civic pride and racial solidarity. When their right to exist was challenged, they took the case to the Supreme Court in 1912 and won. This strategy would be used decades later in Brown v. Board of Education.
Marilyn T. Peebles has reawakened our memories of the Pythian purpose: The aim of the Pythian Order is to put into the home a good husband and father, into the community a good neighbor, and into the state a good citizen.