Over the years, since 1784 AD, many men have found solace and brotherhood in the great fraternity of Freemasonry. Listed below are just a mere few of the distinguished African-American brothers who have passed througth the South Gate over the years.
- Bro. Garrett A. MorganSr. Inventor of traffic light and gas mask
- Bro. Robert AbbotFounder of the Chicago Defender
- Bro. Richard Allen – Founder/first Bishop of the A.M.E. Church
- Bro. Alexander T. Augusta – First African-American to head a hospital in the U.S
- Bro. Marion Barry – Former Mayor of Washington, D.C.
- Bro. William “Count” Basie – Orchestra leader/composer
- Bro. James J.G. Bias – Founder of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee
- Bro. Henry Blair – First Black to receive a U.S. patent
- Bro. James Herbert – “Eubie” BlakeComposer/Pianist
- Bro. Edward Bouchet – First Black to be elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society
- Bro. William Wells Brown – First Black to publish a novel
- Bro. Nathaniel “Nat King” Cole – Singer
- Bro. Ossie Davis – Actor/Director/Playwright
- Bro. Martin R. Delany – First Black to matriculate from Harvard Medical School/First Black Major in the U.S. Army
- Bro. W.E.B. DuBois – Educator/author/historian
- Bro. Alexander Dumas – Author
- Bro. Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington – Orchestra leader/composer
- Bro. Medgar Wiley Evers – Civil Rights leader
- Bro. James Forten – Abolitionist/manufacturer
- Bro. Timothy Thomas Fortune – Journalist
- Bro. Alex Haley – Author
- Bro. William C. Handy – Composer
- Bro. Matthew Henson – Explorer
- Bro. Benjamin L. Hooks – Former Executive Director of the N.A.A.C.P.
- Bro. Jesse Jackson – Founder of the Rainbow Coalition and Operation Push
- Bro. Maynard Jackson – First black mayor of Atlanta
- Bro. John H. Johnson – Publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines
- Bro. Jack Johnson – First Black heavyweight boxing champion in U.S
- Bro. Absalom Jones – First Black Priest in the Episcopal Church in U.S.
- Bro. Dr. Ernest Everett Just – One of the founders of Omega Psi Phi and renowned zoologist
- Bro. Don King – Boxing promoter
- Bro. Lewis Howard Latimer – Inventor of the carbon filament for light
- Bro. Thurgood Marshall – Former Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
- Bro. Benjamin E. Mays – Former President of Morehouse College
- Bro. Leon M’Ba – First President of the Republic of Gabon
- Bro. Kweisi Mfume – Former Executive Director of the N.A.A.C.P.
- Bro. Richard Pryor – Comedian/Actor
- Bro. Alexander Pushkin – Poet/Novelist/Playwright
- Bro. A. Philip Randolph – Founder and First President of the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
- Bro. Charles Rangel – U.S. Congressman
- Bro. Joseph Jenkins Roberts – First President of the Republic of Liberia
- Bro. “Sugar” Ray Robinson – Former mid/light heavyweight boxing champion
- Bro. Arthur A. Schomburg – Historian/Author
- Bro. Rev. Al Sharpton – Civil Rights Advocate
- Bro. Carl B. Stokes – First Black Mayor of Cleveland, OH
- Bro. Louis Stokes – Former U.S. Congressman
- Bro. David Walker – Author of “David Walker’s Appeal
- Bro. Booker T. Washington – Educator and Fonder of the Tuskegee University/Institute
- Bro. Daniel Hale Williams – First surgeon to perform open heart surgery
- Bro. Bert Williams – Actor/Comedian
- Bro. Granville T. Woods – Inventor
- Bro. Andrew Young – Former Mayor of Atlanta and U.N. Ambassador
- Bro. Lawrence Douglass Wilder – The First Black elected Governor in this country from Virginia.
