Bright Hope Lodge No. 465
On the tenth day of November 1972, a Constitutional number of worthy Master Masons in and around the vicinity of Inman, Georgia in Fayette County received a petition to erect a Lodge under the jurisdiction of the Most Worshipful Smooth Ashlar Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Ancient York Masons Prince Hall Origin National-Compact. Those Master Masons were to wit: Willie Hand, Lee Hand, Donald T. Hand, Walter L. Forts Jr., James C. Gresham, Samuel Coggins, Marvin Hand, Russell Welch, Joe Stargell, Leroy Welch, Rufus Prayor, Curtis Cheney, H. L. Brooks, Charles Price, Sylvester Gay, McArthur Prayor and Kelley Charleston.
The first installed officers were: H. L. Brooks, Worshipful Master; Kelley Charleston, Senior Warden; Joe Stargell, Junior Warden
The warrant was signed by the following Grand Lodge officers: Hon. Benjamin Barton, MW Grand Master; Robert Colbert RW Grand Deputy Grand Master; Donald Summerlin, RW Grand Senior Warden; Lucious Napier, RW Grand Junior Warden; Charles E. Newman, RW Grand Treasurer and William T. Davis RW Grand Secretary.
In the year of 1847, R.W. Grand Master of the mother Grand Lodge of the city of Boston, Massachusetts , proposed to the Grand Lodge, that the several Grand Lodges of color in the United States be summoned to assemble in a General Grand Convention on the ensuing Saint John’s day, 24th of June, and then and there form a grand bond of union under a national head. The summons was sent calling for a National Convention in the city of Boston. The delegates from the several Grand Lodges met, accordingly, in convention, and formed a Grand Lodge under the title of “The M. W. National Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Ancient York Masons of Color, for the United States of North America, and the Masonic Jurisdiction thereunto belonging.
The first slate of officers were as follows: Hon. John T. Hilton MW National Grand Master; James Bird, RW National Deputy Grand Master; Enos Hall, RW National Grand Senior Warden; Emery Conikan, RW National Grand Junior Warden; William E. Ambush, RW National Grand Secretary; and James Newman, RW National Grand Treasurer.
From this point of the history of African American Freemasonry(1847), all Masonic Grand Lodge which claim lineage to African Lodge No. 459, the mother Lodge of African American Freemasonry, MUST trace their lineage through the Most Worshipful National Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Ancient York Masons Prince Hall Origin – National Compact.