M.W. Stringer Masonic Grand Lodge: A Diamond in the Historical Rough

The Lynch Street Corridor is a landmark of Mississippi's civil rights movement, centered around the historic M.W. Stringer Masonic Lodge that sheltered NAACP leader Medgar Evers. The lodge's legacy includes hosting civil rights pioneers like Ida B. Wells and Justice Thurgood Marshall, while continuing to serve as the NAACP's state headquarters today.

The Lynch Street Corridor is a historical treasure. From the hosts of deeply entrenched events at Jackson State University to the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) being the only headquarters created to unite advocacy groups during the Civil Rights Movement, Lynch Street is home to a plethora of significantly notable moments. M.W. Stringer Masonic Grand Lodge is a gem all on its own.

The lodge's namesake honors its founder, the Grand Master Thomas W. Stringer. He founded Prince Hall Masonry in Mississippi and served as Grand Master from 1867-1893. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall gave the initial address for the lodge, which has since been the headquarters of the Prince Hall Masonry. One of the facility's grandest contributions is that it was a safe haven for Medgar Evers, which became a permanent home for the Mississippi NAACP.

"What's most significant about the M.W. Stringer Lodge as it relates to the NAACP is two things: one, it was M.W. Stringer Lodge that paid for Ida B. Wells to go to the meetings when they were forming NAACP, and she was one of the founders," said Charles Taylor, Execute Director of the Mississippi NAACP. "Also, when they built the grand lodge on Lynch Street in 1955, they put in their bylaws that the NAACP would always have an office there rent-free."

That bylaw and lasting legacy holds strong. A little more than 70 years ago, Evers walked into the M.W. Stringer Lodge and occupied the same office where Taylor sits today. Evers served the NAACP as the first Field Secretary in Mississippi. That role is equivalent to Taylor's Executive Director position today: running the state office.

Taylor

There are about 13,000 masonic lodges in the U.S. alone, but none have the historical footprint left on the M.W. Stringer Lodge. As a 32nd-degree freemason and a member of Prince Hall Masonry, Evers' connection to the movement and the lodge was heavily supported by the community throughout his life. In 1963, when Evers was assassinated, an overflow crowd from Evers's funeral gathered at Stringer Lodge, but his legacy lives on in the Lynch Street corridor.

"When I think about sitting at my desk in the same office Medgar Evers sat at, I'm forever humble," Taylor said. "I'm humbled because of the level of comfort I get to have to be in this role and to be safe fighting for Black folks. That was not afforded to him. I'm also humble because he gave his life in the name of our organization and in the name of a better Mississippi. So each and every day, I try to do something to honor his legacy."

Author

Crystal McDowell

Crystal McDowell is the CEO of Marketing Maven Management, a marketing and communications firm created to ensure accurate and positive storytelling that includes people of color. She has a Mass Communication degree from Jackson State University and an MBA from Belhaven University. She has 18+ years of journalism, PR, and marketing skills, which she obtained working across the country. Her hobbies are traveling and storytelling.