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Join us for a FREE, VIRTUAL program on Tuesday, November 9th at 2:30 p.m. EST
This presentation is one part personal memoir and one part technique instruction into a niche and often underutilized history that can bear unique fruit for the African American genealogist. This presentation will look at the historical importance and image of African American Fraternal records and organizational history and their ability to create a more complete historical narrative of individual ancestors and African American communities. With a specific emphasis on the history of the Prince Hall African American Masonic order and radiating emphasis on other similar groups, this presentation will highlight some of the narrative history that effected how African American communities functioned as well as how the modern day family historian can tap into this wealth of material to enrich the family narratives which they are already in the process of reconstructing. Presented by James R. Morgan III.
James R. Morgan III is a graduate of Howard University where he majored in Mass Communications and Africana Studies. He is a Prince Hall Freemason and currently serves as the Grand Historian & Archivist of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia. Mr. Morgan’s research primarily focuses on the African American fraternal experience in the nineteenth century and genealogy. He is the Chapter Archivist for the James Dent Walker Chapter of the African American Genealogical and Historical Society (AAHGS), and a member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALAH) as well as the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and the Sons & Daughters of the United States Middle Passage Hereditary Society (SDUSMP). Mr. Morgan is seated on the Advisory Board of the Bishop Henry McNeal Turner Project, a digital humanities project dedicated to the study of its namesake. Mr. Morgan has spoken at several major conferences including the International Black Genealogy Symposium, AAHGS National Conference and RootsTech.
He has penned and contributed to several published works including his highly acclaimed debut book The Lost Empire: Black Freemasonry in the Old West (1867-1906) which was awarded the 2019 Dr. Charles H. Wesley Medal of History and the 2020 Phillis Wheatley Book Award for Non-Fiction Biography. He has also served as an editor and consultant for several other book projects pertaining to African American history. Mr. Morgan can be found on YouTube as a panelist on both “The Prince Hall Think Tank” and “Black Pro Gen Live”. He currently serves as the Curation & Programming Consultant with the African American Civil War Museum. He is currently pursuing a Master of Arts from the African American Studies Program at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland where he also serves as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.
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