Trübner's American and Oriental Literary Record
Trübner's American and Oriental Literary Record

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1888

Total Pages: 486

ISBN-13:

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A monthly register of the most important works published in North and South America, in India, China, and the British colonies: with occasional notes on German, Dutch, Danish, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian books.

The Alabama Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia
The Alabama Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia

Author: Marilyn T. Peebles

Publisher: University Press of America

Published: 2012-08-16

Total Pages: 71

ISBN-13: 0761858156

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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.