33° certificate issued by the United Supreme Council to Richard Theodore Greener, 1896 September 8
Description:
A 33° certificate issued by the United Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree for Southern and Western Jurisdictions of the United States to Richard Theodore Greener, and dated September 8, 1896. Signed by Greener, John G. Jones, D.F. Seville, and Charles W. Newton. Richard Theodore Greener (1844-1922) was a prominent African American attorney, educator, diplomat, and Freemason. Among his many accomplishments, Greener was the first African American graduate of Harvard College, the dean of Howard University’s School of Law, a professor at the University of South Carolina, and the first U.S. Consul to Vladivostok, Russia. The United Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree for Southern and Western Jurisdictions of the United States was schismatic Scottish Rite group formed by black Chicago lawyer John G. Jones and others in 1895. The date of Greener’s 33rd degree certificate coincides with his arrival in Chicago and his involvement with the National Republican Committee’s National Colored Bureau in the 1896 presidential campaign for Republican nominee William McKinley.
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