Promotional Information

A critical investigation into the associational culture of African American freemasonry

Table of Contents

Preface: A Note on Freemasonry   vii
Acknowledgments   ix
Introduction: Secret Rites, Public Power   1
1. The Specter of Democracy   23
2. A Cartography of Democracy   45
3. Ritual and Revolution   86
4. A New Political Ideology   128
5. The Democratic Uses of Ritual and Secrecy   175
Epilogue: Race, Ritual, and the Struggle for Democracy in America   219
Notes   227
Index   281

About the Author

Corey D. B. Walker is an assistant professor in the department of Africana Studies at Brown University.

Reviews

"Walker's attention to freemasonry expands the terrain of analysis of black civil society. His retelling of the story of the beginning of the association - foregrounding the black Atlantic context - recasts how scholars in the field think of the Masons and their place in African American history. Superb scholarship." Eddie S. Glaude Jr., author of In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America