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

The Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, also known as the Colored Knights of Pythias or the Knights of Pythias, was a fraternal organization in the United States. The Knights of Pythias, founded in 1864, did not allow African Americans and so this group formed on its own. The organization was established in Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1880 by Thomas W. Stringer, along with Thomas M. Broadwater, A. E. Lightfoot, George A. Place, W. D. Starks, Claybourne Julian.

The organization followed the organizational structure of many other fraternal organizations with a national Supreme Lodge, Grand Lodges at the state level, and local lodges regionally. The organization provided its members death and sick benefits.

History
The organization's initial title the Knights of Pythias of North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceanica was later changed to Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. There are competing accounts for how the original group of Thomas W. Stringer, Thomas M. Broadwater, A. E. Lightfoot, George A. Place, W. D. Starks, Claybourne Julian, learned the rituals from the Knights of Pythias, which barred Black men from joining. Descriptions range from some of the men who could pass as white joining the white organization and then bringing the rituals back or a white Knights of Pythias sharing the rituals with Thomas W. Stringer and the others. The first lodge formed was named Lightfoot Lodge, No. 1, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The organization quickly spread under Thomas W. Stringer's leadership.

Order of Calanthe, the women's auxiliary to the Knights of Pythias, was established in Louisiana in 1883 and was open to family of Knights of Pythias members. Calanthe was wife of Pythias in the Greek legend Damon and Pythias.

A lawsuit was filed in Georgia challenging the organization's use of the Knights of Pythias name and paraphernalia. The suit was a focus of concern at the group's National Convention held in Kansas City, Missouri in 1909. The white Pythians of Georgia finally lost in 1912 and both groups were allowed to use the name.

The group had strong membership in Florida. The Florida organization required membership to pay poll taxes and register to vote. In Quincy, Florida, this drew the ire of the Ku Klux Klan and the group's lodge was burned, and several members murdered.

In 1891, the Supreme Lodge paraded through New York City with a contingent of seven hundred Sir Knights in full uniform.

In 1905, there were eight lodges in New York state and 340 members. The New York branch's second annual convention in the state was held in Brooklyn. The Grand Lodge of Michigan was organized on September 22, 1922, in Detroit, Michigan, with J. Will Cooper as the first Grand Chancellor.

Buildings
Chicago was chosen for the Supreme Temple in 1906.

Frank Hunter was chosen to design a Grand Lodge by the group's Indianapolis branches. It was dedicated in 1911 and remains standing at 701-703 North Senate. The Indianapolis Recorder was a tenant.

A former lodge in Waxahachie, Texas is now home to Ellis County African American Hall of Fame Museum and Library.

Other buildings

 * Supreme Lodge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
 * New Granada Theater in Pittsburgh designed by Louis Bellinger
 * Pythian Bathouse and Sanitarium in Hot Springs, Arkansas (1914)
 * Pythian National Temple in Chicago (1928) designed by Walter T. Bailey
 * Pythian Temple in New Orleans, Louisiana (1908)
 * Knights of Pythias Temple (Dallas, Texas)
 * Four lodges in Austin, Texas
 * LaVilla Pythian building in Jacksonville, Florida

Notable members

 * Smith Wendell Green (1860-1946), Fifth Supreme Chancellor
 * Chester W. Keatts
 * L. B. Kinchion Sr., Grand Chancellor
 * Robert F. Boyd
 * Samuel W. Starks
 * Thomas W. Stringer
 * Benjamin L. Hooks
 * John Mitchell Jr. of the Richmond Planet
 * George P. Stewart of the Indianapolis Recorder
 * Oscar W. Adams Sr. of the Birmingham Reporter
 * Louis Armstrong
 * James A. Merriman
 * W. C. Handy
 * Miles Dewey Davis Jr.
 * Henry Alvin Cameron
 * Don S.S. Goodloe
 * Matthew W. Bullock
 * Walter T. Bailey
 * George Edwin Taylor
 * T. Gillis Nutter
 * A. Maceo Smith
 * Dan Desdunes
 * William R. Pettiford
 * Butler R. Wilson
 * Jacob C. White Jr.
 * Chester W. Keatts
 * Edward W. Pearson Sr.
 * Paris Simkins
 * Joseph Monroe
 * William Thomas Jefferson
 * James A. Merriman
 * Edward D. Green
 * Charles Victor Roman
 * A. Wilberforce Williams
 * Oscar W. Adams Sr.
 * Sumner Alexander Furniss

Publications

 * Constitution and By-laws of the Grand Lodge Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia (1912)
 * Constitution and Grand Statutes of the Grand Lodge Colored Knights of Phythias (1921)
 * The New York Public Library has a collection of their files.
 * Sheet music for a minstrel song about the group on grand parade was published in 1882. It was dedicated to Edward Harrigan.

Additional sources

 * The History and manual of the Colored Knights of Pythias N.A., S.A., E.A., A. and A by E. A. Williams, Smith W. Green; Joseph L. Jones; Knights of Pythias, Supreme Lodge.; National Baptist Publishing Board in Nashville, Tennessee was published in 1917.


 * In 2012, The Alabama Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia; A Brief History by Marilyn T. Peebles was published.