eBook

A Noble Fight

COREY D. B. WALKER

2008,2010

Overview

A Noble Fight examines the metaphors and meanings behind the African American appropriation of the culture, ritual, and institution of freemasonry in navigating the contested terrain of American democracy. Combining cultural and political theory with extensive archival research--including the discovery of a rare collection of nineteenth-century records of an African American Freemason Lodge--Corey D. B. Walker provides an innovative perspective on American politics and society during the long transition from slavery to freedom._x000B__x000B_With great care and detail, Walker argues that African American freemasonry provides a critical theoretical lens for understanding the distinctive ways African Americans have constructed a radically democratic political imaginary through racial solidarity and political nationalism, forcing us to reconsider much more circumspectly the complex relationship between voluntary associations and democratic politics._x000B__x000B_Mapping the discursive logics of the language of freemasonry as a metaphoric rendering of American democracy, this study interrogates the concrete forms of an associational culture, revealing how paradoxical aspects of freemasonry such as secrecy and public association inform the production of particular ideas and expressions of democracy in America.

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Subject: African American freemasonry / African American freemasonry -- History / African American freemasons / African American freemasons -- History / African American Studies / Ethnic Studies / History / Political Science / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology
• ISBN: 9780252033650, 0252033655, 9780252092770, 0252092775