Grand United Order of Odd Fellows Chart

Despite their celebration of brotherhood, fraternal groups were segregated in the 1800s. This symbolic chart is from the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, an African American counterpart to the Odd Fellows.

Peter Ogden, a Black sailor who had joined the Odd Fellows in England, founded the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in the United States in 1843. Ogden’s Lodge, the Philomethan Lodge No. 646 in New York City, was soon followed by other lodges. By the time Ogden died in 1852, there were 25 lodges in the eastern United States.

In Texas, Black men began forming lodges of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in the 1870s. They were especially active in cities like Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and Austin where several lodges built temples. The order still maintains a small presence in Texas today.