Featured Black Masons 1920's Jazz Club !

I try to stay away from exclamation marks in captions-but '!'. My Lady just found this yesterday-it's a 7 1/2" by 9 1/2" original photographic print of African-American Masons standing on the steps of what is identified (reverse) as-'Club Dumas...Tues noon'.
The only specific mention online I've found is of a Club Dumas -a Black Jazz Club opened 1918 in Seattle,WA. Alexander Dumas authored The Count of Monte Cristo & Three Musketeers.Dumas was mixed-race, with African ancestry and he was a lifelong Freemason (curious ?).
The inscription on 8 of 9 of the Masonic caps (fezzes) says- 'Menelik', the nearest 'Menelik Temple' related to Black Freemasonry ('Prince Hall Masons') is located in Oakland,CA.The Mason in the dead center (floppy cap) has different letters on his fez-'...SMAL' (Seattle Chapter ?).
In the 1920's a train trip between Oakland and Seattle would've been fairly easy.
PS-Any new info info or just speculation on the exact who,where and when of this scene would be greatly appreciated. Big thanks for looking !

 

That fir tree at the end of the porch doesn't look much like Oakland, CA. It seems there's also a Menelik Masonic Lodge in Lithonia, Ga. You can contact them here. And don't think a Masonic lunch club is going to have anything to do with a jazz club.

https://meneliklodge3.com/about-us

Debora

 

That written... Think you're right re Oakland as they're Shriners. c. 1940s photograph with the same fez insignia.

Debora

 

No web site but they do have a Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/Menelik36/

Debora

 

I was hoping you'd hop on this Debora-thanks.
The fir tree would be in Seattle,WA (conifer land) where this Dumas Club might be. Although as you said-not sure this is a jazz club, it does look like a house/social club (tea,coffee,etc). Haven't found any other refs to a U.S. Dumas Club (re Masons,Prince Hall,etc) though there must have been other Black venues named after Dumas.All I get are blasted references to the Polanski/Depp movie 'The Ninth Gate'.
PS-Do you think that might be a railroad line (or fence) in the background, and might that big building be a wherehouse ?
PSS-Also got to figure out what the other fellows fez may have embroidered on it-any guesses,all I can make out is '---SMAL' ?

 

He's in the center of the photo. Might be a guest visiting from another lodge. (Exchanges are big with the Masons.) If you could find a list of the Prince Hal Shriners chapters, you might be able to identify. Given the group was meeting on a weekday at noon, I do believe a lunch group. And remember, the motto of the Three Musketeers was "All for one and one for all, united we stand divided we fall." Very Masonic. The setting is hard to pinpoint. The building they're posing in front of does look residential but the building behind appears to be commercial. If I had to guess period, I'd think 1910s based on the high, stiff collars, the button boots the man in front is wearing and the age of the house. Could be a tad later though.

Debora

 

Yep-Gotta run down a complete list of all Prince Hall Shrine Chaps. They def don't look like afternoon partiers ?
We like that time frame-1910's maybe early 20's.
PS-Running down their particular P Hall Chapters seem the only logical trail to hit re location of this Club.The ultimate would be learning the name of even one member.

 

Whoa-In 1930 Louis Armstrong recorded "I'm a Ding Dong Daddy (From Dumas),” in California-weird.

 

Your photograph might be of interest to the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library in Lexington, MA -

https://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/africanamerican_fraternal_groups/

https://issuu.com/thenorthernlight-magazine/docs/the_northern_light_spring_2023/s/17970541

As an aside, Menelik is the name of the (legendary) first Solomonic Emperor of Ethiopia, a son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

 

Thanks @2manybooks ,I was just about to tag you-thanks for the leads !

 

I'm zero help in this but I'll take any excuse to post one of my absolute favorite portraits, of Alexandre Dumas père by Achille Devéria.



His father General Dumas was quite famous and a good namesake as well. I'd name a club after them too.

 

Mirana-Ditto ! I came across that portrait of a young Dumas and it's extraordinary. Do think it was pencil,conte' crayon,wash maybe ?
He put on a pound or two as he matured -course I don't linger front of the mirror much anymore either.

 

The following footnote is from this link. Reflections from 1930-32 by Louise Patterson & Langston Hughes ...
https://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/12918.ch01.pdf

15. Th e Alexander Dumas Club was a “colored” social and cultural arts club in San
Francisco that had close ties to prominent white socialites such as Noel Sullivan—who
would later become a devoted patron and friend of Langston’s. Louise was consciously trying to shed the pretensions of bourgeois society and her social ties to it—especially to Black
bourgeois society.

It may provide a path of search.

Also, the men pictured may just be likening themselves to a club of that name.

 

She describes the club as "new" in 1931.

Debora

 

Ah, think this might be it. Oakland Tribune has an article from August 1938 mentioning a Dumas Club. The web site is having trouble at the moment and can't display the image but here's a bit of text and the link.

"The candidacy of James Rolph

III was -endorsed by E B. Gray,

president of the Afro:American

league and by Dr. John Coleman.

president of the Dumas Club..."

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=OT19380...-193-en--20--1--txt-txIN-"dumas+club"-------1

Debora

 

I suspect "Dumas" was popular nomenclature in this era because the Douglas Fairbanks silent film The Three Musketeers debuted in 1921.

Debora

 

Excellent research Roaring, and there were probably dozens (or more) 'colored' Dumas Clubs across America. This may have been,as you suggested-been a nickname for this gathering of friends.
Yep Debora-the 1931 new establishment reference doesn't seem to fit the fashions of these 1910-1920 men (?).
Thanks hugely for the help !

BTW-Also really interesting historical read re: 1930's Depression-style wokefullness.
Just a snippet-"- a dinner for Diego Rivera...a terrible affair—stupid well fattened bourgeoisie...an old man who insisted upon trying to pat me on the knee. Jesus! Diego was more gross than ever in his dinner clothes—and his speech, trying to retain some proletarian phrases but set to the music of Hearts and Flowers... his debacle with the John Reed Club? He was denounced openly....
-when we are poor—we can eat beans together Lang—and have a swell time doing...don’t know how much longer I shall hold out but certainly not so very long—I mean hold out in bourgeois circles. I should fairly love to kick over the traces right now."
Amazing document of the time and of how some themes really don't change the way fashion does.

 

Amazing sleuthing Debora-your talents continue to amaze,topnotch !

 

Dumas was considered "colored" because his father's mother was a black Haitian slave.

 

Just sent pics and info to African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO)
Next communication will be with the Oakland Prince Hall Masonic organizations.