'REMEMBERING ARKANSAS : Mosaics’ helping hand reached out from Ninth Street'
TOM W. DILLARD

Recent news reports tell of renewed efforts to save a building significant to the history of black Arkansans — the Mosaic Templars of America headquarters at the southwest corner of Ninth Street and Broadway in Little Rock. The imposing structure has been boarded up for decades, and a casual observer would never know that the building was a seedbed of black social and entrepreneurial history.
   The end of the Civil War in 1865 ushered in a time of great change and renewal among black Americans. A whole new black society was being created. Huge numbers of former slaves abandoned the farms where they had lived and headed for urban areas. Families divided by the cruel practices of slavery were reunited. Black businesses were opened. Teachers began the herculean task of educating an illiterate population. Black churches — even whole new denominations — sprang up across Arkansas and the South.
   The freedmen lost little time in developing their own fraternal organizations. On May 24, 1883, John E. Bush, Chester W. Keatts and W.L. Arrington, three leaders of the Little Rock black community, went to the Pulaski County Courthouse to file the charter of the Mosaic Templars of America.
   The main purpose of the group was "to unite fraternally all persons of good moral character of every profession, business and occupation." Another purpose was "to give all possible moral and material aid in its powers to members... by holding instructive and scientific lectures, by encouraging each other in business and assisting each other to obtain employment, but [it] shall not interfere with religious or political opinions of any of its members."
   The charter also hints at the insurance programs that would eventually become the primary emphasis of the Mosaic Templars. Before the development of their own fraternities and insurance companies, black Americans were normally denied insurance coverage. Indeed, Bush recalled later in life that it was the sight of a black woman begging on the street for money to bury her husband that sparked his desire to create the Mosaic Templars in the first place.
   At first the fraternity grew slowly. Their first Grand Lodge meeting, in September 1883, attracted fewer than 20 members. Later that same year, however, a local black newspaper reported that "the society seems to be taking [off] like wildfire among the people." In 1887 the group spread beyond Arkansas when a lodge was established in Alabama. With the coming of the new century, the Mosaics spread beyond the borders of the United States. In 1921 membership stood at 133,315, with lodges in 26 states, Central and South America, and the West Indies. A newspaper, The Mosaic Guide, was sent to all members, making it one of the larger periodicals in Arkansas history.
   The order built its international headquarters in Little Rock in 1911. A white Little Rock architect, Frank W. Blaisdell, designed the building and oversaw construction. Blaisdell practiced as an architect and landscape architect, and he designed the original landscape plan for the state Capitol grounds.
   The new headquarters, four floors high and built of red brick, was in the heart of Little Rock’s black business and social district. Another Arkansas-based fraternity, the Knights and Daughters of Tabor, had a headquarters four blocks west of the Mosaics building. Historic Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church stood diagonally across the intersection. Within 10 years, two additions buttressed the headquarters, one of which contained a small hospital for members. Only one of the two additions survives.
   During World War I the Mosaics bought more than $100,000 in Liberty Bonds, one of the larger sales in the state. Most of their financial resources went into providing burial insurance for members. The Mosaics not only gave the deceased a decent burial, they provided large gravestones, which stand today in cemeteries throughout the land.
   The great flu epidemic of 1918 resulted in so many unexpected claims that the Mosaic Templars faced insolvency, but they survived. The organization was not so lucky when the Great Depression struck in 1929. Income plummeted as membership declined and insurance policy sales dwindled with each passing month.
   Soon the Mosaic Templars of America were bankrupt, and their headquarters was sold. In the ensuing years a string of businesses have operated out of the building, but it has been vacant for more than 20 years. The structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
   Maybe someday soon Arkansans and tourists alike can walk into the Mosaic Templars headquarters and once again be reminded of the former slaves who joined together to build a better life for themselves and their descendants. Tom W. Dillard is curator at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies of the Central Arkansas Library System.