On February 2, 2022, Frank Figgers presented “Stories and Secrets: A History of the Stringer Grand Lodge” as part of the History Is Lunch series.
The masonic temple was designed by the Jackson firm of N.W. Overstreet and Associates and is named is named in honor of Thomas W. Stringer, founder of Prince Hall Masonry in Mississippi, who served as Grand Master from 1867 to 1893. When the building was dedicated on May 30, 1955, civil rights activist and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall delivered the keynote address. The lodge has since been the headquarters of Prince Hall Masonry and the Mississippi branch of the NAACP.
“From its earliest days this space has served as a vital hub for the community, providing space for a credit union, bank, life insurance offices, clothing stores, and the Mississippi Free Press,” said Figgers. “During the early years of the Civil Rights Movement when no other locations were available, the temple’s large auditorium was used for meetings, programs, and even training sessions in nonviolent protest.”
On June 15, 1963, an overflow crowd of mourners gathered at the building for the funeral of Medgar Evers and included such dignitaries as Ralph Bunche, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and Dick Gregory.
Frank Figgers grew up in the Georgetown community in Jackson. After graduating from Tougaloo College in 1971 he worked with the Jackson Human Rights Project, where he helped develop the Georgetown Liberation School, which originated as an after-school program before developing into a state-accredited elementary school. Figgers has been a strategy consultant for One Voice Inc., a nonprofit focused on voting rights and education. He has served on the board for the Young People Project of Jackson and as vice chairman of the board of directors of the Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement. Since 2018 he has served on the board of directors for Jackson Public Schools.
History Is Lunch is sponsored by the John and Lucy Shackelford Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation for Mississippi. The weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History explores different aspects of the state's past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building at 222 North Street in Jackson.
