Editing Albert Pike (section)

=== Racism ===
In the aftermath of the Civil War, as former Confederates found themselves barred from the ballot box, Pike remained deeply opposed to [[black suffrage]], insisting that "the white race, and that race alone, shall govern this country. It is the only one that is fit to govern, and it is the only one that shall."<ref name="Brown439-442">{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Walter Lee |title=A life of Albert Pike |publisher=University of Arkansas Press |year=1997 |isbn=1557284695 |location=Fayetteville |pages=439–442}}</ref>

Regarding membership in the Freemasons, Pike is quoted as saying, "[[Prince Hall Lodge]] was as regular a Lodge as any Lodge created by competent authority. It had a perfect right to establish other Lodges and make itself a Mother Lodge. I am not inclined to meddle in the matter. I took my obligations from white men, not from negroes. When I have to accept negroes as brothers or leave masonry, I shall leave it. Better let the thing drift."

His attitudes towards African-Americans may have changed towards the end of his life. A 1945 letter written by Willard W. Allen, the Sovereign Grand Commander of the United Supreme Council, S.J. [[Prince Hall Freemasonry|Prince Hall Affiliation]] noted that "what practically all Masonic scholars know very well, viz., that in the closing years of General Pike's Masonic career, he became a very staunch friend of Negro Masonry."<ref name ="de Hoyos">de Hoyos, Arturo (1996) "On the Origins of the Prince Hall Scottish Rite Rituals", ''Heredom: The Transaction of the Scottish Rite Research Society'' vol. 5 Washington, D.C.: Scottish Rite Research Society, pp. 52–53</ref> Pike had become a personal friend of Thornton A. Jackson, Supreme Grand Commander of the United Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction, Prince Hall Affiliation and even gifted to Thornton his complete set of rituals for Prince Hall Scottish Rite Masonry to use.<ref>{{Cite web|date=November 26, 2012|title=Albert Pike did not found the Ku Klux Klan|url=https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/kkk.html#014|url-status=live|website=Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A.M.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011025000123/http://freemasonry.bcy.ca:80/anti-masonry/kkk.html |archive-date=October 25, 2001 }}</ref>