En: Samuel Gompers

Shown here is his statue in Samuel Gompers Memorial Park on Massachusetts Avenue between 10th and 11th Streets in the District.

Samuel Gompers

Source: Federal Masonic Lodge No. 1

Brother Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor, was raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason on this date in 1904 in Dawson Lodge No. 16 (now National-Stansbury-Dawson No. 12) in the District of Columbia, and was elevated to the 32º in the Scottish Rite Valley of Washington on February 10, 1906. One year after his death in 1924, Samuel Gompers Lodge No. 45 was chartered in D.C.

In his autobiography, he wrote, "In my Masonic life I have visited lodges in many lands, and I have learned that Freemasonry in many countries, particularly in Latin countries, is the principal means whereby freedom of conscience, of thought, and expression is preserved."