May 24 …

The Mosaic Templars of America, one of the most influential Black American fraternal organizations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was founded in Little Rock, AR in 1882 by John E. Bush and Chester W. Keatts.

Formally incorporated in Arkansas on May 24, 1883, the Mosaic Templars emerged at a time when African Americans were excluded from white insurance companies, banks, and civic institutions. The order provided mutual aid, life insurance, burial benefits, and economic opportunities to Black communities across the South and Midwest.

John E. Bush, a former enslaved man who became a prominent businessman, newspaper editor, and political leader, helped guide the organization’s rapid growth. Chester W. Keatts, also formerly enslaved, provided administrative leadership and organizational structure during the organization’s formative years. Together, they built the Mosaic Templars into a network that emphasized racial self-help, thrift, education, and moral discipline. By the early 20th century, the organization reportedly had tens of thousands of members across multiple states and was one of the nation’s largest Black fraternal insurance societies.

The Mosaic Templars’ core operations consisted of several departments: endowment, monument, analysis, uniform rank, recapitulation, records, and a juvenile division. The monument department provided each deceased member with a custom-made Vermont marble grave marker engraved with the MTA symbol. Many of these headstones can still be found in cemeteries across Arkansas and the Southeast.

The organization included insurance and endowment divisions that provided sickness and death benefits, as well as burial benefits, to members and their families. It also organized youth auxiliaries, women’s divisions, ceremonial branches, and educational initiatives to promote racial advancement and community leadership.

Publications sponsored by the organization encouraged business development, civic participation, and racial pride. Through these departments, the Mosaic Templars functioned not only as a fraternal society but also as an organization that provided important economic and social support to African Americans.

In 1911, the organization built its National Grand Temple headquarters on property acquired at West Ninth and Broadway Streets in Little Rock, at the heart of a flourishing African American commercial district. The four-story structure was designed by local engineer and architect Frank M. Blaisdell, and construction was overseen by the Windham Brothers Construction Company of Birmingham, AL.

The firm’s principals, Thomas C. and Benjamin L. Windham, were experienced builders responsible for notable projects throughout the South, including Birmingham’s famous Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The cornerstone of the National Grand Temple was laid on May 18, 1913, and the building was completed on October 15 of that year. During the dedication ceremony, educator Booker T. Washington addressed a racially integrated audience of more than 2,000, with additional spectators gathered outside.

The headquarters building became one of the most important centers of Black professional and civic life in Arkansas. The ground floor housed retail establishments, including the well-known Foster’s Drug Store, operated by Dr. William O. Foster. The second floor housed offices for the Mosaic Templars and other Black professionals — including attorneys, dentists, insurance agents, and real estate brokers — along with a local office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The building’s auditorium and balcony hosted political meetings, dances, graduations, concerts, fraternal gatherings, and community celebrations, making it an important social and cultural center during the era of segregation.

The Mosaic Templars’ decline accelerated during the Great Depression, as financial instability and changes in insurance regulation weakened many Black mutual aid societies. Increased competition from commercial insurers further eroded membership in the mid-20th century. Although the national organization eventually ceased operating as a major fraternal insurer, some affiliated lodges reportedly continued limited ceremonial activities for several decades afterward.

The National Grand Temple later housed a variety of tenants before falling into disrepair and was ultimately demolished in 2005. Its legacy, however, endures through the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, which preserves the history of the Mosaic Templars of America and the broader story of African American enterprise and community life in Arkansas.

About The Photo:

• Mosaic Templars Cultural Center at Ninth Street and Broadway in Little Rock, AR. (photo by Courtvonderhaas)

Selected Sources:

• Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “Mosaic Templars of America.” Central Arkansas Library System.
• Nancy A. Williams. “African American Fraternal Organizations in Arkansas: The Mosaic Templars of America.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 56, no. 2 (1997): 123–145.
• Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau. “Mosaic Templars Cultural Center History.” Little Rock, AR.
• John William Graves Jr., Town and Country: Race Relations in an Urban-Rural Context, Arkansas, 1865–1905. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1990.