I have heard of at least one lodge around here that doesn't allow black members. I mentioned it to a fellow 'white' Mason from my lodge and they were as disgusted as I was to hear that. The reasoning was that black men in the U.S. aren't free born which is even more ridiculous. I told the guy that told me of this racist lodge " if their ancestors' misfortunes are causing them to not be considered free born, then wouldn't that mean anyone with Jewish or Native American blood are not considered free-born??" He just said, you're right. Therefore, pretty much nobody in the U.S. could be a Mason really.
I'm not going to stir the hornets nest at this point in my Masonic walk but I would imagine there is no actual evidence that they're being racist since where it's located, there aren't many black men that would even want to join that particular lodge. The problem is, if you consider it a problem, that when a blackball is placed in a ballot, the person does not have to justify why they voted against an individual therefore allowing these actions. I personally don't think you should have to justify voting for or against someone, but if any sort of racist levity is displayed or mentioned, I would say that member should be reprimanded and possibly removed from the fraternity for un-Masonic behavior. I would quit going to my lodge and demit if I ever heard any sort of racist rants or "i'm not voting for them due to skin color, religion, or even sexual preference" I would imagine as Masonic lodges get younger and younger, the race issue will continue to die off. We want black members in my lodge. I'd love to see a sea of different ethnicities, backgrounds and religions.
As for that particular lodge, it isn't doing too well anyways. The fellow that told me about it is a member but stopped going because the lodge had been injected with a toxic protocol of treating those that make mistakes on ritual like fools and more especially he stopped going because when he'd miss a meeting, one or two members were breaking his balls about it. That's not right either.