Buried at: Union Cemetery, Charlotte Court House, Charlotte County, VA
James
Murray Jeffress and the Grand United Order of Moses
Sources: The
University of Virginia Library;
Organizing Black
America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations / David
M.Fahey;
Historical
Architectual Survey of Charlotte County, Virginia, Hill Studio, PC.
James Murray
Jeffress was
born in Charlotte County, Va. in 1873 to Conway and Eliza Brown
Jeffress. James graduated from Hampton
Institute with a
degree in teaching and went on to Howard University Divinity School in
Washington, D.C., where he graduated in 1901 and became an ordained
Baptist Minister. He served Charlotte
County as the Principal
in one of the county’s public schools and was dedicated to education
until his
death in 1951. The
Reverend James Murray Jeffress and his wife, Zena Wilson
Jeffress, also a teacher, were leaders
in the establishment of the Charlotte
Training
School in 1928, which later evolved into Central High School, to broaden educational opportunities. He
served his God as the Pastor of numerous churches in Halifax and
Charlotte
Counties.
“The
Grand United Order of Moses, Inc., was a
small fraternal insurance society for black men and women based in
rural
south-central Virginia. The founder and lifelong leader of the Order of
Moses
was James Murray Jeffress (1873–1951), who organized the society
in 1904 at his birthplace, the village of Charlotte Court House.
By 1900, white
Virginians had
disenfranchised blacks and had segregated schooling and public
transportation.
Jeffress, sometimes called "the Booker Washington of Charlotte
County," was an accommodationist who tried to make life tolerable for
his
fellow blacks without challenging white racists directly. Fraternal
societies
such as the Order of Moses offered a modicum of economic security
through
medical and funeral insurance. They also supplemented the churches as
black
organizations that whites were willing to tolerate. They were
organizations in
which African Americans could vote, hold office, and brighten their
drab lives
with the color and spectacle of regalia and ritual, impressive titles
and
fancy-dress parades, lodge meetings and funerals.
Even more than in
other
fraternal societies, a charismatic oligarch dominated the Order of
Moses:
Murray Jeffress. He depicted the origins of his society in
quasiprophetic
language. "It was in 1901 that I began having visions repeatedly. These
visions consisted of a single blackboard in which was chalked the
words: The
Grand United Order of Moses. After the third vision, I decided that I
would do
something about it." In 1904, the Order of Moses recruited 203 members,
and the society received a state charter. A few years later, it
acquired Moses
Hall as its headquarters. Jeffress took the title right worshipful
grand
leader.
A crisis in the
society
occurred when a black man, presumably instigated by whites, alleged
that the
Order of Moses had been organized to keep African Americans from
working for
white people. A prominent white man squelched this rumor by offering $
150 for
evidence in its support, evidence that never materialized. For his
efforts, the
Order of Moses made him an honorary member.
Jeffress resented
the
injustice of segregation and disenfranchisement, but he considered
small
economic advances the only realistic goals. "Let us teach every boy and
girl to build and not tear down. Teach them that being God-fearing,
property
owning and debt paying citizens is greater than being a voter or being
on
social equality with [a] king" (speech, August 1942, quoted in Kreusler
1952, p. 21). He encouraged his followers to buy farmland or learn a
vocational
trade.
Although Jeffress
opposed
urban migration, many rural black Virginians moved to northern cities.
As a
result, Order of Moses lodges appeared outside Virginia, mostly in
Pennsylvania
and New Jersey. Northern lodges unsuccessfully asked for the
headquarters to be
moved to Philadelphia, which they regarded as more convenient than
Charlotte
Court House, a village that at the time of Jeffress’s death had only
250
residents and neither a railroad station nor a bus stop.
The strength and
the weakness
of the Order of Moses was its identification with Charlotte Court House
and
Charlotte County. The order helped establish a high school there for
black
youth, provided bus transportation for the students, constructed and
equipped a
hospital building, and provided electrical service for the village. The
order
owned an auditorium that could accommodate four hundred people, an
office
building, and apartments for black schoolteachers. The society also
owned three
hundred acres of farmland worked by black sharecroppers.
As leader of the
Order of
Moses, Murray Jeffress became a respected figure in African American
life. He
was elected first vice president of the Negro Organization Society and
president of the Federation of Negro Fraternal Organizations. He served
a
number of Baptist churches as pastor.
At the time of
Jeffress’s
death in 1951, the Order of Moses claimed a little more than five
thousand
members. Apparently, his son Wilson became the society’s new leader.
How long
it continued to operate is unknown. In any event, the little Order of
Moses had
survived into the post—World War II era, an achievement that few
better-known
African American fraternal societies equaled.”
Source:
Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of
African American Associations / David M.Fahey
Moses Hall and the Grand United Order of
Moses Society
"The most far
reaching social
institution in Charlotte County was the Grand United Order of Moses
Society,
organized in 1904 by J. Murray Jeffress as a benevolent insurance
society to
meet the needs of the black race. Moses Hall in Charlotte Court House
served as
the national headquarters for this society as well as a social
gathering place
for the local black community. The annual three-day meetings held each
year
were a spectacular event drawing delegates and new initiates from
across the
country as well as entertaining the loc and a carnival. The current
structure
was built ca. 1925 for these gatherings.
In 1904, J. Murray
Jeffress
founded The Grand United Order of Moses as a way for black citizens to
obtain
insurance, while at the same time forming a social order similar to the
white
Masonic Lodge. The organization was large and had branches in many
states.
Moses Hall, a two and a half story vernacular brick building in
Charlotte Court
House, served as the national headquarters for this society as well as
a social
gathering place for the local black community. The three-day meetings
held each
year were a spectacular event, drawing delegates and new initiates from
across
the country as well as entertaining the local community with parades,
speeches
and a carnival.
The present brick
building
with stepped parapet was constructed ca. 1925, replacing the original
frame
building. The Grand United Order of Moses was an African-American
insurance
agency and fraternal institution, headquartered in Charlotte Court
House. The
fraternal organization held its annual initiation and meeting in August
at
Moses Hall where many vendors and patrons,
Black and white,
would gather
for the festivities. The activities included lectures and sermons,
games,
carnival rides, vendors, and a parade. This event was attended by
numerous
members from across the country, providing much excitement in the
community."
Source: Historical
Architectual Survey of Charlotte County, Virginia
Hill Studio, PC.
Va. Moses
Convention
Old
Time Picnic
(ANP) – In addition to 10,000 dele-
gates, friends, and
visitors,
there
were 700 whites in attendance
at the
27th annual meeting
here of the
Grand United Order of Moses, Inc.,
a fraternal organization.
The
Rev.
James Murray Jeffress, founder,
still
heads the order
as Right Worthy
Grand Ruler. The organization is li-
censed to operate in Virginia, Penn-
sylvania, West Virginia, New
Jersey,
and Kentucky. It
has assets
of
$200.000.
At the Charlotte Court House meet-
ing, all officers of the order
were re-
elected, including Mrs. M. A. Rags-
dale secretary. The meeting, which
continued three days, took the
form
of an old time picnic. All delegates
were housed and fed in
the dor-
mitories owned by the
organization.
The organization, which reported
new members
and several new
lodges, owns an office building,
a
brick auditorium, a small
hospital, a
power plant, and helped finance a
local brick school for children
of the
county. The county treasurer, G. W.
Williams (white), who has been an
honorary member for 27 years, was
present and spoke.
