To honor them, he convened the five men’s temples and women’s tabernacles at a convention in 1872 to create the National Grand Temple and Tabernacle of the Order of Twelve, of Knights and Daughters of Tabor. After the war, the Knights of Tabor disbanded, and only seven of the original Knights of Liberty were left. Louis is majority Black.īut perhaps Dickson’s most important legacy remains in the Knights of Tabor. Yes, Moses Dickinson is one of the reasons St. When more than 16,000 formerly enslaved people decided to stay in Missouri on their way to Kansas as part of the Exoduster movement, Moses Dickson’s Refugee Relief Bord clothed and fed them. He helped create Missouri’s school system and recruited Black teachers. In 1866, he founded the Missouri Equal Rights League and Lincoln University of Missouri, the first historically Black college in the state. “If the War of the Rebellion had not occurred just at the time it did,” explained Dickson, “the Knights of Liberty would have made public history.”īut the bloodiest war in American history didn’t stop Dickson from becoming one of the most influential men in Black America. Instead, Dickson instructed his Knights to join the Union Army, and Dickson fought in 16 Civil War battles. Just as the Knights had moved into place and were waiting for word from “the Chief,” it became apparent war was imminent. We expected to have nearly 200,000 men when we reached Atlanta.” “ concentration of the forces was ordered at Atlanta, GA. “Plans were complete for a rising,” Dickson explained to the Denver Post in 1901. Dickson’s steamship pals had stolen small shipments of brand new firearms and distributed them across the country to “42,000 men drilled and well-armed,” while other sources put the number at somewhere between 47,240 and 150,000. The Beautiful Minds: The secret history of the Black Brain TrustĪfter operating in secret for years, the original Knights of Liberty knew it was time to make their move. When he heard that “no negro could escape” from America’s slave capital, Charleston, S.C., he and the Knights found a way around the well-guarded city by building a wooden box and mailing an enslaved man to freedom in Massachusetts, where he was eventually given refuge and educated at Harvard. He helped raise thousands for the Underground Railroad, even from slaveowners, and traveled the country assisting bondsmen to escape to freedom. Operating as a fraternal organization, the Knights of Tabor were involved in the abolition movement while serving as cover for the Knights of Liberty because, as Dickson explained in the Tabor handbook: “We know of the failure of Nat Turner and others, the Abolitionist in the North and East.”ĭickson and the Knights of Tabor’s first order of business were to radicalize the acquaintances he had met during his travels and free as many enslaved people as possible. In 1855, he created another organization, the Twelve Knights of Tabor, “for the purpose of aiding in breaking the bonds of our slavery.” This secret order was not connected with the Knights of Liberty it was created to “perpetuate the name” because too many white people had heard rumors about the Knights of Liberty. To keep his organization secret, Dickson came up with a brilliant move.
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