[African Americana]: [Louisiana]: [Knights of Pythias]:

We Want Men from 18 to 55 Years. Do You Want to Join a Good Lodge? The Doors Are Opened for You That Will Never Be Opened Again... [caption title and first lines of text].

Shreveport: The Service Print Shop, July, 1926. Broadside, 12 x 6 inches. Old folds, small chip to upper corner, noticeable soiling and staining. Good. Item #5509

An unrecorded broadside advertising a membership drive for the Damon Grand Lodge of the Knights of Pythias of the Universe in Shreveport, Louisiana in the midst of the Roaring Twenties. The text asks, "Do you want to join a Good Lodge?" before asserting that this present membership drive is a unique opportunity: "The doors are opened for you that will never be opened again." The text then relays the price for membership, $3.50 and then fifty cents per month, and details some of the potential benefits of joining the Knights: "We Pay $3 Per Week Sick Benefit, $50 Burial and a $300 Policy." The broadside is signed in type at the bottom by B.L. McElroy, Grand Chancellor of the Damon Grand Lodge. Interestingly, the Damon Lodge was located 10511/2 Texas Avenue in Shreveport; the present broadside was printed by the Service Print Shop on the same street, at 1009 Texas Avenue. As such, the print shop was most likely a Black-owned-and-operated enterprise. Another interesting note -- near the bottom, several individuals are named as contacts for prospective new members, mainly pastors and doctors; most of these men also reside or work on Texas Avenue. A decidedly ephemeral and hyper-local advertisement for a Shreveport lodge of the Knights of Pythias, with no copies in OCLC or anywhere we could think to check.

Price: $850