Thomas W. Stringer (1815–1893) was an American Christian minister in the A.M.E. Church, state senator in Mississippi, Prince Hall Mason, and the founder of the Knights of Pythias of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
[3][4] Stringer was born in Maryland,[1] and raised in North Buxton, Ontario, a settlement of Black Canadians.
[6] Stringer was Union League organizer and credited as the founder of the Mississippi Republican party.
[5] Stringer became a leader in the Prince Hall Freemasonry world and had a lodge in New Orleans, Louisiana named after him.
Known as the "father of black Masonry in the South," he founded lodges in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas.