[FRATERNAL BANNER]. WELCOME MOOSE. P.A.P LOYAL ORDER OF MOOSE

No place [Ohio]: Hand printed textile, 1950. Ephemera no binding. Very good +. [PRINTED TEXTILE] [RACIST HISTORY]. 35" x 36"; silk-screened in red on natural colored cotton background, some off-setting of red print; very good plus. This particular banner was acquired from the auctioning of a lodge that was closing in Ohio. Banner for the international fraternal group known as the Loyal Order of Moose. The acronym P.A.P. on the banner stands for Purity, Aid, and Progress. Loyal Order of Moose is a fraternal organization founded in 1888 in Louisville, Kentucky, and later headquartered in Mooseheart, Illinois. As part of their community service, they maintain Mooseheart Child City and School, a community for children and teens in need, and a retirement community for its members in Florida. They also support sports and recreational programs on a local level.

This fraternal order has a long documented history of racial discrimination that extends into the 1990s. Its original bylaws read in part, "The membership of lodges shall be composed of male persons of the Caucasian or White race above the age of twenty-one years, and not married to someone of any other than the Caucasian or White race ..." Section 71.1, purportedly now repealed.