During the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, Elks Hart Lodge No. 640 in Greenwood was one of the Delta’s most important rhythm and blues venues. Particularly during segregation, fraternal organizations such as the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks of the World, commonly known as the black Elks, were central to African American political, cultural, and social life and played an important role in the Civil Rights movement. Formed in 1898 in Cincinnati, Ohio, by African Americans excluded from the white Elks organization, the IBPOEW had established twelve lodges in eight states, including Mississippi, by 1899, and founded the Daughters of the IBPOEW in 1902. African American railway workers, especially Pullman Porters, helped form new black Elks chapters, particularly in the South, and Mississippi state presidents from the Greenwood chapter included Edward V. Cochran, W. J. Bishop, and Bertrand Antoine, all Past Grand Exalted Rulers. When most hotels, auditoriums, and halls were closed to African Americans, black Elks lodges provided vital spaces for social, political, and economic gatherings, alongside similar African American chapters of the Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Knights of Columbus, and Shriners. Organized around the principles of Charity, Justice, Brotherly and Sisterly Love and Fidelity, the black Elks were deeply involved in advancing and teaching economic and civil rights. In 1927 the IBPOEW created a Civil Rights Commission whose work helped establish a legal framework for later protests during the civil rights era. In Greenwood, civil rights activist and Elk member Cleveland Jordan arranged for the Elks hall to serve as the first meeting place for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee upon its arrival in Greenwood in 1962. As part of SNCC’s voter registration campaign, freedom songs were taught there, usually drawn from religious traditions but sometimes based on rhythm and blues hits. The IBPOEW, the largest black fraternal organization, also played an important role, along with chapters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, in providing venues for touring blues and R and B artists, with members encouraged to sell tickets to ensure high turnouts. From the 1940s through the ’90s, performers at the Greenwood lodge included B. B. King, T-Bone Walker, Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, Percy Mayfield, Little Junior Parker, Roy Brown, Ruth Brown, Bobby Blue Bland, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Big Mama Thornton, Memphis Slim, Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Little Milton, the Drifters, Clyde McPhatter, Johnny Ace, the Five Royales, Solomon Burke, Brook Benton, Ivory Joe Hunter, Smiley Lewis, Etta James, Charles Brown, Ernie K-Doe, Bobby Rush, Lee Shot Williams, and Chick Willis.
