C. L. (Charles L.) Mitchell

Little biographical information is readily available about C. L. Mitchell beyond what appears with his book, but the published record does show that he was based in San Antonio, Texas, and identified himself as a high-ranking Masonic officer. His best-known work is The Early Introduction of Bogus Freemasonry in the United States of America and Texas Among Colored Masons, published in 1909 and later preserved by Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive.

That book is a forceful piece of historical argument. Drawing on proceedings, correspondence, and Masonic records, Mitchell set out to challenge what he saw as illegitimate strands of Freemasonry and to defend his understanding of proper lineage and authority among Black Masonic bodies. For listeners interested in fraternal history, African American organizational life, or early 20th-century debate writing, it offers a vivid window into a fiercely contested subject.

Because confirmed personal details are scarce, it is safest to remember him mainly through his writing: an author deeply involved in the institutional battles he described, and one whose work preserves a distinctive voice from that moment in American history.