On this day in 1930 Leon Roberts was jailed in Knoxville, Tennessee.
His crime? Wearing a Masonic pin when he wasn’t a Mason.
Roberts, from Alabama City, Alabama, was in Knoxville looking for work during the height of the Great Depression. After weeks of fruitless searching he was out of money and needed help. A sympathetic woman in the city sent him to see Dr. J. D. Henderson, who was known to assist those desperately in need.
After meeting the doctor, he asked Leon what he was wearing. He told him that it was a Masonic pin. After being told that, Dr. Henderson, who was himself a Mason, asked Roberts some questions only a Mason would be able to answer. When Mr. Roberts was unable to answer those questions correctly, the doctor informed him that he was a deputy sheriff and that he was placing him under arrest.
At that time it was illegal in Tennessee for anyone not a member of the Masons to pretend they were, and that included wearing an official Masonic pin. Unable to pay the fine (between $2.00 and $50.00), Leon Roberts was placed in jail by the judge.
