Furor Leaves Unclear Future for Elks Lodges, Blacks

Despite new voting rules that give blacks a better chance at membership in white-dominated Elks lodges, black community leaders in the San Fernando Valley said they expect that few will apply, especially after Van Nuys lodge members last week rejected two who did.

“I don’t think you’re going to find blacks running crazy to get into the organization,” said Jose De Sosa, president of the Valley branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and the NAACP’s state conference president. “The fact that those members voted to reject the black applicants makes me question their conscientiousness and sensitivity and humanitarian traits.”

But some Elks members say lodges in the Los Angeles area will have to start admitting more minorities if they are to survive in the ethnically mixed region.

“I don’t think Elks lodges are going to be around if they don’t have minority memberships,” said Dennis Keenan, a trustee of the Glendale Elks Lodge. “Minorities are going to be such a substantial portion of the population. To the extent lodges exist in that setting, they are going to have to reflect the population they are in.”

Voting Rules Changed

The rejection of applicants Jules S. Bagneris III and Thomas J. Montgomery occurred the same night that members of a Lompoc lodge voted to accept two blacks as members. The black members’ applications had been rejected by the Lompoc lodge when they first applied earlier this year.

In July, the Elks national membership decided that lodges would admit new members who could garner a two-thirds vote. Previously, it took only three opposing votes for a prospective member to be rejected.

Dan Davis, a spokesman for Los Angeles-area lodges, said it is impossible to predict if blacks will attempt to join in greater numbers now that the voting rules have changed.

“The lodges are open to anyone who wishes to apply, providing they are male, American citizens and believe in God,” Davis said. “That is the situation. It’s no different for blacks.”

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, as the organization is officially known, has about 2,300 lodges serving 1.5 million members nationwide, a spokesman for the national organization said. It raises funds for a number of charities and provides members with a variety of socializing opportunities.

Davis said he knows of no blacks who are members of Los Angeles-area lodges. He said a small number of Latinos and Asians are members. Exact figures are unavailable because the organization does not keep such statistics, he said.

Davis refused to disclose the number of members in Valley lodges and told a reporter that the issue of blacks applying for membership in Elks lodges was “none of your business.” There are lodges in Reseda, Burbank, Van Nuys, Glendale, San Fernando, Sunland-Tujunga and Canoga Park.

De Sosa said he expects that a small number of blacks will try to join Elks lodges to participate in the organization’s philanthropic activities. But it will be a long time before black members feel comfortable in the organization, he said.

Eduardo Palacios, a member of the San Fernando Elks Lodge, estimated that about 10 of the roughly 100 members of that lodge are Latino. In 1980, 69% of the city’s 17,731 residents were Latino, according to U. S. Census figures.

Across the Valley, whites account for about 69% of the population, according to the National Planning Data Corp., a marketing research firm. About 23% of the population is Latino, 3% black and 5% classified as other.

Vote Set Tuesday

Bagneris and Montgomery said they are optimistic that they will become members when the Van Nuys Elks Lodge takes a second vote on their applications Tuesday. Slightly more than half of the roughly 35 members who attended last week’s meeting voted against admitting them. A third man, Jack Sheffield, a white aide to state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana), was also rejected. The lodge has about 370 members.

All three applicants were sponsored for membership by Robbins, a member of the Van Nuys lodge.

Bagneris, 29, is a Lake View Terrace resident and minister at an African Methodist Episcopal Church in El Centro who ran unsuccessfully against Los Angeles City Councilman Ernani Bernardi in April. Montgomery, 67, is a retired state motor vehicles examiner living in Pacoima.

Bagneris said he believes that he and Montgomery were victims of an organized effort by some lodge members to deny them membership because they are black. Sheffield said he may have been rejected because of his association with the two black candidates.

“The supporters of a colorblind policy did not turn out en masse” at Tuesday’s meeting, Bagneris said. “We’re confident that when the larger membership does turn out, we will be accepted.”