John Hope Franklin
Scholar of African American History

by Mary Jekielek Insprucker
February 2006

Every February, Americans celebrate Black History Month, which was started in 1926 by a Harvard scholar named Carter G. Woodson in an effort to bring attention to the contributions of African Americans. Certainly, one of those people of note is John Hope Franklin.

John Hope Franklin is the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History and is considered a leading figure in the field of African American history.

John Hope Franklin

Professor Franklin’s numerous publications include The Emancipation Proclamation, The Militant South, and The Free Negro in North Carolina. Perhaps his best-known work is From Slavery to Freedom:  A History of African Americans, now in its eighth edition and still being used in college courses.

In 1978, Who’s Who in America selected Dr. Franklin as one of eight Americans who made significant contributions to society. In 1993, Dr. Franklin received the Charles Frankel Prize for contributions to the humanities. He also garnered the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. However, what led him to this lofty place in life may have more value than all the awards put together.

At the age of six, the native of Oklahoma, along with his mother, was put off a train by a white railway conductor for sitting in a whites-only car. “My mother saw me crying and asked me what I was crying about. When I told her it was because we were kicked off the train she said, ‘That’s nothing to cry about. What you want to do is take that energy and prove you are as good as anyone on that train,’” said Franklin. “Since then I’ve tried to prove just that.”

Prove it he did. He explained three steps that secured his position in the world. “First, I had a home environment that instilled the noblest ambitions. Second, I worked as hard as my energies and mental capacities permitted. And third, I took advantage of the opportunities that came before me.”

Some of those opportunities included serving as Consultant on American Education in the Soviet Union, and Fulbright Professor in Australia. In 1997 and 1998, he acted as chairman of the advisory board for President Clinton’s Initiative on Race. “It was of use in many ways as far as learning, although it was not successful,” said the professor. “However, people of good faith and intentions tried to push a step closer to decency in our relationships.”

Franklin was involved in many key events of the Civil Rights movement including helping to prepare the brief in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, and accompanying King on the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. “I was afraid because there was so much violence at the time,” he said. “Although I went bravely, I wouldn’t represent if I told you I was not afraid with people peeking from behind curtains down the narrow streets. It was a desperate act, put I had to take part in it and represent my position.”

At 90, Franklin is still on the civil rights landscape, documenting more history in his latest book, Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin. He said there is nothing missing in it. “There is nothing too painful to tell. The panoramic of the American experience is tragic, cruel, inhuman and shameful, but not painful.”

Professor Franklin has been the subject of various articles, books, and films such as First Person Singular: John Hope Franklin. The John Hope Franklin collection was founded in 1995. It houses letters, diaries, ledgers, and other items documenting three centuries of the African American experience. In addition, Duke opened the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies in 2001.

There’s Hope in his name, and in his heart. “We can try to end discrimination by first, acknowledging it exists. Secondly, we have to get to the nature of the problem. Finally, we need to be willing to concede that there is nothing we have in the way of rights that other people are not entitled to.”

In 1956, Franklin went to Brooklyn College as Chairman of the Department of History, and in 1964, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, serving as Chairman of the Department of History from 1967 to 1970. At Chicago, he was the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor from 1969 to 1982, when he became Professor Emeritus, all of which took place at a non-receptive time for African Americans.

Therefore, he had no way of knowing where he would be at 50 plus. “I would not have thought I’d be here because at one time I was not even allowed on a campus,” said Franklin. “At that time my dreams were within the realm of reality, not courting accolades or glory. It was simply to live a life of peace and quiet with the satisfaction of a decent life.”