My StumbleUpon Page
John Hope Franklin, 1915-2009: An American Scholastic Treasure
John Hope Franklin a revered American academic, teacher and historian died last week at the age of 94.
Among his academic achievements and scholarly awards:
The first black man to deliver a paper to Southern Historical Association. In 1970 he was elected president of the previously segregated organization.
The first black president of the American Historical Association.
He was instrumental in the opening of the first chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa “honor society” – a national organization which inspires academic excellence – at historically black university, Fisk University, where Franklin began his own higher education.
In Britain, he held the Pitt professorship of American history and institutions at Cambridge University.
Franklin taught all over the world – in China, the Soviet Union, Australia and Zimbabwe.In 1976 he became the first African-American to deliver the National Endowment for the Humanities Jefferson Lectures, which was the basis for his book, Racial Equality In America.
In 1983Dr. John Hope Franklin returned to Duke, where he courageously held out against discrimination 40 years before; this time as James B Duke professor of history; a position he retained as emeritus after 1985, when he “retired” to teach legal history at Duke’s law school.
Forty years of work concluded in the publication of his biography of George Washington Williams, a self-educated soldier and minister who is said to have coined the term “crimes against humanity” after visiting the Belgian Congo in 1881.
In 1995 President Bill Clinton awarded Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Two years later, Franklin was named head of Clinton’s Initiative On Race. when Franklin’s report was published, it was criticized, both by other minority groups, supporters and conservatives.
It is interesting to note in The Color Line, Franklin’s 1993 book, he argues that America’s greatest challenge remains providing equality in the 21st century. Franklin further stated this notion be considered in the light of his own scholarship into black achievement under trying circumstances.
According to Walter Dellinger, his former colleague at Duke University in North Carolina, Dr. Franklin, like many Americans, was astonished by the presidential nomination of Barack Obama.
“I never expected to live 90 years, but even if I had, I still would not have thought that would be long enough to see this happen.”
John Hope Franklin American Historian
Recently
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.