Dr. John Hope Franklin, civil rights leader and American historian, passed away at the age of 94 this Wednesday. In the 1950s he served under Thurgood Marshall on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund team whose sociological research helped make a case for and win Brown v. Board of Education, and he is best known for his documentation of the struggle of African Americans in his book From Slavery to Freedom.
Franklin was raised in my hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and he graduated from my high school, Booker T. Washington in the 1930s, over four decades before it became the first integrated public school in Oklahoma. His vocation as an historian and professor was strongly influenced by the racism he experienced growing up in Tulsa. One very important example being the race riot of 1921, and, another heart-breaking story he told NPR which was replayed this morning: his rejection by a blind woman while he was helping her cross the street.
Rather than be defeated by the extreme racial injustice to which he was exposed, John Hope Franklin sought to document and teach others about the history of black Americans.
"My challenge," Franklin said, "was to weave into the fabric of
American history enough of the presence of blacks so that the story of
the United States could be told adequately and fairly."
In 1956, he was the first African American to become chairman of a major history department at Brooklyn College. In 1983, he was appointed the James B. Duke Professor of History at Duke University, the alma mater of several other Renegades.
With this post, I salute Dr. John Hope Franklin for his scholarship, writing, and leadership in the American Civil Rights Movement. The legacy he leaves stems from his example of unswerving hope, no matter the situation, for a better future for our country and for all of its citizens -- a legacy of strength to conquer intense challenge, even from the direst of circumstances.
