Dr.
John Hope Franklin was born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma. His father was a courageous
lawyer and his mother was his first and best teacher. "My mother was the one
with high standards," Dr. Franklin said, "she taught me never to besatisfied
by anything but the best."
When he was four years old,
he was terrorized by hoodlums shooting into their home. The lasting memory of
this event may have been one of the reasons that he devoted his life to examining
the history of race relations in this country.
Legal segregation and the
Depression made life difficult for him as a child, but he found a haven in the
joy of learning. His parents, W.E.B. DuBois, John Hope, the college president
for whom he was named, and his professor at Fisk, Theodore Courier, were the
beacons that showed him the way.
Dr. Franklin earned his B.A.
degree at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and his advanced degrees
at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a young history professor,
he taught at Fisk University, North Carolina Central University, Howard University
and in 1956, became chairman of Brooklyn College's History Deportment. Eight
years later, Dr. Franklin joined the University of Chicago's Department of History
and eventually became its chairman and the John Matthews Manly Distinguished
Service Professor. In 1982, he retired from the University of Chicago and ended
his academic career as the James B. Duke Professor of History Emeritus at Duke
University in North Carolina.
Dr. Franklin authored 12
books and collaborated with other scholars on many more. His book, "From
Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans" was published in
1947 and revised seven times and is considered by scholars to be the definitive
text on the black experience in the United States.
This distinguished historian
has served as a visiting professor of American history at universities in the
United States and around the world. He has served on numerous civic and educational
committees and has received countless awards and honors.
In 1995, Dr. Franklin received
our nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. When
presenting the award, President Clinton acknowledged that this great historian
had changed America forever with his historical research and writing which illuminated
the history of the South and the significant roles African-Americans played
in their country's development.
