Scholar, Teacher and Advocate John Hope Franklin Dies at Age 94
4/29/2009
Former Brooklyn College History Department Chair, John Hope Franklin, a noted scholar, powerful author, cherished teacher and respected advocate for civil rights, died in Durham, North Carolina, on March 25, 2009. He was 94.
Franklin was born in 1915 in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, and grew up in Tulsa. There he met another distinguished future Brooklyn College faculty member, Hobart Jarrett, and they became close friends. Franklin went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from historically black Fisk University in 1935 and received a M.A. in 1936 and a Ph.D. in History in 1941 from Harvard University. In the course of his lifetime, he was also the recipient of more than 130 honorary degrees.
Besides Brooklyn College, where he taught from 1956 to 1964, becoming the first African-American to head a major history department, he also taught at such leading institutions as Howard University, Harvard, the University of Chicago and Duke University. His teaching career spanned more than 70 years. When he died, he was the James B. Duke Professor of History Emeritus at Duke.
"John Hope Franklin was a historian of extraordinary acuity and depth," said Brooklyn College President Christoph M. Kimmich. "He was a cherished teacher and mentor, and both his former students and his colleagues remember him with affection and respect.”
"He was an outstanding and dedicated scholar," said Professor George Cunningham, chair of the Africana Studies Department at Brooklyn College. "From his first book, The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860, to his study of runaway slaves, he was pioneering and enabled educators to truly teach the history of African Americans in the United States."
A score of highly acclaimed books either authored or edited by Franklin followed. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans, which he first published in 1947, has sold more than 3 million copies and is still considered one of the definitive historical surveys of America’s black experience.
But Franklin did not confine himself to teaching and writing alone. Throughout the 1950s he worked with the team of lawyers who worked on the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that ended segregation in American schools. In 1965, he marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
In 1995, President Bill Clinton awarded Franklin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor that an American citizen can receive.
"I have to say I was awestruck to meet him," said Professor David Troyansky, the current chair of the Brooklyn College history department, about meeting Franklin several years ago while attending a conference where he was a featured speaker. "He was a giant among historians in a heroic era of American and African-American historiography.
Troyansky added, "We talked about our experiences chairing the Brooklyn College Department of History half a century apart. The idea that I could share a professional experience with him was almost absurd. As a writer and public citizen, he was a truly grand figure. I consider myself fortunate to have met him, still energetic and eloquent in his nineties."
Discussions are currently ongoing in the History Department about scheduling a memorial conference in the fall that will be dedicated to Franklin’s achievements, Troyansky noted.
