Freeze
Official BDF member
Posts: 2,343
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Post by Freeze on Mar 25, 2009 14:05:42 GMT -5
Dr. John Hope Franklin passed this morning.
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Post by captaggie on Mar 25, 2009 14:22:00 GMT -5
A Great Man - the power of his knowledge made us all better.
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Post by aggierattler on Mar 25, 2009 16:37:27 GMT -5
Famed historian, chronicler of African-American experience, John Hope Franklin dead at 94
Bernard Thomas/ Herald-Sun By Mark Donovan : Staff writer mdonovan@heraldsun.com
Mar 26, 2009
DURHAM -- John Hope Franklin, Ph.D., the nation's most respected historian of the African-American experience and an icon in the Duke University and Durham communities, died today at 94.
Dr. Franklin, who professor of history emeritus at Duke and the University of Chicago, and a former professor at N.C. Central University,died of congestive heart failure at Duke Hospital, according to a spokesperson for the university.
Dr. Franklin received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, and is well known for his 1947 book "From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans," which has sold more than four million copies and is still in print.
In one of his last public appearances, on Oct. 8, 2008 in Durham, Dr. Franklin attended a speech by comedian/commentator Bill Cosby in Durham.
Cosby touched upon controversial themes such as the African-American community taking responsibility for high teenage pregnancy and young black law-breakers.
"The village is not working, at all," Cosby said, referring to the oft-spoken adage that "it takes a village to raise a child."
Cosby said the one consistent thing about folks who blame racism for the failures in the black community is that "you never hear them say you can do it."
"That's pitiful," Cosby said.
Throughout his talk, Cosby told several jokes about Dr. Franklin, which left the professor smiling. Cosby then invited Dr. Franklin to the stage to speak at the end of his performance.
"It was a voice of clarity and desperation," Dr. Franklin said of Cosby's speech. "He certainly conveyed to us the message that we are responsible for the next generation."
Dr. Franklin added: "If we can't do any better than my generation, we're going to be in trouble in the near future."
In addition to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Dr. Franklin was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Arts and the American Philosophical Society, the Gold Medal in History from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the North Carolina Lifetime Achievement Award, the $1 million John W. Kluge Prize for the study of Humanity, a prize awarded in categories not recognized by the Nobel Prize, the National Civil Rights Museum's Freedom Award, the Encyclopedia Britannica Gold Medal for the Dissemination of Knowledge and more than 130 honorary degrees from colleges and universities.
He was the first black student accepted to attend Harvard University and was chairman of the advisory board for President George W. Bush's "One America: The President's Initiative on Race."
Dr. Franklin said in 2007, "I'm excited to get every award. It's ... evidence that maybe I've done something with my life."
"His scholarship defined an entire field and enabled everyone in this country to understand the exceptional contributions of African-Americans," said John Burness, then-senior vice president for public and government relations at Duke, in 2007.
Burness added that Dr. Franklin's greatness extended far beyond medals and certificates. "I'm honored to have him as a friend," Burness said. "All of the honors aside, he's a wonderful human being."
In 1998, as chairman of President Bill Clinton's racial advisory board, Dr. Franklin wrote the following letter to the president.
"The idea that we should aspire to a 'colorblind' society is an impediment to reducing racial stereotyping," Dr. Franklin wrote. "Given that research has demonstrated that the best way to reduce racial stereotyping is to be conscious about racial differences, it is important to present a thoughtful alternative to the 'colorblind society' concept."
Dr. Franklin has been called a "national treasure" and the dean of African-American history. His debunking of racial myths and exhaustive documentation of America's original sin, slavery, was said to have had a profound impact on the nation and the advancement of civil rights.
Despite his decades in the classroom, Dr. Franklin never taught a course in African-American history. It was said that instead of treating black history as a separate subject, Dr. Franklin insisted on incorporating it into mainstream American history.
"I tried to bring them together in my writings, but even more in my teachings," Dr. Franklin told The Herald-Sun in 2007. "I never taught a course in African-American history. I didn't believe that was the way to do it."
Dr. Franklin's legacy will live on in the minds and hopes he has nurtured and in the brick and mortar of Duke University's John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies, which is home to Duke programs drawing researchers from around the globe and a variety of disciplines to explore issues of race, culture and religion.
At the Feb. 8, 2001 dedication of the Franklin Center, Cosby was on hand to roast -- and praise -- his good friend.
Cosby kidded Dr. Franklin on his middle name, "Hope," and fellow guest the Rev. Jesse Jackson for his sloganeering.
"I'm so happy I never got a middle name of Hope," Cosby said, explaining how he could imagine a day when Franklin was ill and Jackson pays him a visit. "And all he keeps saying is 'Keep Hope alive!' "
Cosby said, Dr. Franklin should have gotten royalties for "Keep Hope Alive."
But turning serious, Cosby added that Franklin, through his study of black culture, had given hope to others.
"Many feel nothing has changed and they've given up. This is not John Hope Franklin. 'No, no, I'm still working. I'm still here to make a change. I'm going to fight all the way.' And that's very, very important.
"While alive, John Hope Franklin saw his building. One day, he said to me, 'Bill, it's a weird thing.' And he has a bigger spirit to go on and fight. This may have added another 10 years, 20, 30 ..."
Dr. Franklin was born in Rentiesville, Okla., on Jan. 2, 1915. He graduated from Fisk University in 1935 and received a Ph.D. in history at Harvard in 1941.
He married Aurelia Whittington of Goldsboro on June 11, 1940. They had one child, John Whittington Franklin. Mrs. Franklin died on Jan. 27, 1999.
In the 1950s, Dr. Franklin served on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund team led by Thurgood Marshall that helped develop the case that led to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision ending segregation in public schools, Brown v. Board of Education.
Dr. Franklin began his teaching career at Fisk and moved on to St. Augustine's College and N.C. Central -- then the North Carolina College for Negroes. From 1947 to 1956, he taught at Howard University.
In 1956 he was named chairman of the history department at Brooklyn College, the first black to chair a history department at a traditionally white college or university.
Franklin left Brookly College in 1964 to join the University of Chicago faculty and he came to Duke in 1983 after retiring from Chicago. He was named emeritus professor of history at Duke in 1985.
He edited or authored more than 20 books, the first 1943's "The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860," published by the University of North Carolina Press.
-- Material from The Herald-Sun archives and the Associated Press is included in this report.
© 2009 by The Durham Herald Company. All rights reserved.
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