Drs. John Hope Franklin and Yu Ying-shih have been named the recipients of the third John W. Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity, the Library of Congress announced Wednesday. They will share the $1 million prize.
Franklin and Yu played pioneering roles in bringing previously neglected aspects of American and Chinese history, respectively, into the mainstream scholarship and public consciousness of their countries, say Library of Congress officials.
“Both have done demanding work using a wide variety of primary documents and historical approaches. Each has had an enduring impact on both scholarship and his society, and has opened a path for others to find new materials and methodologies for understanding both their and our cultures,” says the library announcement.
Franklin, the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University, is the leading scholar in the establishment of African-American history, says Dr. James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress.
“The transformation he has helped bring about in how we think about American history and society will stand as his lasting intellectual legacy,” Billington says.
One scholar reviewing nominations for the Kluge Prize wrote of Franklin: “He is arguably the most important African-American historian, and the most important historian of the African-American experience, in the history of the academy.”
Franklin told Diverse he was “flattered, pleased, honored and humbled” by the award. Although he has received many prestigious awards in his lifetime, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Kluge was monetarily the highest award, he says.
