Dr. John Hope Franklin chronicled the experiences of African-Americans like no one before him, forcing America to recognize Black history as American history. His contributions innumerable, his impact abiding. Here, scholars Robert Harris, David Levering-Lewis, John French and Clifton Wharton Jr. write about the celebrated scholar and activist.
The Consummate Scholar
By Robert L. Harris Jr.
Dr. John Hope Franklin was both proud and humble. He was fiercely proud of his race and was a “race man” in the best sense of the term. He was not a racial chauvinist or a militant but was committed to the advancement of Black people. His generation of “race men” knew who they were. They were comfortable with themselves while in the company of both Black and White people. Unlike some Black scholars of my generation, he did not suffer from the “only Negro in the room” syndrome. He was gracious in acknowledging other Black people in his presence. He made them feel comfortable and empowered. He elevated fellow Black scholars in the presence of others.
Much has been made of Dr. Franklin’s leadership of the major historical associations but little is said about the position he held as one of the vice presidents, along with the venerable Dr. Benjamin Quarles, of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History during the 1970s. It was a largely honorific position but very important to the organization that he lend his name and prestige to the group that Carter G. Woodson organized in 1915 and that supported Dr. Franklin’s work over the years. He was an active participant in the annual meetings of ASALH and delighted in seeing old friends and former students.
Dr. Franklin’s scholarship was as impeccable as his manners. Although humble and somewhat self-effacing, he took pride in the abilities and accomplishments of African-Americans and was not shy about making certain that African- Americans and everyone else knew about them. He devoted his life, his scholarship and his career to making sure that this story was told accurately in all its agony and its glory. Dr. Franklin especially wanted this nation to know what it had done to his ancestors as well as its obligation to right the wrongs imposed on African-Americans. Although he did not vigorously push the point in the changing climate surrounding affirmative action, he supported compensatory change. The tide has shifted from the nation’s obligation to right the wrongs of the past to the mantra of diversity, which looks to the future and to the benefit for society more than to the past and the accumulated disadvantages experienced by those who suffered from enslavement, discrimination, segregation, violence and denigration.
John Hope Franklin was the consummate scholar. Although he drew on his scholarship to address current problems, he did not deliberately search for a “useable past.” He was concerned about getting the story right. One of the things that I liked best about Dr. Franklin was that he kept an open mind. Many scholars of his generation clung to the term “Negro,” and some even to the designation “Colored.” But Dr. Franklin accepted the need for a different designation that was more self-defining. He embraced the term “Black” and later “African-American.” Although he was a student of history, he was never stuck in the past.
