Remembering John Hope Franklin

The Washington Post said Franklin "not only studied history; he made it. This should not have been necessary. But the culture into which Mr. Franklin was born in 1915 was distorted by racial discrimination."

John Hope Franklin was a towering legend in African American history. Born in Rentiesville, Oklahoma in 1915, Franklin graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma and later earned an undergraduate degree from Fisk University in 1935 and a doctorate in history in 1941 from Harvard University.

He authored the landmark book, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans, now in its seventh edition, and published several other history books during his lifetime. His most recent book, My Life and an Era: The Autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin, is an autobiography of his father that he edited with his son, John Whittington Franklin.

Franklin was the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University, and for seven years was Professor of Legal History in the Law School at Duke. A native of Oklahoma and a graduate of Fisk University, Franklin taught at a number of colleges across the country and would go on to receive honorary degrees from more than 100 colleges and universities.

A history maker as much as an historian, Franklin broke ground in 1964 when he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago and served as chairman of the history department.

Last summer, Franklin hailed the nomination of Barack Obama as "amazing" and "remarkable" and said he didn't think it would happen in his lifetime. After Obama won the election, Franklin called it "one of the most historic moments, if not the most historic moment in the history of this country." But Franklin insisted that Obama's election had not changed anything he believed about the country.

"I knew that it would come sooner or later," Franklin said, but he also anticipated that some would resist the presidency of an African American. "I think that it would be a mistake to think that now that an African American will be president of the United States that he would turn his back on his other constituents," Franklin said.

Franklin died of congestive heart failure at Duke Hospital Wednesday morning. He was 94. He is survived by his son, John Whittington Franklin, daughter-in-law Karen Roberts Franklin, sister-in-law Bertha W. Gibbs, cousin Grant Franklin Sr., a host of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, other family members and many generations of students and friends, according to Duke University.

A celebration of his life and of his late wife Aurelia Franklin is planned for June 11 in Duke Chapel in honor of their 69th wedding anniversary.