Farewell John Hope Franklin

Yesterday the great Historian John Hope Franklin passed away at the age of 94.

I did my doctoral work at Duke University and had the the opportunity to encounter Professor Franklin many times during my graduate training. Each time it was a privilege because John Hope Franklin was a superstar intellectual who managed to be utterly open and personally humble with students. He made us feel like partners, rather than subordinates, in academic inquiry.

In an age when black public intellectuals are rewarded for pop-culture peppered verbal dexterity and aggressive self-promotion; Dr. Franklin maintained a mode of inquiry which exposed injustice and dismantled inadequate arguments with soft-spoken dignity. His gentle manner sometimes led interlocutors to underestimate him, but it was not a mistake made more than once, because Franklin's razor sharp intellect and quick wit were memorable.

John Hope Franklin had deep personal and professional knowledge of America's vicious racial legacy. Franklin researched America's story of slavery and freedom in segregated archives. He was relegated to separate tables and irregular library hours so that white patrons would not be exposed to a literate black man researching Southern history. Franklin uncovered the vicious legacy of our racial past and engaged in decades of the struggle to change our racial present: from marching in Selma to endorsing Barack Obama.

Though racism and racial inequality disgusted him, Franklin remained ever optimistic about the American democratic project. Perhaps because he'd lived through the age of racial terrorism John Hope Franklin routinely denied the insistence by his privileged students that "nothing has changed" in America's racial story. Franklin was clear that racism was not eliminated and inequality was not resolved, but America was undoubtedly a different country in the late 20th and early 21st century. Franklin pushed us to acknowledge change across time and he encouraged us to take some measure of comfort in that change.

Franklin was no post-racial theorist, but he helped us remember that it mattered that slavery was ended, Jim Crow dismantled, and a black man elected president. He asked us to remember that black women and men struggled along with their white allies to make America a country more true to her ideals.

John Hope Franklin was a giant. He will be greatly missed.

Comments (19)

1. I suppose we can assume our right-wing bloggers are furiously researching Prof. Franklin over the past 24 hours...

   to come up with SOMETHING they can fling at him from their cages?

   heheh

   Posted by Mask at 03/26/2009 @ 08:03am

2. 'Though racism and racial inequality disgusted him, Franklin remained ever optimistic about the American democratic project.' -- Melissa Harris-Lacewell

   'No, no, no. God damn America!' -- Reverend Jeremiah Wright

   Posted by HonestLiberal at 03/26/2009 @ 08:30am

3. "Definitely five minutes to Wapner"---Posted by HonestLiberal at 03/26/2009 @ 08:30am

   Posted by Mask at 03/26/2009 @ 09:23am

4. MHL: Franklin was no post-racial theorist, but he helped us remember that it mattered that slavery was ended, Jim Crow dismantled, and a black man elected president.

   You and your "privileged" fellow (black) students needed help to remember such La De Da? Why? Were you putting `stuff' into your veins?

   What's Franklin's position on EEOC and quotas at places like Duke? What does he think of Thomas Sowell and black Repubs?

   I think this tribute falls a bit short......if all he meant to you was as a reminder of basic history that any high school graduate of any color, don't even need.

   Posted by Happy at 03/26/2009 @ 09:28am

5. Posted by Happy at 03/26/2009 @ 09:28am

   Apparently their research is turning up nothing "good" to use against him.

   LOL

   Posted by Mask at 03/26/2009 @ 09:50am

6. Yes, society is better in regard to racial equality or at least the race-baiters can't be quite so open about it. However, discrimination based on unchangeable personal characteristics has been transferred to America's gay/lesbian citizens as we see with the push-back from religious homo-haters in 45 states that have voted to legally instill homo-hatred into civil law. Sick puppy fundies seem to have an educational deficit when it comes to living peacfully in a diverse society, just as their ancestors did in colonial America.

   Posted by jamesnimmo at 03/26/2009 @ 12:50pm

7. Sick puppy fundies seem to have an educational deficit when it comes to living peacfully in a diverse society, just as their ancestors did in colonial America.

   Posted by jamesnimmo at 03/26/2009 @ 12:50pm |

   Really, is there a war being waged against gays by Christians? Are gays being denied the right to vote?

   How shameless today's left is, that even uses deceased heroes as a stick to beat those they disagree with.

   You know who was a real, "sick puppy fundie"? My hero, John Brown. Read about him. He was a fundie, alright. He made the pro-slavery thugs in Kansas bleed with his own hands, and gave his own life to a mission that he believed came from God.

   I don't know what he thought about gays. Chances are he would have thought that marriage was a religious institution for men and women who wished to procreate. I know he had very puritanical sexual values.

   I guess the Confederates at harpers ferry did the right thing.

   Posted by gangpapist at 03/26/2009 @ 1:25pm

8. What's with Honest Liberal and Happy?

   Proof in the pudding or what?

   What a nice article. Makes me wish that I got to know him myself. Sounds like an wonderful man and a great American.

   Thank you Melissa Harris-Lacewell for the article.

   Posted by annakis at 03/26/2009 @ 1:34pm

9. gangpapist "Really, is there a war being waged against gays by Christians? Are gays being denied the right to vote?"

   What planet are you on? It can't be Earth.

   If fundamentalists get their way, yes, they would be denied the right to vote.

   Not all fundamentalists of course. And certainly not all Christians. But yes, a war is being waged against gays.

   John Brown was a sick puppy fundamentalist. I admire the man for his stand against slavery. Quite admirable. But it was an extremist and violent stand. He was a terrorist.

   This is off topic anyway.

   The article is a tribute to a great man.

   Posted by annakis at 03/26/2009 @ 1:45pm

10. Posted by annakis at 03/26/2009 @ 1:45pm

    Of course you consider him a terrorist. Nobody on today's far left would dirty their hands fighting REAL oppression the way that John Brown did.

    What you will do is paint traditional people as "at war" against gays.

    That is what the left does. The gulags were full of "counterrevolutionaries" who never held a gun.

    Posted by gangpapist at 03/26/2009 @ 1:56pm

11. Another rarely acknowledged contribution of Franklin to the writing and understanding of our nation's history should be mentioned here. In "From Slavery to Freedom," Franklin recognized the work of individuals across a wide range of endeavors and as he put it, "the strivings of nameless millions who have sought adjustment in a new and sometimes hostile world."

    Individuals holding traditional forms of power--Kings and Presidents, Captains of Industry and Generals of the military--have always had a place of prominence in the story of the past. It's the "nameless millions" who have been diminished, been made to disappear, in the historical record. In Franklin's work of African American history these "nameless millions" are given a voice, their strivings noted and, where justified, celebrated.

    This example has done much to change the character of historical works today. Along with African Americans, historians over the past four decades have discovered the voices of those long silenced--women, the working classes, Native Americans, Gays, Latinos, Asians, and the ethnic rainbow that is America.

    These "nameless millions" have worked, sacrificed and succeeded through time and on many fronts. With thanks due to John Hope Franklin, historians have made all of these people a part of America's history. A part no longer invisible, no longer "nameless."

    Posted by garyd at 03/26/2009 @ 2:23pm

12. Posted by gangpapist at 03/26/2009 @ 1:56pm

    You're right, gang....just look at Larry Craig, outwardly against gay rights, secret undercover agent against them at a local bathroom stall!

    Posted by Mask at 03/26/2009 @ 2:23pm

13. People, people. The passing of John Hope Franklin is an opportunity to show respect- and gratitude- for a wise teacher, a righteous citizen and a most decent human being. Thanks so much, Melissa Harris-Lacewell for your thoughtful piece.

    Posted by phoffman6 at 03/26/2009 @ 3:06pm

14. You folks need to calm down and let us bury the man with dignity and respect, celebrate his life, as we prepare to return to the difficult task(s)ahead.

    Posted by iluminacion at 03/26/2009 @ 3:47pm

15. Further to the last comments, and sticking to Professor Franklin and his legacy,

    It is worth noting how his personal history was intertwined with subject he studied (how could it not?) He suffered discrimination from university depts during his early career and when he volunteered to support the war effort in the 1940s, he was turned down on the grounds of his skin color. Franklin was not cocooned in an academic ivory tower, he was part of the experience of which he wrote. Handling the indignities of discrimination with wit, charm and producing a magnificent rebuttal to racism in the form of an extremely influential canon of work that was both popular and academic.

    Prior to From Slavery to Freedom's first publication there were very few book-length surveys of black America - beacause most historians didn't consider it to be a history worth telling. He produced a major contribution to incorporating the black experience into the collective memory and history of the USA and beyond.

    Franklin's life and work provides a powerful record of an important strand of American life. His passing gives us a small sliver of time to celebrate his contribution and give thanks for a life grounded in thought, reflection and consideration for others.

    rest in peace JHF

    Posted by DrWatson at 03/27/2009 @ 05:14am

16. I'll miss him.

    Posted by V at 03/27/2009 @ 06:51am

17. I suppose we can assume our right-wing bloggers are furiously researching Prof. Franklin over the past 24 hours...

    to come up with SOMETHING they can fling at him from their cages?

    heheh

    Posted by Mask at 03/26/2009 @ 08:03am | ignore this person | warn this person

    More abject stupidity from MASK and other leftist concerning a GREAT NATIVE OKLAHOMAN! Why do you think so many of us rail against the racist idiocy consistently displayed by the leftist?

    We raise great teachers and statesmen here like John Hope Franklin, former Rep. J.C.Watts, and A.C. Hamlin the first black legislator in 1908 whose parents were slaves!

    Posted by comancheamerican at 03/27/2009 @ 10:02am

18. The famous mask disappearing act strikes again

    Posted by comancheamerican at 03/27/2009 @ 10:15pm

19. I have never read Dr. Franklin's book but I will now.

    Posted by gangpapist at 03/27/2009 @ 10:57pm