RIP John Hope Franklin.

portrait

John Hope Franklin died today at age 94. I met him years ago at a conference on race at Stanford. I don’t remember much about it, other than my father being really excited to be in the man’s presence. It wasn’t until later that I understood how important he was to legitimizing the study of African American history and chronicling it in scholarly manner.

I couldn’t hope to list Franklin’s many accomplishments here, but if you want to know more, relatively quickly, do watch this 2005 Charlie Rose interview. For a biography, go here.

Latest posts by Shani (see all)

  • The field of history has been dealt a terrible loss, but the dude lived a long life and did a whole lot with it.

  • I’m almost ashamed to say that I hadn’t even heard of Mr. Franklin. Sounds like I’ve got a lot more to read about him and by him. Thanks for sharing this.

  • mute

    I love the portrait. His wife and his orchids. Tender.

  • One of the best pieces I have read on him.

    http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i31/31b00401.htm

    A lot of people do not realize what a big deal he was, and the dude wrote great stuff using actual primary sources. I will always remember him as a historian, but he was an AAS pioneer too, and for every clown in the Blackademy like Cornel or Dyson, a single dude like Franklin made the whole thing bearable.