Honoring A Hero

Last week John Hope Franklin past away. He is best known as a historian and an ardent student of history. Dr. Franklin did more than just study American history he owned and mastered it. He was born in Oklahoma in 1915. His parents were both literate and educated and they sought to make their children's lives as comfortable as an African-Americans life could be at that time. In those pursuits they moved to an all Black section of Oklahoma. Unfortunately the vicious and insidious racism would find them there as Franklin's father's law office was burned during the Tulsa race riots that decimated much of the burgeoning Black commerce community.

Brother Franklin's parents instilled the idea of education in him at an early age and he became valedictorian of his class. After being rejected from the state university because of his race he went on to study at Fisk University before ultimately getting his PhD from Harvard. Dr. Franklin went on to publish some very serious and meaningful work. One prized piece that is used even in collegiate classrooms across the nation today is the book "From Slavery to Freedom". One of the greatest contributions that Dr. Franklin made however was less about his scholarship and more psychological.

Dr. Franklin embarked on his scholarship at a time when Blacks suffered a more blatant and painful self-loathing. The American Negro (as African-Americans were termed at the time) knew nothing of their self or their existence, culture and meaningful contributions in the United States to say nothing about their African history. Dr. Franklin would rewrite history not in a fantasy vain that would glorify Black people through lies and untruths, but rather by charting the impact Blacks made on the development, growth and expansion of the United States. As recent as 2006Dr. Franklin was still agitating the nation for honesty. He lamented how some 200 plus years after the nation's founding there still was nothing in the nation's capital to show what happened to African-Americans.

His work was not limited to scholarship though. He marched with Dr. King from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. Prior to that he worked side by side with such luminaries as Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall to prepare the legal briefs for the landmark Brown v. Board of education decision. He said that working on public policy issues was a healthy combination of spirited activism and scholarship. His political and social work didn't stop there as he was appointed by several presidents to several commissions and councils investigating matters of history, society and race.

Dr. Franklin's work was not without legitimate criticism. Critics have argued that looking at the Black people's progress and calling it freedom is short cited considering the legacy and greatness of many African cultures. Beyond that though, even Dr. Franklin's critics respected him. Some even used his text in their classes. He sought to and was successful in retelling the historical narrative of America with a sincere truth and honesty about its treatment of non-Whites. Our only hope (no pun intended) is that in death his message words and legacy will not be tamed to accommodate the guilt of others. If he is indeed honored for his life and his life's work; let him be honored for who he was, not who others want him rembered as. It wouldn't be right because that had been what he was fighting against his entire life.