John Hope Franklin, RIP:
The noted historian, John Hope Franklin, died yesterday at the age of 94. His most important book was probably From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, though he authored many others. Walter Dellinger has a rememberance of Franklin in the Washington Post. It begins:
John Hope Franklin, who died yesterday at 94, was one of the most remarkable Americans of the 20th century. He was the master of the great American story of that century, the story of race. John Hope wrote it, he taught it, and he lived it.
While he was highly regarded in many corners of America, he was a giant to a majority of African Americans who lived and, by a much lesser measure, still live, inside the absurdity of America's race problem.
While my children will read "From Slavery to Freedom" as merely an acacdemic excercise, and I, a 41 year old partner at a majority white law firm, read the book with both anger and resolve, my parents viewed the book as validation of their existence and a record of their contributions to this country.
Certainly race was important in our history. But I could make a case for the much greater importance of industrialization, or urbanization, or the transition from isolation to internationalism, ethnic diversification, or American wealth.
What was most characteristic of America in the last century?
Its modernization? Its towering wealth? Its military predominance?
Or its dealings with its non-white minority?
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