WASHINGTON – Dr. John Hope Franklin, one of the most revered and respected historians of the 20th century, died last year of congestive heart failure at the age of 94. But scholars who convened in Washington Thursday for a three-day symposium on Franklin’s life agreed that his memory will forever live through his scholarship.
Franklin’s book, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, served as a manuscript for a generation of Blacks determined to end Jim Crow segregation. Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, professor of African American studies at Harvard University and co-author of the book’s latest edition, explained how she had revamped the 63-year-old historical staple.
“One of the things that I try to do with the book is bring new scholarship,” said Higginbotham. “For example, Stephanie Camp has written a book where she talks about the alternative geographies of [runaway] slaves. Women slaves ran away differently from male slaves, so that’s a new way of thinking about runaways.”
The book, emblazoned with a photo of President Barack Obama on the cover, also discusses a number of new subjects such as globalization, Brown v. Board of Education, the Cold War, Hurricane Katrina, and Obama’s election. It also incorporates compelling facts about African-American musical traditions.
“I really enjoyed bringing art and music into the book,” said Higginbotham. “I talk about art, and art becomes a primary source to history. I do the same thing with music. I talk about hip hop as a global phenomenon. In the older edition, art was a separate category.”
Many of the symposium’s presenters worked with Franklin and lauded his commitment to academia and activism.
“What is really remarkable about him is the evolution of his views about slavery and reparations,” said Dr. Charles Ogletree, law professor at Harvard University. “He was always against slavery. But he was skeptical about whether or not reparations was the answer.”
Ogletree worked closely with Franklin while representing the survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riot. In 2003, survivors filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Tulsa and the state of Oklahoma.
