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John Hope Franklin
Mar. 25th, 2009 05:27 pmJohn Hope Franklin died today. I'd never heard of him until I came to Duke and helped him at the Reference desk. I looked up a book in our online catalog and directed him to the stacks, and, assuming him to be a community patron (he was then near 90) I asked if he needed help finding the right call number. He gently told me he thought he could handle it. As he walked off my coworker came over ans asked if I knew who that was.
Interestingly, in the tributes to him "gentle" is a recurring word, though he also was forthright in speaking out about his experiences with racism, as in when he was taken for a coat check clerk at a dinner after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1995.
If you've never heard of him until now, take a minute to learn at the web site duke has set up: http://www.duke.edu/johnhopefranklin/index.html
Interestingly, in the tributes to him "gentle" is a recurring word, though he also was forthright in speaking out about his experiences with racism, as in when he was taken for a coat check clerk at a dinner after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1995.
If you've never heard of him until now, take a minute to learn at the web site duke has set up: http://www.duke.edu/johnhopefranklin/index.html