John Hope Franklin

[flea]

John 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

Comments

[serrana.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's too funny.

It runs in my mind that I cited his book about free blacks in NC in my thesis, but I would have to check the bib to be sure.

And that's a very nice tribute they've put together. I should read some of his more recent stuff.

[zmayhem.livejournal.com]

What a remarkable man. I'm positive that I have read a ton of stuff building on his life's work and citing it, but in my ignorance I never knew of his own writings or of the man himself.

(it's almost 2 a.m. and I'm wandering around the internet in a bout of insomnia, so I can't play any of the interviews or videos right now, but I will be exploring the website more deeply on Friday)