[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 301 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 301

              Honoring the life of Dr. John Hope Franklin.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 30, 2009

 Mr. Price of North Carolina (for himself, Mr. Watt, Mr. Butterfield, 
 Mr. Miller of North Carolina, Mr. Kissell, Mr. McIntyre, Mr. Shuler, 
 Ms. Foxx, Mr. Etheridge, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Myrick, Mr. McHenry, and Mr. 
 Coble) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
              Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
              Honoring the life of Dr. John Hope Franklin.

Whereas Dr. John Hope Franklin was born on January 2, 1915, in Rentiesville, 
        Oklahoma, the grandson of a slave and the son of Buck Colbert Franklin, 
        one of the first black lawyers in the Oklahoma Indian territory, and 
        Mollie Parker Franklin, a schoolteacher and community leader;
Whereas in 1936, Dr. Franklin was appointed to the faculty of Fisk University as 
        Instructor of History and subsequently served as Professor of History at 
        St. Augustine's College, North Carolina College, and Howard University;
Whereas Dr. Franklin taught at the University of Chicago from 1964 to 1982, 
        serving as Professor of American History, Chairman of the Department of 
        History, the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor of 
        History, and Professor Emeritus of History;
Whereas Dr. Franklin was on faculty at Duke University from 1982 until his 
        passing, serving as the James B. Duke Professor of History, Professor of 
        Legal History at Duke University Law School, and the James B. Duke 
        Professor of History Emeritus, Duke University;
Whereas Dr. Franklin broke numerous racial barriers, serving as the first 
        African-American department chair at a predominantly white institution 
        as Chairman of the Department of History at Brooklyn College from 1956 
        to 1964; and as the first African-American professor to hold an endowed 
        chair at Duke University; and the first African-American President of 
        the American Historical Association;
Whereas Dr. Franklin's research contributed to the success of Thurgood Marshall 
        and the NAACP's legal victory in the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case, 
        Brown v. Board of Education, which ended the ``separate but equal'' 
        doctrine in America's public schools;
Whereas in 1947, Dr. Franklin authored From Slavery to Freedom: A History of 
        Negro Americans, widely considered the preeminent history of the 
        African-American experience in the United States, as well as numerous 
        other notable books including his influential autobiography Mirror to 
        America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin;
Whereas Dr. Franklin was named ``Historian of the Century'' by Duke University, 
        North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University, and 
        The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996;
Whereas Dr. Franklin received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 and was 
        appointed Chairman of the Advisory Board of President Clinton's 
        Initiative on Race in 1997;
Whereas Dr. Franklin served as the head of the three major U.S. historical 
        associations including the Organization of American Historians, the 
        American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical 
        Association;
Whereas Dr. Franklin was inducted into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame 
        in 1998;
Whereas Dr. Franklin received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American 
        Academy of Arts & Letters and the American Philosophical Society in 
        2007;
Whereas Dr. Franklin inspired the John Hope Franklin Center for 
        Interdisciplinary & International Studies at Duke University, a 
        consortium of academic programs that encourages creative scholarship, 
        the exchange of ideas, and a variety of perspectives and methodologies 
        to revitalize notions of how knowledge is gained and shared;
Whereas Dr. Franklin was a scholar who helped create the field of African-
        American history and literature;
Whereas Dr. Franklin described historians as ``the conscience of the nation, if 
        honesty and consistency are factors that nurture the conscience'', and 
        his contributions to the study of American history fundamentally 
        challenged and changed the manner in which the Nation collectively 
        interprets its past and understands its present;
Whereas generations of young historians have been inspired and personally 
        influenced by Dr. Franklin's keen intellect, graceful humility, and 
        humor in the classroom, and will ensure the endurance of his towering 
        legacy;
Whereas Dr. Franklin passed away on March 25, 2009, in Durham, North Carolina; 
        and
Whereas Dr. John Hope Franklin will be deeply missed but leaves an enduring 
        legacy of public service, scholarship, and perseverance that inspires 
        all Americans: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) celebrates the life and accomplishments of John Hope 
        Franklin; and
            (2) honors the contributions that John Hope Franklin made 
        to American society.
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