[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 52 (Thursday, March 26, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3933-S3934]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE RESOLUTION 88--HONORING THE LIFE OF DR. JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN

  Mrs. HAGAN (for herself, Mr. Burr, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. Schumer) 
submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                               S. Res. 88

       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 African-
     American lawyers in the Oklahoma Indian Territory, and Mollie 
     Parker Franklin, a schoolteacher and community leader;

[[Page S3934]]

       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, 
     chairperson of the department of history, John Matthews Manly 
     Distinguished Service Professor, 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, as the 
     first African-American professor to hold an endowed chair at 
     Duke University, and as the first African-American president 
     of the American Historical Association;
       Whereas Dr. Franklin authored ``From Slavery to Freedom: A 
     History of Negro Americans'' in 1947, 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 the research of Dr. Franklin contributed to the 
     success of Thurgood Marshall and the legal victory of the 
     National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 
     (NAACP) in the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of 
     Education (347 U.S. 483), which ended the ``separate but 
     equal'' doctrine in public schools in the United States;
       Whereas in 1996, 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;
       Whereas Dr. Franklin received the Presidential Medal of 
     Freedom in 1995, and was appointed chairman of the advisory 
     board of President William J. Clinton's Initiative on Race in 
     1997;
       Whereas Dr. Franklin served as the head of the 3 major 
     historical associations in the United States: 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 the Benjamin Franklin Medal 
     for Distinguished Public Service from the American 
     Philosophical Society in 2007, and a Gold Medal for 
     distinguished achievement in history from the American 
     Academy of Arts and Letters in 2002;
       Whereas Dr. Franklin inspired the John Hope Franklin Center 
     for Interdisciplinary and 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 Senate--
       (1) celebrates the life and accomplishments of John Hope 
     Franklin; and
       (2) honors the contributions that John Hope Franklin made 
     to United States society.

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