A mighty contributor
John Franklin’s work as black historian still shapes millions
I pay tribute to John Hope Franklin, the great black historian, in both senses of the term. He was a black, and he was the pre-eminent historian of black life.
In West African societies, the griot kept and told the oral history of the village or tribe, and so helped the people know who they were. That was Franklin’s service to us. He was our griot, and now our griot has crossed over.
Generations of black activists, scholars, historians, politicians and those who appreciate history revere Franklin. In the homes of most educated (or conscious) blacks you’ll find three standard items: the Bible, a picture of Martin Luther King and a copy of Franklin’s seminal work, “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans.” Anyone who takes a black history course in high school or college is usually required to have Franklin’s book. I’ve had mine since the ’70s.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson called Franklin “the pre-eminent voice and witness for America’s sojourn from slavery to freedom.” He’s right, but doesn’t go far enough: Franklin was (and still is) our pre-eminent teacher. Even today, his work reaches millions. For blacks, his work forms the base of our knowledge of who we are. That’s no small thing.
Franklin was just as significant – if not more so – than Rosa Parks.
First of all, she and many others were educated or historically informed by Franklin’s work.
Second, he chronicled Parks’ deed (and many others) in the context of a broader struggle and a connected history for the rest of us.
He insisted that our story is greater than one person’s refusing to give up a seat on a bus to a white person. He showed us that the struggle for rights didn’t happen just in Montgomery or Selma or Birmingham; it galvanized everyday folks across the country. Franklin often spoke of the “cult of personality” that diminished the contributions of so many people whose names we don’t celebrate. His job was to tell the whole story.
Because of Franklin, we know that the movement for change didn’t spring up when the Rev. Martin Luther King appeared on the scene. It started before Crispus Attucks and Cinque. Franklin knew we’d need to know that.
As the adage goes, “History is written by the winners.” Before “From Slavery to Freedom,” blacks were an appendage in the history book of “the winners,” cast all too often as “the losers.” Black struggle, progress and lives were invisible until whites wanted to see them. And even when the story of blacks was told by a white, too often it contained what whites thought blacks felt.
Franklin showed blacks to be winners, with our own history of fighting to overcome second-class status and the pain, struggle and glory that went with it. In his work, our people told their own stories.
The nation owes a huge debt to John Hope Franklin. Rest in peace, honored griot.