There have been a number of fitting tributes to John Hope Franklin lauding his life work, but as a scholar, I have some different perspectives on who he was and what he meant to us.
There have been a number of fitting tributes to John Hope Franklin lauding his life work, but as a scholar, I have some different perspectives on who he was and what he meant to us.
I also came to know John as a friend over the years since our first meeting at Fisk University in 1962 where I was a student leader protesting bad food and he was a member of the Board of Trustees. But as scholars, subsequently, I came to see in a number of familiar places such as the Association for the Study of African-American life and History conferences. This was a Black organization, and he was an esteemed historian, yet he never considered it less than.
Today, many of our esteemed Black scholars never grace the conferences of Black academic organizations without a fee. So, you won’t see them at the National Conference of Black Studies, the Association of Black Sociologists, or the National Economic Association, the National Conference of Black Political Science, or others. A kind of national pecking order has set where there used to be camaraderie of scholars engaged in attempting to forge an intellectual project that would clarify both history and the current condition of Black people and serve them at the same time.
What has happened over the years is that careerism has taken over the ethic of service. That ethic comes from not just reading about Black people but from having lived that experience.
I once ran into John at a conference, and he said that the latest book he was working on dealt with “runaway slaves.” When I got up to speak, I told the audience that since Professor Franklin had never forgotten where he came from and would not find ways to justify racism, he might be considered to have the sensibility of a modern “runaway slave.”
Too many Black scholars have found ways to justify racism, not only because they have not experienced it as strongly, but because, like too many Black professionals today, they have adopted the criteria of excellence of the institutions in which they work rather than worry about service to the community from which they came.
Wishing that they could do both, but rather than that, they have become intimidated by the surrounding of their endowed chair, or their standing among their colleagues or the administration for which they work. If this were not true, I would see many more of our distinguished scholars on the firing line, trying to make sense of the current crises of our community, not only by writing, but by engaging in the media debate, by working with various leaders, by serving their communities and through other means.
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