R.I.P. John Hope Franklin

The world lost a great historian and scholar in John Hope Franklin this week who died in Durham, North Carolina at the age of 94 years old. His long career as a Historian took him many places from his undergraduate days at Fisk to completing his Masters and PHD at Harvard University. He taught at several schools and chaired many history departments. As the head of Brooklyn College's History Department he became the first person of color to chair a major history department. Following his tenure at Brooklyn College, he went on to chair at the University of Chicago before becoming a tenured professor with a chair at Duke University where he taught until 1992.

there are many other highlights in his life. He served as President of the American Historical Association, served on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund with Thurgood Marshall during Brown v. Board of Education, and stuck it out with W.E.B. Dubois. He's also written several books, including the seminal From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans.

Let's all take a moment to honor Franklin and his illustrious and groundbreaking career.