John Hope
Franklin (January 2, 1915 – March 25, 2009) was a United
States historian and past president of Phi Beta Kappa, the
Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association,
and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin is best known for his
work From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, and continually
updated. More than three million copies have been sold. In 1995, he was awarded
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
But that's not why I
love this major figure.
Currently, I'm
re-reading "Mirror to America, The Autobiography of John Hope
Franklin". Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005, ISBN 0-374-29944-7.
In
chapter 10, 'A Hilltop High', he calls out E. Merton Coulter, a respected
professor at the University of Georgia. Coulter writes 'The South During
Reconstruction' for a series designed to provide up-to-date volumes on the
history of the South. His text is full of demeaning and disparaging accounts of
Blacks in the state legislature. The tone was similar to what was revealed in
Thomas Dixon's The Klansman and D. W. Griffith's infamous film, Birth of a
Nation.
Professor Franklin
didn't let this get by without scrutiny by first criticizing the praise mongering reviewers, and then Coulter for
his misrepresenting and distorting his sources. He goes further to alert the
wider historian profession to the flaws in Coulter's work. This was done in
1948.
Franklin's damning
essay could have easily ended his career. However, his peers of influential
historians thanked and praised him.
Here's why I love
John Hope Franklin. In this chapter, he goes on to say, "My willingness to
publicly and vigorously confront the damning presumptions of accepted scholarly
wisdom would prove to be more important in advancing my reputation than I could
have imagined."
The takeaway for me
is that we can't let others define us, with impunity, based on their status or
credentials. We need to speak up to these negative portrayals and injustices.
It's as much about integrity as it is about reputation.
Genealogists and
family historians have a stake in this. If we are to honor our avocation, we need to publicly and vigorously confront the injustices, inaccuracies, and the 'Coulters' within our field.
