Historian John Hope Franklin dies
Author of “‘From Slavery to Freedom,’ numerous other works
By JIM AUCHMUTEY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, March 25, 2009

John Hope Franklin winced when people called him America’s greatest black historian, as many did. It would be more fitting to call him the greatest historian of black America.

In more than 70 years of scholarship, he documented the African-American experience as no one had done before — a body of work that earned him more than 100 honorary degrees, making him perhaps the most decorated academician of his time.

Franklin, 94, died Wednesday of congestive heart failure at Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C. He was best known as the author of the groundbreaking chronicle, “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans.”

Published in 1947, the book was updated eight times and sold more than 3 million copies. But that was only his most visible achievement.....

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John Hope Franklin

Photo courtesy: AJC