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US historian Franklin dies at 94 US historian Franklin dies at 94
(10 minutes later)
The US historian John Hope Franklin, a pioneering scholar of black American history, has died at the age of 94.The US historian John Hope Franklin, a pioneering scholar of black American history, has died at the age of 94.
His 1947 book From Slavery to Freedom is regarded as a landmark volume of black American history, and remains on US school syllabuses.His 1947 book From Slavery to Freedom is regarded as a landmark volume of black American history, and remains on US school syllabuses.
Mr Franklin, born and raised in an all-black community in Oklahoma, helped in the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education case against racial segregation.Mr Franklin, born and raised in an all-black community in Oklahoma, helped in the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education case against racial segregation.
He was also the first black president of the American Historical Association.He was also the first black president of the American Historical Association.
I want to be out there on the firing line, helping, directing or doing something to try to make this a better world John Hope Franklin in 2005
"It was evident how much the lawyers appreciated what the historians could offer," Mr Franklin once wrote about his contribution to the 1954 case. "For me, and I suspect the same was true for the others, it was exhilarating."
Mr Franklin was the first black department chair at a predominantly white institution, Brooklyn College as well as the first black professor to hold an endowed chair at Duke University.
His book delved into the important contribution African-Americans had made to the nation right back to its very founding - he pointed out that black patriots had fought in the War of Independence and had accompanied George Washington on his march across the Delaware.
Often exasperated by the state of America, he refused to give up on the country.
"I want to be out there on the firing line, helping, directing or doing something to try to make this a better world, a better place to live," he told The Associated Press in 2005.