IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 301 
Honoring the life of Dr. John Hope Franklin. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 30, 2009 
Mr. PRICE of North Carolina (for himself, Mr. WATT, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. 
MILLER of North Carolina, Mr. KISSELL, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. SHULER, 
Ms. FOXX, Mr. ETHERIDGE, Mr. JONES, Mrs. MYRICK, Mr. MCHENRY, 
and Mr. COBLE) submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 
RESOLUTION 
Honoring the life of Dr. John Hope Franklin. 
Whereas Dr. John Hope Franklin was born on January 2, 
1915, in Rentiesville, Oklahoma, the grandson of a slave 
and the son of Buck Colbert Franklin, one of the first 
black lawyers in the Oklahoma Indian territory, and Mol-
lie Parker Franklin, a schoolteacher and community lead-
er; 
Whereas in 1936, Dr. Franklin was appointed to the faculty 
of Fisk University as Instructor of History and subse-
quently served as Professor of History at St. Augustine’s 
College, North Carolina College, and Howard University; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin taught at the University of Chicago 
from 1964 to 1982, serving as Professor of American 
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HRES 301 IH 
History, Chairman of the Department of History, the 
John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service Professor of 
History, and Professor Emeritus of History; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin was on faculty at Duke University 
from 1982 until his passing, serving as the James B. 
Duke Professor of History, Professor of Legal History at 
Duke University Law School, and the James B. Duke 
Professor of History Emeritus, Duke University; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin broke numerous racial barriers, serv-
ing as the first African-American department chair at a 
predominantly white institution as Chairman of the De-
partment of History at Brooklyn College from 1956 to 
1964; and as the first African-American professor to hold 
an endowed chair at Duke University; and the first Afri-
can-American President of the American Historical Asso-
ciation; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin’s research contributed to the success 
of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP’s legal victory in 
the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board 
of Education, which ended the ‘‘separate but equal’’ doc-
trine in America’s public schools; 
Whereas in 1947, Dr. Franklin authored From Slavery to 
Freedom: A History of Negro Americans, widely consid-
ered the preeminent history of the African-American ex-
perience in the United States, as well as numerous other 
notable books including his influential autobiography Mir-
ror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Frank-
lin; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin was named ‘‘Historian of the Century’’ 
by Duke University, North Carolina State University, 
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North Carolina Central University, and The University of 
North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin received the Presidential Medal of 
Freedom in 1995 and was appointed Chairman of the 
Advisory Board of President Clinton’s Initiative on Race 
in 1997; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin served as the head of the three major 
U.S. historical associations including the Organization of 
American Historians, the American Historical Associa-
tion, and the Southern Historical Association; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin was inducted into the North Carolina 
Literary Hall of Fame in 1998; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin received a Lifetime Achievement 
Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters 
and the American Philosophical Society in 2007; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin inspired the John Hope Franklin Cen-
ter for Interdisciplinary & International Studies at Duke 
University, a consortium of academic programs that en-
courages creative scholarship, the exchange of ideas, and 
a variety of perspectives and methodologies to revitalize 
notions of how knowledge is gained and shared; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin was a scholar who helped create the 
field of African-American history and literature; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin described historians as ‘‘the conscience 
of the nation, if honesty and consistency are factors that 
nurture the conscience’’, and his contributions to the 
study of American history fundamentally challenged and 
changed the manner in which the Nation collectively in-
terprets its past and understands its present; 
Whereas generations of young historians have been inspired 
and personally influenced by Dr. Franklin’s keen intel-
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lect, graceful humility, and humor in the classroom, and 
will ensure the endurance of his towering legacy; 
Whereas Dr. Franklin passed away on March 25, 2009, in 
Durham, North Carolina; and 
Whereas Dr. John Hope Franklin will be deeply missed but 
leaves an enduring legacy of public service, scholarship, 
and perseverance that inspires all Americans: Now, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) celebrates the life and accomplishments of 
John Hope Franklin; and 
(2) honors the contributions that John Hope 
Franklin made to American society. 
Æ 
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