Dr. John Hope Franklin. Courtesy Oklahoma Hall of Fame Archives.

Dr. John Hope Franklin was a groundbreaking historian of African American and Southern history who used his scholarship to further equity and inclusion. Born in 1915 in Rentiesville to a practicing lawyer and a public school teacher, he took an early interest in education and learning, attending the historically Black college Fisk University for his undergraduate studies and later Harvard University for graduate school. Franklin's work focused on African American history, which he argued included the story of both Black and white Americans. 

Dr. Franklin standing beside the Rentiesville welcome sign. 1999. Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.

Franklin is best known for his book From Slavery to Freedom, published in 1947, which linked enslavement to struggles over civil rights in the United States. In his autobiography, Franklin wrote that "it was armed with the tools of scholarship that I strove to dismantle those laws, level those obstacles and disadvantages, and replace superstitions with humane dignity." Seeing the historian's role extending beyond the page or classroom, Franklin brought historical context to contemporary issues. 

Dr. Franklin at the First Annual Heritage Conference, 1999. Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.

Beyond his dozens of publications, Franklin used his study of history to advance the Civil Rights Movement. In the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, he provided research to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund team and aided Thurgood Marshall's famous victory, which initiated the desegregation of public schools. Franklin saw the pressing need for historians in the arena of public history, believing that a full understanding of the past can positively shape the future. He disrupted the overwhelming absence of African Americans from United States history and used that knowledge to advocate for equality and humanity.