Synopses & Reviews
John Hope Franklin lived through Americas most defining twentieth-century transformation, the dismantling of legally protected racial segregation. A renowned scholar, he has explored that transformation in its myriad aspects, notably in his 3.5-million-copy bestseller,
From Slavery to Freedom. Born in 1915, he, like every other African American, could not help but participate: he was evicted from whites-only train cars, confined to segregated schools, threatened—once with lynching—and consistently subjected to racisms denigration of his humanity. Yet he managed to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard; become the first black historian to assume a full professorship at a white institution, Brooklyn College; and be appointed chair of the University of Chicagos history department and, later, John B. Duke Professor at Duke University. He has reshaped the way African American history is understood and taught and become one of the worlds most celebrated historians, garnering over 130 honorary degrees. But Franklins participation was much more fundamental than that.
From his effort in 1934 to hand President Franklin Roosevelt a petition calling for action in response to the Cordie Cheek lynching, to his 1997 appointment by President Clinton to head the Presidents Initiative on Race, and continuing to the present, Franklin has influenced with determination and dignity the nations racial conscience. Whether aiding Thurgood Marshalls preparation for arguing Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, marching to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965, or testifying against Robert Borks nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987, Franklin has pushed the national conversation on race toward humanity and equality, a life long effort that earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, in 1995. Intimate, at times revelatory, Mirror to America chronicles Franklins life and this nations racial transformation in the twentieth century, and is a powerful reminder of the extent to which the problem of America remains the problem of color.
Review
"[A]fter he hosted a dinner on the eve of receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a white woman gave him a numbered ticket and asked him to retrieve her coat." New Yorker
Review
"An important work by an eyewitness to the events of the 20th century." Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
John Hope Franklin is James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University. He has received dozens of major awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his life-long commitment to Civil Rights.