Duke honors historian John Hope Franklin with year-long series of events

Duke University will hold events during the next year paying tribute to preeminent historian John Hope Franklin, who would have turned 100 years old this January.

“John Hope Franklin@100: Scholar, Activist, Citizen” will kick off on Wednesday, Jan. 28, with an event featuring Vernon Jordan, a civil rights activist, attorney, former adviser to President Bill Clinton and a personal friend of the Franklin family. Jordan will discuss the way Franklin, who died on March 25, 2009, at age 94, changed American universities in the 20th century.

The 6 p.m. celebration is free and open to the public and takes place in the Von Der Heyden Pavilion in Perkins Library on Duke’s West Campus. Visitor parking is available in the Bryan Center garage.

“On this, the 100th anniversary of John Hope Franklin's birth, we celebrate the life of a national hero,” said William Chafe, Duke history professor emeritus and co-chair of the centenary organizing committee. “Born at the height of Jim Crow oppression, he embodied the struggle of black Americans to steadfastly resist white racism.”

“No one did more to focus attention on the fundamental contradiction between racism and democracy,” he continued. “And in this year of his centenary, we celebrate and remember all he did to make us live up to his dream of racial justice and dignity.” ...