Noted Historian John Hope Franklin Passes Away

John Hope Franklin, the scholar who helped create the field of African-American history and dominated it for nearly six decades, died at the age of 94 of congestive heart failure at Duke University Hospital this morning.

This news arrived moments before this issue of the NCH newsletter was going to press. Here is a link to an obituary posted on the Duke University website. The late-Dr. Franklin was a former president of both the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians.

One thought on “Noted Historian John Hope Franklin Passes Away

  1. I thought of Dr. Franklin last night during the President’s press conference, hoping that President Obama has had the opportunity to meet him. I thought of him again today when I saw the NCH alert about the requested increase for NEH. In 1976, while a grad student at GWU, I worked at NEH in the Public Affairs office. John Hope Franklin was the Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities that year and I was assigned to meet his plane at the airport and drive him around town while he was here. I have had several occasions to meet him since then – most recently at his “book and author supper” at the Cosmos Club – and I always reminded him that carrying his bags back in 1976 was one of the greatest thrills of my professional life. Although I hardly knew him, I will miss him dearly.

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