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Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin

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John Hope Franklin is one of the greatest historians that America has ever produced, and he is also one of the most valuable citizens we have ever produced. His memoir, though written in a calm, modest, and understated prose, is lucid and illuminating throughout, and readers seeking the emotional core of this great man and great scholar need only read to find it. Franklin's book is frank about his repeated experiences of racism in America, and about his justifiable anger at such experiences. It is also frank about his belief that his commitment to scholarly integrity is not only something he believes in as a committed scholar, but also something that he wants to use to prove the dignity and worth of all African Americans. This book also shows his deep love for his family, in particular for his wife and his son. And it is an all but unparalleled illumination of the scholarly and professional life of one of America's greatest historians. For anyone who is interested in becoming a historian, for anyone who wants an enlightening view of the effects of America's racial ordeal in the twentieth century, for anyone who has read any of the works of John Hope Franklin and wants to understand the author, for anyone who cares about this country, MIRROR TO AMERICANS is indispensable reading.

Back in the 1970's, when I worked as an education assistant at a small historical library in Ohio, John Hope Franklin spent several days in residence doing research. Having a man of such stature in our midst was a rare occurrence, and the head librarian had instructed us to walk on eggs so as not to disturb him; to her chagrin, I was scheduled to lead a group of eighth graders on a tour during his stay. Before my charges entered the building I explained who Dr. Franklin was and why it was very important that we not disrupt his work. As we tiptoed silently through the reading room hoping to go unnoticed, Dr. Franklin looked up, smiled and asked me to bring them over. He inquired about their school, their studies, their interests in history, etc. before discussing his current research project with them. Their teacher told me they were still talking about him months later.

Each page of this astounding memoir reminded of that compassion, that ability to connect with people at all ages and levels of experience and sophistication. John Hope Franklin is more than a world-class scholar. Personally and professionally, he is the bridge connecting America to its African American history. At times I felt like I was rereading FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM, augmented by personal asides and inside stories.

Reviewers detail Franklin's numerous high profile accomplishments, but for me, smaller, more personal moments in the book stand out. For example, I gave little thought to the obstacles he would have encountered while trying to access archives in the Jim Crow South, despite his impeccable Harvard credentials. Even when librarians were supportive, they had to work around the absurdities of segregation, sometimes with ironic results. For example, at one library he was given his own key to the stacks because it was deemed improper that he be waited upon by white pages who typically fetched materials for researchers. This meant he had unlimited access to the stacks - every historian's dream. Soon the white researchers demanded equal access, which was impossible, so the white pages ended up serving him instead.

And I nearly cried when I read that even in his 80's, this internationally renowned scholar was mistaken for a porter in the coatroom of a Washington club where he was a member.

If you read nothing else this year, do yourself a favor and read this book. It is more than just a mirror - it is a gift.

Dr. John Hope Franklin's autobiography, Mirror to America, accomplishes several things:

1) It gives a detailed account of the author's life and vividly demonstrates the struggle African Americans faced regardless of their education, benevolence, and willingness to be a good citizen despite daily obstacles of prejudice.

2) It provides detailed insight into the inner workings of Black communities and their interactions with White communities over a period of 90 years.

3) It gives inspiration and pride to African Americans who sincerely yearn for an African-American male mentor to give guidance. The scarcity of African-American male mentors lends more hardship to being a Black male. It is sometimes quite burdensome for Black males who strive to overcome constant obstacles as they push forward to make a place for themselves in the world.

John Hope Franklin's life is the story of an America where racial segregation was a fact of life and black people had little hope of receiving justice. It is also the story of an America which is being transformed through the civil rights movement and legislation.

The James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University amassed many honors since publishing the landmark From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans. First appearing in 1947, this volume is now a landmark text in African American Studies. Simmilarly, this biography richly deserves all of the praise which it recieves.

This book contains some personal information about his family, but Franklin obviously thought about what he wanted to write before beginning his project. This is not one of the books where a `famous' author was simply writing down words for the sake of publication. Franklin's genius comes viewing the historian as a resource and active participant in the civil rights struggle.

During the Clinton administration he was a member of the President's Advisory Board to the President's Initiative on Race, charged with Promoting national dialogue on race issues; Increasing the nation's understanding of the history and future of race relations; Identifying and creating plans to calm racial tension and promote increased opportunity for all Americans; and addressing crime and the administration of justice.

Franklin does not view that advisory board appointment as an academic exercise or historical stamp without enforcement teeth. Merging activism with professional research was a trend throughout his entire life. In addition to helping himself, Franklin believed his career and other choices would help his community, and his nation.

It is because Franklin and his colleagues within the civil rights movement and/or history associations did such a good job that my generation experienced a different south regardless of our own skin color.

John Hope Franklin has been through a certain kind of hell prevalent in this country for centuries -- the hell of discrimination, the hell of being looked upon by whites as something less than human. Slavery was abolished in the 19th century after this country lost hundreds of thousands in a civil war. That uprising by the South still splits America, and African Americans have never truly been free.

Dr. Franklin, who took his Ph.D in history at Harvard, has written not only the scarred story of his people but of discrimination that has never ended. As a young boy, he grew up in a small town in Oklahoma that was founded by African Americans. His lawyer-father finally managed to move the family to Tulsa, after a now-famous riot in 1921 destroyed the Greenwood District, the center of black commerce in the community. Even today, there are no reliable statistics on how many African Americans died in that tragedy.

Throughout his illustrious career as an historian, teacher and presidential advisor, Dr. Franklin never wavers in his criticism of a "free" country that enslaves an entire race. Afterward, over a century of "Jim Crow" laws and traditions made blacks lead poverty-stricken lives in segregated schools, lunch counters, restrooms -- every aspect of life in America was separate and unequal.

But his is a criticism tempered with knowledge and love of his country and his fellow students, historians and citizens, regardless of color.

Here is a figure of history who, as a young boy, was not allowed by the white community of Tulsa to do even the simplest jobs, like delivering a daily newspaper, the Tulsa Tribune. Franklin delivered the newspapers by proxy -- only white men could be official carriers. Young Franklin did the actual work.

This was the same newspaper that, reportedly, supported legalized lynching of African Americans. During the Tulsa race riots in 1921, that same newspaper urged the Greenwood area be burned to the ground. It was.

He recounts another experience as a youngster in Tulsa. He saw an elderly white woman, who was blind, trying to cross a street alone. As a Boy Scout, Franklin knew it was an honorable deed to help her. She accepted his help, until she found out he was black. Then, she shoved him away and crossed by herself.

This was the atmosphere in which Dr. Franklin formed the fortitude to build a life that would fight for freedom, justice and equality for all. Through his long life, he continues the battle to change and better his country.

Sometimes, that battle became dangerous. During Franklin's college days, he recounted being part of a research team that talked with former slaves, plantation workers and sharecroppers. He and a fellow scholar were nearly lynched because they interviewed workers on a plantation in defiance of the plantation owner's orders.

This winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, paints a picture throughout his autobiography of a nation that has lost the talents of an entire race of people, simply because of its prejudice in every area of society.

In later life, he was reminded again of racist America. He says it best: "At age sixty I was ordered to serve as a porter for a white person in a New York hotel, at age eighty to hang up a white guest's coat at a Washington club where I was not an employee but a member."

Yet, when President Clinton asked him to chair the President's Initiative on Race, he did so willingly. Dr. Franklin learned another lesson: the national press corps refused to either report, or report accurately, the workings of the committee.

The Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, and other major news outlets refused to send reporters to meetings of the national conversation on race.

"'For his entire year as chairman,' wrote a reporter for The Boston Globe, 'Franklin never met face-to-face with Clinton.' This was, of course, stunningly inaccurate,'" Franklin wrote.

This autobiography is, in itself, a national conversation on race and raises questions by which could hang the fate of the nation: in 2001 "...there were more young black men in jails and penitentiaries than in college...". The glass ceiling for African American employment remains. Discrimination in housing continues. The majority of African Americans still live in low-income neighborhoods.

This book is a poetic, evocative plea for fairness and growth as a nation. It remains a 'must read' for every American, no matter what race.

It has the rise and sweep of a great work of art, authored by a great and remarkable American, Dr. John Hope Franklin.

The most interesting aspect about John Hope Franklin's autobiography, MIRROR TO AMERICA, is the events and experiences he observed during his lifetime. As one of the movers and shakers for civil rights in the United States, his story is not only the years and events that took place, it is the people he encountered along the way that shaped his path. His first-hand accounts add yet another perspective of how twentieth century history should be viewed.

However, this is not a book about revisionist history. The book takes into account the racial prejudice and adversity Franklin experienced while moving up the Higher Education ladder as well as avoiding the draft as a means of protest after being denied the right to volunteer for military service. From his birthplace of Rentiesville, Oklahoma and later to Tulsa during his formative years, Franklin experienced fervent racism and riots, and an attempted lynching that existed in this region of the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Although, he personally took the initiative, while traveling on a bus twenty or so years before Rosa Parks, to not give in to segregation. His activism for civil rights during the 1940s to 1960s, and his contribution to the canon of the history of civil rights in the United States shows how significant a figure he has been to those in the United States as well as abroad.

MIRROR TO AMERICA deals with Franklin's articulated and somewhat destined approach to becoming one of America's most eminent historians who did not let adversity get in his way. He was fortunate to have a mentor (s), Ted Currier and Arthur Schlesinger, and numerous colleagues during his early academic career. He surrounded and associated himself with the most elite and notable historians of his time, such as W.E.B. Du Bois and C. Vann Woodward who he gained friendship and camaraderie with.

Indeed, MIRROR TO AMERICA may influence or inspire up and coming historians of US history or any history to look at their craft as more than a field of study, but as an experience and a window to understanding the past. Franklin's most memorable quotes in the book possibly describe his approach to understanding the subject of history: "As a Historian, I am of the opinion that the past cannot be sacrificed...for the sake of the present..." (p. 198).

MIRROR TO AMERICA is recommended reading for the curious or the inquisitive. It may entice readers to further delve into his previous scholarship about Reconstruction and Race in the United States.

Dr. Franklin is an extraordinary savant. His writing technique is grabbing and august. He presents his life in a clear unquestionable manner; causing the reader to feel the emotion in which he experienced throughout his life journey.

Dr. Franklin shows the many contrasts between educated and uneducated, between intelligence and ignorance, between fair and unfair throughout the book. He points out that education is the best tool one can possess to with-stand the evils that human beings are capable of. Dr. Franklin also presents his wife Aurelia in the book as a woman who is not only supportive of his career, but who is also an educated woman and mother.

This book is so well written that it makes you feel like you have a personal relationship with Dr. Franklin. He has endured many years of hardship and obstacles; yet he doesn't express himself as the victim. His drive and trustworthiness rests within his education. Truly this is a fantastic read!

John Hope Franklin's autobiography presents a fascinating look back at the life of an extraordinary man and a pioneering historian. From the beginning of his career he has strived to deliver the best scholarship possible, and he has succeeded. He faced innumerable obstacles as a result of racism on the way, and those stories make for compelling reading. He acknowledges the many strides that society has made in his lifetime, and yet understands that there is stil significant progress that has yet to be made. Unfortunately, Hope is at times too much of an academic and a gentleman; we rarely get to see inside the man. In that way it is sort of an old-fashioned biography, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it would've been a better book if he had revealed a bit more of what makes him tick.

Dr. John Hope Franklin is not only the Dean of African-American history studies, anyone who has ever had the honor of meeting him (as I did on three occasions) and hearing him speak (as I also did on three occasions), knows that he is also the King of Anecdotes. He knows how to tell 'em all right, and thankfully, some of the best ones from his repetoire are preserved in this book. His stories going back to the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 (where his father represented some of the vicitms in court), being a student at Fisk and Harvard in the 30s, serving on the research team of the historic Brown vs. Board case to end segregation, witnessing (and sometimes participating in) the Civil Rights movement, etc. etc. For an academian, he recounts all of this in a folksy manner that is fine for reading on the front porch or in a rocking chair b y the fireplace. A history lesson that goes down well.

I have heard two great lecturers in my life: Jean-Paul Sartre and John Hope Franklin. Franklin's autobiography reads the way he lectures - brilliantly. This is the book for those interested not only in the history of African Americans in the 20th century but also in the manner America dealt with race relations during the century when the issue of the color line was the decisive factor in the social and political life of the United States.