Historian John Hope Franklin in 2001 began working in the seclusion of the Library to write his own history and the story of the times in which he had lived, and he returned on Nov. 1, to discuss the results, his newly published autobiography, "Mirror to America."
Historian John Hope Franklin, center, celebrates the completion of his autobiography, "Mirror to America," which he wrote largely at the Library's John Kluge Center. Greeting him at a program sponsored by the Kluge Center and the Center for the Book were Librarian of Congress James Billington and Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.), the ranking member for the Committee on House Administration and a member of the Joint Committee on the Library. - Charlynn Spencer Pyne
Franklin was awarded the first John W. Kluge Distinguished Visiting Scholar Chair at the Kluge Center for 2001, and he researched and wrote intermittently over the next three years, as his health permitted. With his publication in hand, he appeared at age 90 to discuss his latest book and to thank the Library. "If it hadn't been for my becoming the … Kluge [scholar], I don't think that you would be here this evening," he said.
"I would be somewhere scrounging and scrambling and trying to do the work that I was able to do because of the way in which the Library of Congress facilitated my work," he said. "I am deeply and eternally grateful to you for all that you've done."
The Center for the Book and the John W. Kluge Center cosponsored the Nov. 1 program held in the Madison Building's Montpelier Building.
The capacity audience included some members of Congress, Library staff, scholars, teachers and students. Some had heard Franklin read from his draft of the beginning chapters of his biography in July 2001 in the Coolidge Auditorium and had awaited with interest Franklin's return with the rest of the story. Many in the audience also had studied Franklin's history, a staple in the college classroom, "From Slavery to Freedom" (first published in 1947 and now in its ninth edition), to learn and teach the history of African Americans.
Introducing Franklin, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington noted that he had graduated from Fisk University in 1935, received his doctorate in history from Harvard University in 1941, taught at eight colleges and universities including Howard University, the University of Chicago, and Duke University. Franklin is the author or editor of 18 books.
"Dr. Franklin has received many honors, including the … Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995. He has also received honorary degrees from more than 130 colleges and universities, which must be a record."
Franklin titled his talk "Days of Infamy," which also is the title of a chapter about his experiences during World War II. "When the Japanese dropped the bomb on Pearl Harbor, the president of the United States went before the Congress the next day and said, ‘Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy… .' But what about the other days? I believe that there was more than one day of infamy."
In response to the government's urgent call, he explained, and because he had a low draft number, and he had decided to volunteer for the Navy, "where they said they needed us the most""
Franklin, who at the beginning of America's entry into the war was teaching at St. Augustine's College, went down to the Navy recruiting center in Raleigh, N.C. The recruitment officer asked: "What can you do?" Franklin responded that he could run an office — he could take dictation at 135 words per minute, had three gold medals in typing and a Ph.D. in history from Harvard.
The officer nevertheless told Franklin that he was lacking in one important qualification — color. "I left with the same feeling that black volunteers must have had when George Washington rejected them in the Continental Army in 1775 or when Abraham Lincoln sent them home when they tried to enlist in the Union Army in 1861," Franklin recalled. "That is why I believe that there were different kinds of days of infamy and more days than one."
Franklin next wrote the War Department to volunteer as a civilian. There, he said, "several of my Harvard friends, some of whom had flunked their studies, held high-level positions" working on history projects. "The War Department didn't even bother to reply," he said.
"I was distraught and depressed. I decided then that the U. S. government was not going to get me because they did not deserve me, and that began the battle between Franklin and Franklin D. Roosevelt and all the others."
Franklin related with humor and pathos how he employed several ruses to obtain brief deferments from the draft, for which he was classified A-1, and the subsequent days of infamy.
After leaving St. Augustine's College in anger because the school's white president had refused to write a letter of deferment and had insulted him in the process, Franklin reconsidered an offer to teach at North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham, and called the president. "I told President [James E.] Shepard that I would accept his offer on one condition: If he was still a member of the draft appeal board, he would see to it that I would be deferred if the request came," Franklin said. "He told me in a jocular tone that would be no problem because he had an interest in seeing an American victory."
"So you see that there were days of infamy, some of which I think the country should be ashamed of," he said.
The officer nevertheless told Franklin that he was lacking in one important qualification — color. "I left with the same feeling that black volunteers must have had when George Washington rejected them in the Continental Army in 1775 or when Abraham Lincoln sent them home when they tried to enlist in the Union Army in 1861," Franklin recalled. "That is why I believe that there were different kinds of days of infamy and more days than one."
Franklin next wrote the War Department to volunteer as a civilian. There, he said, "several of my Harvard friends, some of whom had flunked their studies, held high-level positions" working on history projects. "The War Department didn't even bother to reply," he said.
"I was distraught and depressed. I decided then that the U. S. government was not going to get me because they did not deserve me, and that began the battle between Franklin and Franklin D. Roosevelt and all the others."
Franklin related with humor and pathos how he employed several ruses to obtain brief deferments from the draft, for which he was classified A-1, and the subsequent days of infamy.
After leaving St. Augustine's College in anger because the school's white president had refused to write a letter of deferment and had insulted him in the process, Franklin reconsidered an offer to teach at North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham, and called the president. "I told President [James E.] Shepard that I would accept his offer on one condition: If he was still a member of the draft appeal board, he would see to it that I would be deferred if the request came," Franklin said. "He told me in a jocular tone that would be no problem because he had an interest in seeing an American victory."
"So you see that there were days of infamy, some of which I think the country should be ashamed of," he said.
