First Person Singular: John Hope Franklin

"When I hear people refer to me as an African-American historian, they should know that when I write in the field of African-American history, I am writing about white people as well as black people." Born in 1915, the distinguished scholar, teacher, writer, and civil rights activist John Hope Franklin is perhaps best known for his textbook From Slavery to Freedom: a History of African-Americans, and for a career spent stripping away generations of historical assumption and popular falsehood regarding blacks and slavery. It was Franklin's goal to examine the myths about race relations that passed as history and to subject them to the demanding, unsentimental standards of scholarship. He tells us, for example, that the first Africans brought to America were not slaves, but indentured servants; that "historically black" towns and colleges have not really stood African-Americans in good stead; and that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s cult of personality left many helpers unsung in the civil rights struggle. Narrated by Charles Kuralt and full of pertinent visuals, this video is a wonderful tribute to Franklin's life and career, and would make a fine addition to any library collecting in this area. Aud: H, C, P. (K. Glaser)