African American Historian John Hope Franklin Dies

I had to read John Hope Franklin's book, From Slavery to Freedom, for a graduate course in African American history years ago. The book is considered a major text in African American history classes. Franklin passed away on March 25, 2009. He was 94 years old. You can read about Mr. Franklin:

• in this article from The New York Times,
• in his Wikipedia entry,
• in this entry from the Omnivoracious blog. This particular item has a few other links that readers may find interesting.

The Omnivoracious blog also provides a list of 10 books on African American history that Mr. Franklin recommended himself. I would like to take this opportunity to point these titles out and include the call numbers for the ones we have so readers can go find them.All books are in the library's third floor stacks unless otherwise noted. The List:

• Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom (E449 .D738 1970).
• W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (E185.6 .D797 1996X).
• George Washington Williams, A History of the Negro Race in America, 1619-1880 (LAC 20980 1. This is actually in a microform, and it can be found in the reference area).
• Leon Litwack, Been in the Storm So Long (This one is not available at our library. If you are affiliated with the university, you can request the item via Interlibrary Loan).
• Darlene Clark Hine, Black Women in America (E185.86 .B542 1993. This is a two volume work, and it is in the reference collection).
• Kenneth Stampp, The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-bellum South (E441 .S8 1989. I had to read this one for that same class as well).
• Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (E185.6 .M95 1996).
• C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya, The Black Church in the African American Experience (BR563.N4 L55 1990).
• August Meier and Elliot Rudwick, Black History and the Historical Profession, 1915-1980 (This book is not available in our library. See link above for ILL if you are affiliated with the university).
• A. Leon Higginbotham, In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process (KF4757 .H53).

And I leave my readers from some of Professor Franklin's own words:

"I believe that with all of the talent and ability and strength that people in this country have, that they can use that to, not merely to further themselves, but to improve the society in which they live. And to realize that their improvement of themselves is best assured by strengthening and improving the society in which they live."

-John Hope Franklin, from Interview with Tavis Smiley, 2/14/2006.