Norton Statement on the Passing of Dr. John Hope Franklin (3/25/09)

Norton Statement on the Passing of Dr. John Hope Franklin

March 25, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released the following statement on the passing of Dr. John Hope Franklin:

"America has lost a premier historian of American history and a public intellectual of the first rank, and I have lost a dear friend. I called John Hope Franklin "Prince John" because he refused to be regarded as the "King," despite the respect for his work and the near reverence his presence produced. For John Hope, there was no royalty. All were peers, though few belonged in the same company with him. Dr. John Hope Franklin, who began his academic career here at Howard University, lived his long working life as a thoughtful intellectual, endlessly contributing to American history and historiography. Above all, this master of American history has left as his lasting legacy, the understanding that American history and the history of the nation's African American minority are part and parcel to the same American story.