| In Part 1, John Hope Franklin speaks about his parents, his early childhood and school memories, and his college education. Franklin was born in Rentiesville, OK to Buck Franklin and Mollie Lee Franklin. Franklin’s father was a lawyer, and although he was passionate about integration, Rentiesville was an all-black town. When a judge orders him out of his courtroom, Buck decides to move the family to Tulsa, OK.
John remembers the riots in Tulsa in 1921, when hundreds are killed when whites burn the black section of Tulsa to the ground. Black businessmen were very successful in Tulsa, to the envy of whites, an envy that fuels the riots. John’s father lost everything in the riots, and John remembers that it was the first time they had to start over completely.
Franklin’s second major memory of strident racism came in 1922, when he and his mother and siblings accidentally boarded the white section of the train. When the conductor told his mother that she would have to move while the train was moving, she refused, so the conductor stopped the train. When she got off, the train left them at the station, and they had to walk all the way home.
Franklin graduated valedictorian of his class at the age of 16. He recalls not having access to black history classes at his high school. When he was in high school, he went to an opera, where viewers were segregated, and says that he regretted participating in it afterwards. He enrolled in Fisk University, an all-black university, and met his future wife, Aurelia Whittington. While at Fisk, one of Franklin’s teachers borrowed money to make sure Franklin went to Harvard to finish his education, which he did in 1936, with a masters degree.
As Franklin was researching for his dissertation on free African Americans in North Carolina, he needed access to the North Carolina State archives. Because the managers over the archives never imagined a black person wanting to be in the archives, there were no segregated facilities. In addition, they gave Franklin a key to the stacks because they assumed that none of the pages would be willing to serve him. However, the plan backfired, because all of the researchers then wanted their own key, since Franklin was getting all the materials he wanted and they were getting only a page at a time.
Franklin also talks about his experience with the military. He talks about his attempt to enlist, and a commanding officer telling him he was the wrong color. While his brother served, and paid for it dearly the rest of his life, Franklin refused to serve, even when he was served draft papers. He began teaching at St. Augustine’s College, but when the dean refused to write a letter excusing him from the draft, he accepted a position at NC Central College. When criticized about “dodging the draft,” he replies that he was simply making it easier for the military to maintain the proper color.
Part 1 Issues
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