For a photo of John Hope Franklin, click here.

Historian John Hope Franklin Shares His All-New Autobiography
On UNC-TV's North Carolina Bookwatch,
Friday, August 11, at 9:30 PM, and Sunday, August 13, at 5 PM

At ninety years old, John Hope Franklin remains one of the most admired, influential and relevant historians in the world. Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin is not only a unique and invaluable historical document, but a testament to the courage and determination of one American who, throughout the twentieth century and in the twenty-first-from the first petition he was selected to deliver to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to his appointment as chair of President Clinton's taskforce (to say nothing of his writing and scholarship)-has helped redirect the social and political course of our nation.

In this episode of UNC-TV's local literary series North Carolina Bookwatch, airing Friday, August 11, at 9:30 PM, John Hope Franklin shares his personal legacy and the book that Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Severus Lewis has called "a great historian's autobiography that will serve as an indispensable history of our times."

For John Hope Franklin, this indispensable history was often marred by the racism of the last century. In this one-on-one interview, he shares stories of his childhood and how it shaped the man he would become. 

"One day my mother took us children.to flag down a train. We got on it that Saturday morning and.it immediately began moving, so we sat down. The conductor came through and told my mother that this was a White coach, that we couldn't sit here, and that we must move. My mother responded that because she had two small children in her care and that the train was in motion, she refused to move. The conductor stopped the train and put us off in the woods. I started crying," recounts Franklin. "My mother said to me, 'they put us off because we are Black-because the laws of the state require us to be separated from Whites; but don't you cry because of that.that's not worth crying about. You take that energy and spend it to show that you are just as good as anyone on that train.' And those words remain with me today."

Indeed, John Hope Franklin would go on to spend much of his life investigating the legacy of slavery and racism in America. Professor Franklin's numerous publications include The Emancipation Proclamation, The Militant South, The Free Negro in North Carolina, Reconstruction After the Civil War and A Southern Odyssey: Travelers in the Ante-Bellum North and, perhaps his best known From Slavery to Freedom:  A History of African-Americans.  In 1990, a collection of essays covering a teaching and writing career of fifty years, was published under the title, Race and History: Selected Essays, 1938-1988.  In 1993, he published The Color Line:  Legacy for the Twenty-first Century.  In 2001, he and Loren Schweninger published Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation.

Yet, more than just a chronicler of the African American experience, Franklin was, in fact, an important player in the Civil Rights movement, helping Thurgood Marshall and his team craft their landmark Brown v. Board of Education case against school segregation.

Having witnessed so much of American history first-hand, Franklin found it important to record his own storied history, and its resulting reflection on the history of America, in his own words and at this juncture in his life.

"Several things influenced my decision to write this book now. One is it's always a challenge to look over your shoulder and see where you've been and I was getting in that mood-deciding I was ready to look over my shoulder. Another is that more and more people were asking if and when I was going to write an autobiography. Then, there were those who said that they were interested in writing about me themselves and asking when my papers would be available," says Franklin. "I thought I'd better get my word in before some of them got their words in."

Don't miss D.G. Martin's all-new interview with John Hope Franklin, in his own words, on North Carolina Bookwatch, Friday, August 11, at 9:30 PM, with an encore episode airingSunday, August 13, at 5 PM,only on UNC-TV!

During this season of North Carolina Bookwatch, guests also include: Will Blythe (To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever), John Hart (TheKing of Lies), Sarah Dessen (Just Listen), Kristin Henderson (While They're at War), David Payne (Back to Wando Passo), Leah Stewart (The Myth of You and Me), Andrew Britton (The American), Allan Gurganus (New Stories from the South), Tom Carlson (Hatteras Blues), Bill Smith (Seasoned in the South), William Leuchtenburg (The White House Looks South), Dot Jackson (Refuge), Art Chansky (Blue Blood), Mark Ethridge (Grievances),  Paul Leonard (Music of a Thousand Hammers), and Angela Davis-Gardner (Plum Wine).

For more information about additional series guests and airdates, plus, the all-new Bookwatch blog and online book club, please visit: www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

Funding for North Carolina Bookwatch is provided by UNC-TV members and by Quail Ridge Books and Music, Raleigh's independent, full service bookstore, bringing readers and writers together since 1984.

North Carolina Bookwatch is part of UNC-TV's ongoing commitment to produce programs for and about North Carolina. UNC-TV is the statewide 11-station broadcast network of the University of North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch.

For more information about North Carolina Bookwatch and UNC-TV's other local productions, please visit our website at www.unctv.org.

-UNC-TV-