November 23, 2009 | Brooklyn College
Brooklyn, NY—The Harvard University scholar chosen to coauthor the latest revision of John Hope Franklin’s seminal text, “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans,” told an audience of educators gathered to honor the former chair of the Brooklyn College history department—the first black scholar to head a history department at a predominantly white U.S. college—that there will be much new material in the ninth edition of his work when it is published in January.
Delivering the keynote address at the John Hope Franklin Memorial Conference on Tuesday, Nov. 17, Professor Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham said she had rewritten Franklin’s text extensively in the current eighth edition, changed chapter headings and added many new subjects, including sections on the early history of African slaves in Spanish Florida; the experience of black women through the centuries; the development of blues and jazz and the black artists and musicians who gravitated to Paris during the 1920s and ’30s; as well as a number of more recent topics, such as the civil rights movement, the rise of black power, hip-hop culture and other matters.
“The questions we bring to the past arise from the concerns we have for the present,” she said.
Higginbotham, the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African-American Studies — and a noted scholar and author in her own right — said that, in 2006, Franklin had asked her to act as coauthor and editor for the upcoming revision of his 60-year-old textbook. She said that she was able to show him the first 15 revised chapters before his death earlier this year and that he had approved them.
“He told me he liked them,” said Higginbotham.
“The growth of this field of study and the fact that we know a lot more about it now make the kind of extensive rewriting that Dr. Higginbotham has undertaken absolutely necessary,” said current history department head David Troyansky. “Franklin himself would have seen this as perfectly appropriate.”
Troyansky noted that much of the progress that has been made in the area of African-American history is the result not only of work done by Franklin himself, but also by his students, their students and others inspired by his pioneering work.
The conference, titled “Current Trends in African American History,” was organized by Troyansky and colleagues throughout the college, including Prudence Cumberbatch, of Africana Studies; Gunja Sengupta, of History; Jeanne Theoharis, of Political Science; and Barbara Winslow, of the School of Education. It was cosponsored by a wide range of academic departments and administrative offices. The daylong event also featured panel discussions that highlighted the work of noted scholars working today in the field of African-American history and attracted large audiences of students.
Among those scholars who spoke at the conference were Cheryl Hicks and Sonya Ramsey, both of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Jennifer Scott, of the Weeksville Heritage Center; Fred Winter, of the Association of American Colleges and Universities; Stefan Bradley, of St. Louis University; and Brian Purnell, of Fordham University.
George Cunningham, chair of the Brooklyn College Department of Africana Studies, spoke about African-American historical writing before Franklin and presented a collection of books to the library, while Arthur Bankoff, Michael Schoenfeld and Winslow, all of Brooklyn College, also took part in the conference.
Brooklyn College President Karen L. Gould, who welcomed the scholars to “a wonderful event” in honor of an educator “who was known not only here, but around the world as well,” also graced the podium at the commemorative luncheon.
In her welcoming remarks, she described Franklin’s achievements as being “of enormous importance” and said she was grateful to Brooklyn College for being “forward-looking and thoughtful enough to have hired him to head the history department back in 1956.”
“From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans” was first published in 1947 and has sold three million copies. It is still considered a valuable text on the centrality of African-Americans in the history of the United States.
Franklin, who died earlier this year at the age of 94, served as the chair of the Brooklyn College history department from 1956 to 1964. At the time of his death, he was the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus at Duke.