Week of August 31

Heather Says:

Mirror to America pgs. 1-38

“My life and my career have been fulfilled not merely by my own efforts but also by the thoughtful generosity of family, friends, and professional colleagues. I can only hope that they realize, as do I, how interdependent we all are and how much more rewarding and fulfilling life is whenever we reach a level of understanding where we can fully appreciate the extent of our interrelationships with and our reliance on those who came before us, kept us company during our lives, and will come after us.”

I think that Franklin was truly a person who really appreciated how important his relationships with others were. He seems to give a lot of credit to his parents for making him the person that he was. They had enormous influence over his life and it’s very evident that he greatly admired, respected and loved them both very much. When speaking about his mother he asks, “How do I calculate the influence of having spent two-thirds of my life living alongside an exemplar of selfless dignity?” His life could have been so different if his parents had not been the people that they were. If they had not been so strong and unwilling to let themselves be defeated Franklin may not have accomplished all that he did in his lifetime.

It was not only the relationship with his parents that was very important to him, but also those of his teachers in Tulsa at Booker T. Washington. In particular he mentions Ellis Woods and many others. The fact that he is able to list them all by name and describe their personalities many years later should show how important they were to him at the time. He remarks that they were very good teachers in their respective disciplines, but also that they all helped to develop their student’s self-confidence.

I can’t even begin to imagine how strong of a person that Franklin was to overcome all of the obstacles that he talks about in just these first few chapters of his book.

Brittany Says:

I have so many things I would like to reflect on… to begin with, Mr. Franklin makes me feel like a slacker! I’m so impressed by his dedication and his ability to handle so many responsibilities at once. I can’t imagine being a member of numerous clubs, including president of some of them, while working three jobs…and still maintaining a 3.79 GPA! These achievements become even more inspiring when one considers the racial climate he was doing this in.

In the second chapter, he discusses his parents and his early life in Rentiesville. I was struck by a particular passage about Mr. Franklin’s father, Buck Colbert Franklin, and I must say, it saddened me. “He seemed too ambitious, and some inhabitants viewed his education as excessive.” (14) It is a terrible mark on American history that white-created stereotypes, used to keep African Americans inferior in all ways, had such a considerable impact on the way the African American community viewed itself. White lies (and I don’t mean fibs!) about black people being unable to be educated in the same way as whites and the reality that a “white education” such as law was incredibly difficult to use clearly shaped how the black community viewed their own educated members. Generations of racial injustice seemed to have produced the unfortunate mindset among many in Rentiesville( and across the country) that being ambitious was not only a waste, but something to be resented… It also didn’t help that Buck and his family was Methodist! I felt a sense of pride for Buck a few pages later when Mr. Franklin describes a lawsuit, decided in the Oklahoma Supreme Court, in which his father successfully sued, “…the city [of Tulsa] for passing an ordinance that, in effect, barred blacks from rebuilding.”

Reading about Mr. Franklin’s personal experiences with racial injustice made me realize again how incomplete high school and survey American history courses really are. The widespread cruelties of American racism were so common and ingrained into American culture for so long, it is a true detriment to our people today that in order to learn about this stuff, one must go and specifically seek it out. How can we understand our history and the society we live in today if we are ignorant to the extent of white supremacy and what were considered norms just a few generations ago? The treatment of the African American community from the early days of colonialism to present must be understood if we are to do anything to fix race relations in this country. Just because the Civil Rights movement did away with segregation and institutional racism, and because we now have an African American president, does not mean things are fixed.

Ted Says:

I am truly excited to learn about John Hope Franklin's life as both a student of history and someone who lived in history. His life has so many different perspectives to offer based on his work in humanities and his trials and tribulations through life. The beginning chapters in Mirror to America are a wonderful painting of Franklin's early life as a young African American trying to get by in a world riddled with seperate but equal doctrines and intolerant rascists.

The key to Franklins's sucess is clearly his education. It seems as though his sucess in school truly paved his way to sucess in his field of study.Teachers and students alike all support young JHF's accomplishments.Franklins also makes it a point to explain the way his parents deal with the racism on a day to day basis. The tolerance both his father and mother have towards the oppressive white communitys is amazing. These people meet adversity and conteract it with a smile on thier faces. Bucky Franklin, John Hope's father, is always doing great things to help Afircan Americans within his community. Franklin's mother also teachers at a black school and rasies John to be a tolerant yet strong individual. Ffranklin also hints to an underlying sense of frustration with his parent's tolerance towards the racist whites. John Hope alsways seems irritated or confused by a decision his parents make when met with adversity. John Hope wants to find an equality or a response for the immediate situation but his parents consistanly accept and deal with the sitation in a more proactive manner.

If I were to guess a lesson that Franklin learns as an adolesent it is that his reactive manner to racism in his community will only be met with violence. His parents progressive/passive way of dealing with racism in the community through leagal and social means is much more effective and worth while in the long term. Both parents have a true imapct on his life in more ways than one but this lesson seems to almost be a thesis to his life. If not, I am sure it is a lesson that John Hope has taken away after writing his autobigraphy. What comes next in the book shuld be interesting.

Scott Writes:

Chapter 3 talks about JHF’s adolescence growing up in Tulsa. JHF discusses the role of his parents in his teenage years and the admiration he had for them. He looked up to his parents not only as family figures, but also as people. When JHF read his father’s church speech at the age of thirteen it boosted his confidence because he had obtained the approval of a man he admired. His father was a lawyer who dedicated his work to the black community. Despite the fact that most of his father’s black clients could not afford to pay him he still did work for them because it was the right thing to do. JHF’s mother also instilled confidence in him at an early age. She was active in many African American organizations to promote the betterment of the community.

The story that stood out the most to me in this chapter was the one about King’s Market and Newt. The opening line of the story began, “In the next few minutes, I observed one of the smoothest operations I had ever seen.”(33). Newt was the only other black employee working with JHF and the two of them were given minimum privileges at the market. However, Newt on occasion always managed to steal a free cooked meal. I was able to relate to this because I have been working in the food service industry for ten years and know how unfairly one can be treated especially when it comes to being fed. Newt and JHF beat the system at a time when the consequences were more drastic. This little story finally brought some kind of excitement into the novel. I hope to read more exciting stories about this guy’s life.

Brittany Writes:

“I was greatly disturbed by Harvard’s prevalent anti-Semitism…[which] awakened me…to the fact that whites discriminated among themselves…” Although I knew anti-Semitism was widespread prior to the Second World War, I was unaware of the fact that it was such an issue at Harvard. I find it interesting that although this particular brand of discrimination was derived from religious animosity, as observed by Mr. Franklin, it was only white Christians who appeared to practice it. We’ve already seen that different denominations of African American Christians fought amongst themselves…was this anger very much unlike that felt toward Jews by white Christians? I believe it was very different. Anti-Semitism had existed for many centuries in Europe while Christianity itself only came to those of African decent after they were imported to America. Was there any evidence of anti-Semitism in the black Christian community?

I was also aggravated by the difficulties Mr. Franklin faced in trying to obtain car insurance. “Very few insurance companies would insure the automobiles of African Americans, for the simple reason that in case of an accident, the car’s owner was unlikely to receive equal justice before the courts.” It’s terrible that judicial discrimination had such an impact on insurance companies that they were unwilling to take black customers! What other restrictions were placed on African Americans simply because discrimination from one source might make them a liability or less profitable?

I was also surprised to see the war theme at Harvard’s June, 1941 commencement. History books make it out to seem that isolationism was so deeply entrenched throughout the United States that those who believed we would have to engage in Europe’s war were in a small minority. To have such a major, important institution as Harvard clearly preparing for war, my impressions were very much wrong! With FDR receiving an honorary degree that year, I’m beginning to wonder about attempts he made before December, 1941 to gain support in the United States for war in Europe and the Pacific.Chapter 3 talks about JHF’s adolescence growing up in Tulsa. JHF discusses the role of his parents in his teenage years and the admiration he had for them. He looked up to his parents not only as family figures, but also as people. When JHF read his father’s church speech at the age of thirteen it boosted his confidence because he had obtained the approval of a man he admired. His father was a lawyer who dedicated his work to the black community. Despite the fact that most of his father’s black clients could not afford to pay him he still did work for them because it was the right thing to do. JHF’s mother also instilled confidence in him at an early age. She was active in many African American organizations to promote the betterment of the community.

Bobby Writes:

chapter 1

having only received the book this morning, i did not have the chance to delve that far into it. most of what i read we had already watched in class. The impression that i get from Franklin so far is a man who imply has a thirst for knowledge. Granted that most of his life he grew up experiencing racial barriers and tension, i feel that he has not let them define his life. "I was determined that i would not be confined to a box of any kind, so i regarded African American history as not so much a seperate field..." He views the entire field of history as a learning experience, and uses every aspect to try and shape the future. The few examples he gives of racial experiences in this chapter make me feel that he is no stranger to a world that many historians today have never experienced, but only read about. this kind of first-hand experience makes his story that much more fascinating.

Stephen Writes:

Pages 1-58, 58-72 (Mirror to America)

After reading these beginning chapters, I realized that John Hope Franklin, in his youth and throughout the remainder of his life, was an incredibly dedicated student. He skipped several grades and impresssed nearly all of his teachers, even one professor named Charles S. Johnson; even though Franklin got his first and only C in the class, Johnson still helped Franklin secure a job for the summer break, at a time when Frankiln really needed the money for his college expenses. His dedication is extremely impressive to me because of the many, many organizations and bodies in which he was a member and/or leader of. He had to balance his schoolwork and organizations while people were asking him to join even more bodies within the college.

I thought that this quote was interesting and funny because it represented this dilema, "At one point, it was rumored, quite inaccurately, that if I were escorting Aurelia to her dormitory in the evening and the time arrived in my schedule to be studying, I would bid her goodnight and proceed to my room, leaving her to return to her building unaccompanied." This rumor was begun by his friends who make jokes about his constant studying but he seemed to find it amusing too.

Lastly, his entire family and other social contacts, including his professors, notably Pr. Ted Currier, helped foster this dedication to learning and refusal to be "broken" by racist White people inside and outside of his communities. He and his family's patience is astounding to me; in nearly every racist situation and/or predicament, they didn't get flustered or angry....they just went on with their lives.