Week of October 5, 2009

Mike Swanson Writes:

This will be our final discussion of John Hope Franklin's autobiography. Hopefully we'll be finished playing catchup, and ready to move on toRacial Equality in America. There are less than 100 pages of text in the book and I'd like to have it substantially completed by Thursday, October 15. The same rules apply, report on your reading for every class session, sharing your thoughts and the issues which seem to be useful subjects for your paper. I want to begin to have you select chapters for discussion from our third book. Race and History. At the beginning of the semester I provided you with two indexes, a topical index and a chronological index. For your convenience, I'm repeating the links here.

My intention is to have you lead discussions on chapters of your own choosing--either as individuals or as members of groups of two or three. So this will be a good time to begin thinking about that--who'd you enjoy working with (if you choose not to go solo) and what chapter you'd like to claim for yours.

As you can see, I'm gradually increasing your individual responsiblity and autonomy in this course. That's what seminars do. More and more, you'll be conducting your own research as well. If I can finish it in time I'm going to be creating a research "rules of the road" page, which I'll update on a regular basis. If I can't get it finished in about an hour, I'll have the computer with me on the road.

I want to get you started helping each other in research, and to that end I've a little project which I've lined up. It will be on the "rules of the road" page.

Max Writes:

John Hope Franklin’s time in England is interesting chronologically in that he gained a very deep understanding of the British perspective, and sheer disbelief, with the situation pertaining to the Civil Rights movement in the United States. While most of the chapter discusses his thinking regarding the changes in his professional life at this time, I found it interesting the way he reflected on the foreign interpretation and reaction to the early beginnings of the most tumultuous time of the Civil Rights movement. Modernly the incident in Mississippi seems outrageous to Americans, as apparently it did at the time to people in England. Historically, it is easy to dismiss our modern conception of race when trying to grasp an event that happened in a time and place like Mississippi in the early 1960s; however, with this gained understanding of people at that time having what we consider a natural reaction and aversion to such a spectacle being made of a person trying to enter an institution of higher learning, it helps demean the segregationists as being more than a simple product of their time.

Upon returning to the United States Franklin uprooted his family from an uncomfortable situation in Brooklyn, to the grand invitation awaiting him at the esteemed University of Chicago, and with it the model for modern integration in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Becoming enthralled with his work and the opportunities presented to him, Franklin seems to thoroughly enjoy this part of his career when speaking of it. I found his dedication to be fascinatingly unique, as most people seem to at least want to attempt other fields or ventures when having achieved the status in a field comparable to Franklin’s in regard to being a historian. As he explains when firmly refusing an ambassador's position in the new Johnson administration: “My ambition remained as I had described it to Dr. Shepard back in 1944, to be so dedicated a scholar and teacher that the entire, profession, indeed the wider world, would take notice.” (p. 214) It’s admirable when someone wants to improve upon a basic expertise in anything, as the work becomes exponentially more difficult to achieve often modest, yet sometimes momentous, results.

Unnecessarily used, overly obscure words:

temerity (n.) – audacity; fearless daring; reckless boldness; foolish bravery

specious (adj.) – plausible but false; gilded; based on pretense; deceptively pleasing

sanguine (adj.) – confidently optimistic and cheerful (normally used as a noun or adjective pertaining to a color similar to blood-red)

Michelle Writes about Racial Equality in Amerca:

After finishing the first section of Racial Equality in America, a lot of topics have come to my mind. First thing I would like to point out how eloquently JHF writes. You can tell that every sentence of this book was precisely worded to sound just as he wanted to portray his thoughts. Whether he is talking about a figure in history, or describing the struggles of the earliest settlers and England, this book shows an intense amount of work on the part of JHF. I am of course not surprised that it is put together so well, but it makes me think that when he was writing it he knew he would be studied and almost judged for years to come by historians and people all over the world. Did that put a lot of pressure on him while writing??

Also, I want to note that this book should be taught at a younger level. The truth that Franklin speaks with is very refreshing, I am learning from a perspective that I have never learned before. In most classes, these stories seem sugar coated but not in this book. When JHF talks about historical figures such as Jefferson, who tried to publish what he called "acehement philippic" against Negro slavery. Finding out that this was not published in the Declaration of Independence even though Jefferson stood up against slavery and blamed the king "He waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither." It is pointed out that JHF was not sure if Jefferson fought hard to have his writing on slavery put into the declaration, but it was clear that Carl Becker disagreed strongly with the document saying that George III did not have anything to do that dramatically with slavery.

On another subject I feel that this book will be a good read, and open up many topics that I would not have thought about before reading JHF's ideas on slavery. In his writing he talks about the spread of racial tensions across the country and makes it apparent that these will not change easily especially with the almost stubborn view of a lot of America. I give him a lot of credit for stepping up and writing this book.

Heather Writes about Racial Equality in Amerca:

I found it interesting when Franklin talks of Jefferson trying to bring the cause against slavery into the movement for independence. Franklin says that he had hoped to win everyone's support by not blaming southern slave owners or those in the north that participated in the slave trade. Franklin says, however, that Jefferson's efforts "succeeded only in convincing both groups that an institution so close to the heart of American social and economic life should not be thrown away." This Franklin recognizes that this is the reason that this part of the Declaration of Independence was removed and interestingly enough, he mentions how it appears that Jefferson did little to fight to keep this section in. I've always found it incredible that people who were fighting so hard for their own freedom were so unwilling to acknowledge the lack of freedom they allowed the slaves and even free blacks, or if they acknowledged it, to do anything to change it.

The fact that some of Jefferson's arguments for the inferiority of blacks were so superificial was also interesting to me. According to Jefferson even their physical attributes made them inferior to whites, not just the color of their skin, but their hair and facial features. He also argued that they secrete less through the kidneys and more through the glands of the skin so they have "a very strong and disagreeable odor." He just seems so determined to make a case for their inferiority that he will attack every part of them as ridiculous as some of it may sound.

Stephen Writes

Even though i'm nearly done this book, i'm still amazed by all of the hard work and dedication of John Hope Franklin, even into his older years. Instead of slowing down, he continued involving himself in numerous enterprises and he continued fighting for what he believed in; this idea was revealed to me on page 292, when John Hope Franklin stated, "Whatever else my retirement would bring, i was certain of one thing: it could not entail any complacency in America's ongoing struggle foe civil rights and race-blind equality." Franklin said this after he discovered that President Ronald Reagan was giving his first campaign speech in Philadelphia, Mississippi; a town in which three civil rights activists were killed by members of the Klu-Klux-Klan in 1964. During these years, Franklin traveled to Europe on vacation and on business, such as his trip to Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Franklin was upset with America because he sensed that his country treated developing countries lightly and refused to adjust to the reality of the time.

I believe that I want to further research African-Americans in the military.

Brittany Writes about Racial Equality in Amerca:

Dr. Franklin had mentioned the mixed reaction of his first Jefferson Lecture in Mirror to America and after reading it, I can see why. It is completely appropriate to address the confusing ideas on race of one of our nations most famous historical figures, although some Americans, raised with the understanding that individuals like Jefferson are infallible and god-like, would be entirely resistent and offended to see him discussed in such a way. Jefferson, like many others throughout US history, seemed to have had to practice doublethink in order to reconcile the wonderful ideals set forth in the Constitution while at the same time insisting that African Americans were not entitled to such freedoms because of racial inferiority. The temerity of the colonists is incredible. How they could even think to consider themselves the slaves of England while holding Africans in real physical bondage is beyond me. It is hard to understand how they could not have acknowledged the glaring hypocrisy in what they were saying. The example of Paul and John Cuffe in Massachusetts stuck out the most to me (partly because I was born and raise in Taunton.) They refused to pay their taxes for 3 years and wrote to the General Court to explain that they did not wish to pay if they had "no vote or influence" over those who inposed the taxes. This is the same exact line of thinking that the colonists had fought... no taxation without representation... and yet these men were arrested and their perfectly logical, sensible point was never recognized, simply because they were black. Dr. Franklin summed the situation up well when he said, "Four months before the British surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, the free Negro brothers had surrendered at Taunton, Massachusetts."

Heather Writes:

There can be no doubt that Franklin had a very full and influential life, however to me these last few chapters seemed so full of sadness. Chapter 26 begins with the death of his 2 sisters, then later on Aurelia’s mother passes away and finally Aurelia loses her fight with Alzheimer’s disease. Not that all was sad, however. Whit married his best friend and Franklin remained busy and received such honors as the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was appointed chair of the President’s Initiative on Race by President Clinton. These were the family circumstances that surrounded Franklin’s last 20 years or so of life.

What he dealt with as a member of President Clinton’s advisory board really shocked me. For as much support as the board received, it received just as much opposition. In particular I found Franklin’s fight with the newspapers very upsetting because they seemed so determined to portray Franklin and the board in a negative way. I was also upset by his encounter with the Native Americans who attended one of the board’s meetings. The fact that they would not let Franklin speak at all because they had been told and believed that Franklin was only concerned with African American racial injustice and sought to lessen the cause of Native Americans.

Despite everything that Franklin managed to accomplish within his lifetime at the end of his memoir he only focuses on what he was not able to do and how much still remains to be done. So not only was the sad tone to these final pages due to the death of so many loved ones, but also because he seems upset by the progress, or what he almost sees as lack of progress made for racial equality in the United States within his lifetime.

Thomas Writes

-I was shocked by Eisenhower's decision to appoint an all-white delegation to represent America at the Nigeria's independence ceremony. Seriously, that was pretty ridiculous.

-He didn't spend much time talking about his father's death. Its sad that he wasn't able to publish his dad's autobiography (which he typed with one finger), so maybe thinking about him made JHF feel too guilty to spend much time on it.

I think the most significant event of this chapter is Franklin's trip to Africa. Being greeted as a brother made him instantly feel at home. It was a really touching moment

Dana Writes about Racial Equality in Amerca:

When finishing Section One of Racial Equality in America, I discovered that JHF has very unique views and well developed points that I had never even thought about when studying slavery in my past education. Within these few pages I already saw a quote that caught my interest..

" Why, he asked, "should anyone interfere with a stable and beneficent social order, just to pursue some mystical primeval equality?"

After the United States broke away from Britian, it was up to them to let the powers of the world know that the United States could stand alone without depending on them. With a slavery trade that brought in a large sum of money for the U.S, at this point in time it almost makes sense to throw equality out the door and do whatever it takes to get on top and develop a country.

In elementary school, students are always taught about the heros of history, but they are never shown the whole true story. Even in high school issues of social justice are somewhat hidden and when reading around page 19, I was shocked at the things that our hero Thomas Jefferson had said. It would be interesting to research what political figures during this time period of slavery truely thought about when the truth is people such as Abraham Linclon and Thomas Jefferson had opinions that many students today do not learn about.

Thomas Writes about Racial Equality in Amerca:

JHF uses the United States history in an effective way to strengthen his arguments about slavery. He talks about how the colonists could not and would not be “slaves” to Great Britain, yet they had no problem keeping the blacks as slaves. I believe that one of his strongest points, so far in the chapter, would have be his quote of Abigail Adams: “It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.” The facts that JHF exposes really makes one question America moral, not that one doesn’t already, but more specifically how we can fight and complain about what others are trying to do to us yet we have no problem doing the same or worse to them.

Another thing that sparked my curiosity was when JHF talked about how in 1661 “a Virginia statute declared that when an ‘English servant shall run away in company with any negroes who are incapable of making satisfaction by addition of time’ he was required to serve for the Negroes’ lost time as well as his own.” Then he went on to state that in 1663 “the governor of Alabama stood in the doorway of the state university in an attempt to block the enrollment of a Negro student.”

Mike Swanson Writes about Racial Equality in Amerca:

About five years before Franklin delivered these lectures I was working for an organization called The Greater Cleveland Research Council. We published textbooks for use in junior high schools. My assignment was to write one on the time from Jefferson to Jackson.

A few years earlier, historians such as Fawn Brodie were asserting that Jefferson had a liaison with one of his female slaves, Sally Hemmings, and that he fathered several children by her. The story had first surfacee in the early 19th century among Jefferson’s political enemies. It was vehemently denied by the Monticello Association–membership open to Jefferson’s (white) descendants.

I thought the controversy was interesting and worth mentioning. But it got censored out. Southern school boards were too powerful and the cost of a rejection from one of them was too much for the publishers to take a chance upon. Come 1998, DNA tests proved conclusively that Jefferson indeed did father at least one child by Sally Hemmings. There are still conservative historians who deny the scientific evidence. Here’s a couple of links for you to follow to see the current state of the controversy.

David N. Mayers states the case against.

The DNA study itself

The PBS special on the controversy.

Who do you think makes the better case?ut what others are trying to do to us yet we have no problem doing the same or worse to them.