John Hope Franklin

If the house is to be set in order, one cannot begin with the present; he must begin with the past.

— John Hope Franklin

There's no reason in the world why black [people] should not be regarded as an attribute that is not degrading but is…

— John Hope Franklin

My challenge was to weave into the fabric of American history enough of the presence of blacks so that the story of…

— John Hope Franklin

We must go beyond textbooks, go out into the bypaths and untrodden depths of the wilderness and travel and explore and tell…

— John Hope Franklin

I went to college on my way to be a lawyer. That's all I wanted to do was go back home and…

— John Hope Franklin

The very essence of the life of the mind is the freedom to inquire, to examine, and to criticize.

— John Hope Franklin

Love each other. Regard each other as members of one family.

— John Hope Franklin

We also learn that this country and the Western world have no monopoly of goodness and truth and scholarship, we begin to…

— John Hope Franklin

I am very fortunate, and I never stopped being thankful.

— John Hope Franklin

If the house is to be set in order,...

— John Hope Franklin

It was necessary, as a black historian, to have a personal agenda.

— John Hope Franklin

“[The South's] obsession was to maintain a government, an economy, an arrangement of the sexes, a relationship of the races, and a…

— John Hope Franklin

The writing of history reflects the interests, predilections, and even prejudices of a given generation.

— John Hope Franklin

One of the problems in the United States is the refusal on the part of our young people to remember or to…

— John Hope Franklin

We know all too little about the factors that affect the attitudes of the peoples of the world toward one another. It…

— John Hope Franklin

“Nor could I fail to recall my friendship with Howard K. Beale, professor of American History at the University of North Carolina.…

— John Hope Franklin