A native of Oklahoma and the son of an attorney who practiced before the U.S. Supreme Court, John Hope Franklin has had a distinguished career as teacher, scholar, and historian of the African American experience in the United States. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Fisk University who took his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1941, Franklin has taught or been visiting lecturer at a dozen institutions in the United States and abroad and holds honorary degrees from a great many more. After serving as professor and department chair at Brooklyn College and the University of Chicago, he assumed simultaneously two positions at Duke University - James B. Duke Professor in the Humanities and Professor… of Legal History in the Law School. He has been president of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the Southern Historical Association, and the American Studies Association. He also is a founding member of the Black Academy of Arts and has served on the U.S. Commission for UNESCO and the Committee on International Exchange of Scholars. Franklin's scholarly contributions are many. His comprehensive history From Slavery to Freedom (1947) is in its sixth edition and is generally acknowledged to be the basic survey of African American history. His other writings, which also have been well received, explore various aspects of America's racial and regional history, all with balance, sensitivity, and integrity.