First Person Singular: John Hope Franklin

The accomplished African-American historian, writer, teacher, and activist John Hope Franklin is profiled by Charles Kuralt in this film. Viewers learn of the racism Franklin faced while growing up, including the awful time when his family's neighborhood was burned down. Though Franklin somehow managed to persevere and make it to graduate school at Harvard, he was so discriminated against there that he wasn't even allowed to live in the school's housing. During his later years, he befriended and helped such important men as Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King make their own separate marks on history.