Chairman of President Clinton's Race Advisory Board to Speak at Hamilton College

John Hope Franklin, chairman of the advisory board for One America: The President's Initiative on Race, will speak at Hamilton College on Wednesday, April 26. His talk, "The Tulsa Riot of 1921: Reflections of a Near-Victim and a Historian," will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Hamilton College Chapel. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Hamilton College President's Office and the Levitt Public Affairs Center. Earlier on Wednesday, Franklin will be attending Professor Phil Klinkner's Race and American Democracy class for an informal discussion.

The advisory board to the President is a seven member Race Initiative Advisory Board which was established to counsel the President on ways to improve the quality of race relations in America. Currently, the board is working with the President on promoting a national dialogue of racial issues, increasing the nation's understanding of the history and future of race relations, identifying and creating plans to calm racial tension, and addressing crime and the administration of justice.

Franklin is the James B. Duke professor emeritus of history at Duke University and as a noted scholar and author, he is highly regarded for his work on history and race in America and his efforts to promote racial understanding and reconciliation. As an author, Franklin is best-known for his book, "From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans." Other publications include "The Emancipation Proclamation," "The Militant South," and "Reconstruction After the Civil War."

Earning A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University, Franklin has been an active participant in many professional and educational organizations. Among others, he served on such organizations as the editorial board for The Journal of Negro History and the American Studies Association. Franklin has received many prestigious awards including the Jefferson Medal, awarded by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, and the Encyclopedia Brittanica Gold for the Dissemination of Knowledge.