R.I.P. John Hope Franklin!

Black historian pioneer John Hope Franklin died Wednesday of congestive heart failure at Duke University, he was 94. Franklin is considered one of he great scholars of the black experience and contributed research to the Thurgood Marshall legal team with Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that barred the doctrine of "separate but equal" in the nation's public schools.

Franklin's other accomplishments included: being the first black department chair at a predominantly white institution, Brooklyn College; the first black professor to hold an endowed chair at Duke; and the first black president of the American Historical Association. We owe an eternal debt to Mr. Franklin.