Former president Bill Clinton will speak at Duke next week, University officials announced Wednesday. Clinton will attend an event June 11 hosted by the University to honor the late historian John Hope Franklin and his wife Aurelia Franklin.
"A Celebration of the Lives of John Hope and Aurelia Whittington Franklin" will begin at 11 a.m. in the Duke Chapel in honor of Franklin and his late wife Aurelia, who passed away in 1999. The couple was married June 11, 1940-next week's event marks the couple's 69th wedding anniversary.
"I think [Clinton's attendance] is really significant and meaningful for the Franklin family-significant and meaningful for the many countless admirers of Dr. Franklin, his former students, his colleagues," said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. "He lived in so many different worlds over the course of 94 years. Having the former president of the United States come and participate in this celebration is really a demonstration of [Franklin's] impact on the country."
Other speakers for the celebration include Vernon Jordan, an attorney and a civil rights advocate who was a close friend of Franklin, Franklin's niece Cynthia Gibbs Wilson, trustee emerita Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans and President Richard Brodhead. The event is open to the public and a live webcast will be available online.
While in office, Clinton awarded Franklin the Charles Frankel Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom-the highest honor awarded to civilians. Clinton also selected Franklin to head a national task force on race in 1997.
In an August 1997 interview with The Washington Post shortly after his appointment to lead the seven-person White House initiative to improve race relations in America, Franklin expressed his sentiments when asked if he admired Clinton and his presidency. But not without some hesitancy.
"Yes, I do [admire him]," he said. "You see, when you say that, it's a sweeping question. This doesn't mean I'm not critical of some of his policies and some of the things he has done.... For one thing, even if President Clinton's motives are very different from mine, it doesn't mean I don't have an important opportunity there to address the whole question of race in this country. But I happen to know for a fact that President Clinton knows an awful lot about my views and respects them."
Throughout his lifetime, Franklin authored a number of written works, most notably "From Slavery to Freedom," a story about the experiences of African Americans chronicling the time from when they left Africa to the Civil Rights movement in the 20th century.
Franklin was a pioneer in the field of African American studies and a noted figure in the Civil Rights movement. The James B. Duke professor emeritus of history, Franklin was also the namesake for The John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies, a group of programs that explores new approaches to sharing and gaining knowledge.
"I call history like it is. The president has said that. I look it straight in the face," Franklin said in his 1997 interview with The Washington Post.
And next week, Clinton and all those in attendance may revisit the history Franklin wrote for the nation.
"It's a great affirmation for Duke that Professor Franklin spent the last part of his career and his life at Duke and in Durham," Schoenfeld said. "We're proud to be hosting this celebration of a very long life that has had such a great impact on the country."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.