The 1988 Charles Homer Haskins Lecture

The lecturer for 1988 was Professor John Hope Franklin, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History and Professor of Legal History in the Law School at Duke University. Professor Franklin’s address reflected a life devoted both to learning and to the eradication of the poisonous legacy of racism in American life – a legacy from which academic institutions have hardly been immune. This account of a distinguished academic career simultaneously embodied the highest standards of scholarship and an unshakable passion for bringing scholarly knowledge to bear upon a just resolution of the greatest dilemma of our national history; it touched every member of the large audience fortunate enough to hear it. The American Council of Learned Societies is honored to publish this moving testimony to scholarship and social justice.