The John Hope Franklin Research Center is a repository for African and African-American studies documentation and an educational outreach division of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University.

Founded in November 1995 with the support of its namesake, the distinguished historian John Hope Franklin, the Franklin Research Center seeks to collect, preserve, and promote the use of library materials bearing on the history of Africa and people of African descent.

The Franklin Research Center is committed to preserving and making available pertinent printed and manuscript materials for the use of scholars, academic researchers, and others.

The Franklin Research Center embraces the additional charge of working to make primary source materials an exciting and integral part of instruction and discovery at the secondary and collegiate levels.

During the 2010-2011 academic year, the Franklin Research Center celebrated its fifteenth anniversary and there were a number of events scheduled. A calendar of these events can be found here. In celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the John Hope Franklin Research Center, the Duke University Libraries and the Office of the Provost presented the inaugural Atelier @ Duke, a series of panel discussions on “The Idea of Archive—Producing and Performing Race.”