The John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture
About the Research Center
The John Hope Franklin Research Center is a repository for African and African American studies documentation and an educational outreach division of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University.
Founded in November 1995 with the support of its namesake, the distinguished historian John Hope Franklin, the Research Center seeks to collect, preserve, and promote the use of library materials bearing on the history of Africa and people of African descent.
News Announcements
John Hope Franklin Research Center Acquires John Wesley Blassingame Papers
The John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture is pleased to announce its recent acquisition of the papers of John Wesley Blassingame, the nationally-renowned scholar of American history and author of such influential works as The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South and Frederick Douglass: The Clarion Voice. Blassingame's path-breaking scholarship has had a profound impact on the American understanding of slavery and the African American experience. The collection includes correspondence, personal manuscripts and research files from Blassingame's long academic career, and is particularly rich in materials drawn from his work on the Frederick Douglass Papers.
The Sam Reed Trumpet of Conscience Collection.
The John Hope Franklin Research Center is pleased to announce its acquisition of the Sam Reed Trumpet of Conscience Collection. This collection documents the life and work of activist and organizer, Sam Reed, and the organization he founded in Durham, N.C., 1987-2000. The Trumpet of Conscience worked for social justice and to improve race relations.  The group’s mission was “To come together, to listen to one another, to strive toward reducing and eliminating the root causes of crime and divisiveness in our midst.”  The Trumpet of Conscience newsletter featured articles from local writers and activist, including Dr. John Hope Franklin.
The Trumpet of Conscience collection has been published as a Duke Digital Collection:
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/trumpet/ 
North Carolina Mutual Transfers Archives to Duke and NCCU
Duke University and North Carolina Central University (NCCU) are the joint recipients of the historical archives of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, the nation’s largest and oldest life insurance company with roots in the African American community.
The North Carolina Mutual records include thousands of business documents, newsletters, commercials, photography and books. It highlights a time in the early 20th century when Durham’s “Black Wall Street” thrived, allowing the black middle class access to home mortgages, small business loans and insurance during the Jim Crow era. The archives may be the largest assemblage of African American corporate material in the nation.
The North Carolina Mutual Archives will be administered by the North Carolina Central University Archives, Records and History Center and the Duke University Libraries’ John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture. The documents will be housed at Duke’s Library Service Center, an off-site location that serves both institutions.
More...
John Hope Franklin, 1915-2009
John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies at Duke University
Unless otherwise specified on this page, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Perkins Circulation Desk: 919-660-5870