HYDE PARK, NY—Dr. John Hope Franklin will receive the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Award in American History and Public Commentary from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. The award will be presented to Dr. Franklin on Tuesday, October 17, 2006, at the New-York Historical Society in New York City. In response to the award, Dr. Franklin will give a lecture entitled “Spreading Democracy Throughout the World.” The lecture will be given at 6:30 p.m., followed by a reception at 7:30 p.m. Due to limited space, attendance at the lecture will be by invitation only.

Dr. Franklin, the James B. Duke Professor of History Emeritus at Duke University, is the fourth recipient of the Schlesinger Award. The others were Professor Schlesinger himself; the late Dr. John Kenneth Galbraith; and Theodore Sorensen. Established by his friends to honor him on his 80th birthday, the award recognized Professor Schlesinger’s continuing commitment both to scholarship and to active discourse on urgent public issues.

In his recently published autobiography, Mirror to America, Professor Franklin presents his personal deep and consequential involvement in the twentieth century fight for civil rights, applying his scholarly efforts to uncover the central role played by African Americans from the very beginning of American history to the legal efforts to secure their rights as American citizens under the Constitution, particularly as set forth in the Civil War Amendments, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Scholarship in support of enlightenment and justice is the hallmark of John Hope Franklin’s long and much-honored career as historian.

In presenting the Schlesinger Award Dr. Franklin and sponsoring his lecture, the Roosevelt Institute will bring together a distinguished audience of scholars, public officials, cultural and civil rights leaders, students and representative of institutions dedicated to realizing Franklin Roosevelt’s Economic Bill of Rights, presented by FDR on January 11, 1944, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, brought into existence at the United Nations under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt in 1948.

Based at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute is committed to informing new generations of the ideals and achievements of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and to inspire the application of their spirit of optimism and innovation to the solution of common problems.

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