Reader's Group is Launched

My Life & an Era by B.C. Franklin

Join the Reader's Group

How exciting!!!

A group has been created on Facebook by Terry Ligon to encourage discussion and exploration of the history of Indian Territory Freedmen. And the first book to be discussed will be My Life and an Era, by B.C. Franklin. I was excited to see that this was begun, for it will provide a platform for those who share an interest in the untold stories of Indian Territory Freedmen.  I decided to launch a blog as a companion piece to the readers group, inviting comments and thoughts about the chosen book.

My hope is that the reader's group will become a platform for discussion, of our unique history, the particular stories of our own families, and an exploration of the community histories that come forth from the books that we shall discuss. I am excited to be a member of this group and I hope that you will join in, and share your thoughts either here, or on the Facebook group, (or both) and let's explore our history together!

So we begin----how fiitting that we begin with the father of the late John Hope Franklin. B.C. Franklin (as he preferred to be called) was an attorney, from Chickasaw Country, although he was enrolled as a Choctaw Freedman.

I purchased this book when it first came out, and was thrilled to see it. B.C. Franklin had truly lived throughout many critical years in Indian Territory as well as the early days of the new state of Oklahoma.

Dr. John Hope Franklin his son, though he rose to become the nation's premiere historian, I often wondered why he had never devoted his scholarship to history of events in Indian Territory. However, as I looked at the difference between his life and that of his father---there was the answer.  He lived as a black man in American, from Fisk, to Harvard then as a professor at Howard, and Duke.  His father though trained outside of the Territory, grew up in the Territory, returned home and practiced law in Oklahoma.  The story that I often wanted John Hope Franklin to tell---was not his story. But it his father's.

Thankfully John Hope Franklin, and his own son John Whittington Franklin, decided finally to address B.C. Franklin's goal---to tell the untold story of the Territory.  Since it was lived through B.C. Franklin's life--the story was best told from his perspective.

So---I will be posting thoughts and opinions as they come to me---and I hope that you will join me with comments to the blog.  I will also welcome "guest" bloggers to post here as well.

(As our topics change the book image will be changed at the top of each blog post.)