The Dr. John Hope Franklin Awards

About this award: In recognition of Dr. John Hope Franklin’s extraordinary career as a historian, scholar and social activist, Diverse: Issues In Higher Education each year presents an award in his name for individuals and organizations that have expanded access to and created opportunity in American higher education as well as produced exemplary scholarship and research.

View the 2021 Virtual Ceremony

2021 Winner

Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, III
One of the nation’s most distinguished college presidents. With 30-years at the helm of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), he serves as a consultant on science and math education to national agencies, universities, and school systems. In 2012, he was named by President Obama to chair the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. Under his leadership, UMBC has been recognized as a model for academic innovation, undergraduate teaching, and inclusive excellence by numerous publications.
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Past Winners

2021
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, President Emeritus, The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
2020
Dr. Walter Allen, Distinguished Professor of Education, Sociology, and African American Studies
Kimberlé Crenshaw, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School and the University of California, Los Angeles
Frank H. Wu, President, Queens College, City University of New York
2019
Dr. Michael T. Nettles, Senior Vice President and Chair, Policy Evaluation & Research Center, Educational Testing Service (ETS)
Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Harvard University, History Department Chair, Professor of History and of African and African American Studies
2018
Dr. James Johnson Duderstadt, President Emeritus, University of Michigan
Dr. William R. Harvey, President, Hampton University
Dr. Darlene Clark Hine, John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of History, Michigan State University
2017
U.S. Congressman John Lewis, Georgia’s 5th District, Civil Rights Activist
Dr. Samuel L. Myers, Sr., Founder, Minority Access, Inc., pioneering HBCU advocate
Dr. Wilma J. Roscoe, Board of Directors, Minority Access, Inc., pioneering HBCU advocate
2016
Dr. Rodolfo F. Acuña, Professor Emeritus, California State University, Northridge (CSUN)
2015
Dr. Belle Wheelan, President, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges
2014
Dr. James Rosser, President Emeritus, California State University, Los Angeles
2013
Dr. John T. Casteen III, President Emeritus, The University of Virginia
Dr. Mary H. Futrell, President of the Americans, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Dr. William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor, Harvard University
2012
Dr. Robert A. Corrigan, President, San Francisco State University
Christopher Edley, Jr., Co-Founder, The Harvard Civil Rights Project
Dr. Gary Orfield, Co-Founder, The Harvard Civil Rights Project
2011
Marian Wright Edelman, President and Founder, Children’s Defense Fund
Dr. Edmund Gordon, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Yale University
2010
The Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB), State Doctoral Scholars Program
The Georgia Institute of Technology), College of Engineering
2009
Dr. Arturo Madrid, Professor of the Humanities, Trinity University
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
2008
Dr. Norman C. Francis, President, Xavier University of Louisiana
Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, Professor, Harvard School of Medicine
Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, Chairman Emeritus, The Duke Endowment
2006
Dr. Maya Angelou, Professor Emeritus, Wake Forest University
Dr. James P. Comer, Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine
Dr. William C. Friday, President Emeritus, The University of North Carolina System
2005
Dr. Johnnetta B .Cole, Director, National Museum of AfricaArt
Dr. Clifton R. Wharton Jr., Former Chairman and CEO, TIAA-CREF
2004
Dr. David Levering Lewis, Historian, New York University
Dr. Sybil Mobley, Dean Emeritus School of Business & Industry, Florida A & M University
Bill and Melinda Gates, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Latest

Meet Dr. Walter R. Allen, A Dr. John Hope Franklin Award Recipient
When Dr. Walter R. Allen takes on a research project, there must always be a larger purpose — something he discusses with graduate students and young academics. According to Allen, African American scholars cannot live in an ivory tower. All research — including his more than 150 publications — must, in some way, illuminate the challenges that communities of color face.
April 6, 2020
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2020 John Hope Franklin Awards
March 19, 2020
Top 35 Women in Higher Education
Profiles of 2020 Dr. John Hope Franklin Award Winners
March 16, 2020
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2020 Dr. John Hope Franklin Award Winners Announced
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Maya Matthews Minter Email: Maya@DiverseEducation.com Phone: 703.385.2411 FAIRFAX, Va. — Diverse: Issues In Higher Education is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Dr. John Hope Franklin Award. Dr. Walter Allen, one of the nation’s most distinguished professors of education, sociology and African American studies, is the Allan […]
February 7, 2020
A View from the Founders: Diverse at 35
During the initial preparation for the inaugural edition of Black Issues In Higher Education, co-founders Dr. Bill Cox and Frank L. Matthews spoke with a large number of professionals throughout the country. They also spent many days, weeks and months surveying the higher education community to determine the need for a professional publication of this nature.
July 29, 2019
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Announcing the 2019 Dr. John Hope Franklin Award Winners
Diverse is pleased to announce the names of the two distinguished recipients of the 2019 Dr. John Hope Franklin Award. Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, one of the nation’s most prominent historians, is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She has been a tenured faculty member at […]
February 7, 2019
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2019 Dr. John Hope Franklin Award Winners Announced
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Maya Matthews Minter Maya@DiverseEducation.com Phone: 703.385.2411 FAIRFAX, Va. — Diverse: Issues In Higher Education is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Dr. John Hope Franklin Award. Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, one of the nation’s most prominent historians, is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African and African […]
January 24, 2019
Harvard History Professor Makes History
Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham’s appointment as the first African-American chair of the Department of History at Harvard University is significant, but not for the reasons most would expect.
September 10, 2018
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Diverse Honors 3 Stellar Educators with Dr. John Hope Franklin Award
Diverse: Issues In Higher Education has announced the 2018 recipients of the Dr. John Hope Franklin Award. They are:
February 12, 2018
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Acuña Accepts John Hope Franklin Award at ACE
SAN FRANCISCO — Last night, Dr. Rodolfo F. Acuña, the founder of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and a professor emeritus at California State University, Northridge, accepted Diverse’s 2016 Dr. John Hope Franklin Award at the 98th American Council on Education Annual Meeting. Notably, at the height of the civil rights movement, Acuña, […]
March 14, 2016
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Dr. Sybil Mobley, Founder of FAMU School of Business, Dies
Dr. Sybil Mobley, founding dean of the School of Business and Industry at Florida A&M University, died Tuesday in Tallahassee.
September 29, 2015
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Belle Wheelan’s Drive Pays Off for Higher Education
As an African-American woman with more than 40 years of experience in higher education, Dr. Belle S. Wheelan has certainly become used to breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings.
May 19, 2015
Dr. Belle S. Wheelan had promised herself that she would not become a teacher like her mother, because there was simply “too much paperwork” involved.
Belle Wheelan’s Drive Pays Off for Higher Education
As an African-American woman with more than 40 years of experience in higher education, Dr. Belle S. Wheelan has certainly become used to breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings.
March 19, 2015
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Renaissance Woman
2015 John Hope Franklin Award Winner Belle Wheelan has made her mark at all levels of academe, and beyond.
March 12, 2015
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Unfinished Business
Through the movie “Selma,” many people who weren’t born yet when police forces attacked marchers on the route to Montgomery, Alabama, are getting an opportunity to learn about that episode of history.
February 1, 2015
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James Rosser Honored with John Hope Franklin Award
Dr. James M. Rosser, former president of California State University, Los Angeles, was presented last night with the Dr. John Hope Franklin award at the American Council of Education conference.
March 10, 2014
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Hispanics with Academic Credentials Find Themselves Stretched Thin with Many Projects
A small cohort of Hispanics who have earned doctoral degrees are splitting their time between being an educator, researcher and serving on committees to combat a lack of Hispanic presence in the academy.
October 6, 2013
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Famed Psychiatrist Continues to Push for Education Reform
Forty-five years after launching the School Development Program at Yale University, Dr. James P. Comer continues to push for education reform that focuses on children’s social and emotional development.
September 9, 2013
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