Author, scholar and historian John Hope Franklin has been named the 2000 recipient of the Harold Washington Literary Award. The $5,000 award is given out each year in conjunction with the Chicago Public Library and the Printers Row Book Fair to recognize an author's body of work. Joining such literary luminaries as Saul Bellow, Ray Bradbury and Gwendolyn Brooks, Franklin is the 16th writer to win the prize.
Elizabeth Taylor, literary editor for the Chicago Tribune and the chair of the Harold Washington Literary Award Selection Committee said that Franklin is the perfect pairing for the prize -- named for Chicago's late Mayor Harold Washington. "What makes John Hope Franklin so special," Taylor told PW, "is that he embodies the idea that scholarship and intellectual life hold the power to touch the lives of real people."
Franklin has been called the "definitive teller of African-American History," and served on President Clinton's initiative on race relations in 1998. He also helped pen the legal brief that led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing public school segregation. His book, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans (McGraw-Hill), is now in its seventh edition, topping seven million in sales.
The award ceremony will be held June 1, with the Printers Row Book Fair to follow on June 3.
