My Life and an Era The Autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin (review)

Abstract

My Life and an Era The Autobiography of Buck Colbert Eranklin Edited by John Hope Franklin and John Whittington Franklin Louisiana State University Press, 1997 288 pp. Cloth, $29.95 Here is a powerful story that transcends mere description of the author's era. It probes deeply the moral and philosophical aspects of cultural relationships among various peoples, the responsibility of government to ensure safety and justice, and what it means to be human in a supposedly democratic society built upon a Judeo-Christian ethic. Buck Colbert Franklin's autobiography joins those of Ada Lois Sipuel, who integrated the Oklahoma University law school in 1948, civil rights activist Clara Luper, and novelist Ralph Ellison in offering its insight into the role black Oklahomans played in the formation of the state and in social reform. Born in 1879 to David and Milley Franklin, Buck Colbert Franklin lived to witness the emergence of Oklahoma from its territorial stage to statehood. For over five decades he watched carefully the events that led to entrenched segregation and, ultimately, to its fall with the 1954 Brown decision. Although he never completed his college work, young Franklin attended Roger Williams College in Nashville and Atlanta Baptist College (now Morehouse College) before returning to Oklahoma where he passed the bar. As an attorney and active community member with national contacts, Franklin occupied a strategic position from which to observe state and national history as it unfolded. He met the great and near-great within the African American society of his time, and his story strengthens and authenticates much of what we know about the plight of African Americans. This autobiography, though, is more than a thoughtful commentary on heritage and the challenges to black existence in a society that limited opportunities and access to political, social, and economic power. The author's discussion of the family values that characterized his upbringing tells us much about the inner life of the black community and other institutional structures in Oklahoma during his era. Although close to his mother, a teacher who was part Choctaw, Franklin enjoyed an even stronger tie to his father, who died during the young man's college years. One senses the closeness between father and son as David Franklin tries to shelter his offspring from the harshness of discrimination and when he protects him from frontier dangers as the two make a long journey from southern Oklahoma to what is now the western part of the state. Later, Buck Colbert Franklin shows the same devotion to his four children -- B. C. Jr., Mozzella, Anne, and John Hope. The author's wife, Mollie, played a central role in his life and in the black community. Readers interested in women's history will profit from the attention Franklin has given his spouse and her activities. A community-minded person, Mollie Parker Franklin created the first day nursery for black children in Tulsa, after the family moved there from the all-black town of Rentiesville. With a deep concern for young people, she worked to get employment for black youths in local businesses that had not previously employed them. For a time she also served as the national recording secretary of the Colored Women's Clubs and enjoyed a close relationship with one of its presidents, Mary F. Waring, who visited with the Franklins during her visits to the state. Religion also occupies a prominent place in Franklin's work. A church-going man of deep spiritual conviction, he nonetheless had little regard for narrow denominationalism. He saw firsthand how an iron-clad commitment to a particular faith divided the community of Rentiesville, to which he and his family had moved after leaving Ardmore, Oklahoma, where he had practiced law. Although specific circumstances played an important role in his liberalism, Franklin's attitude arose fundamentally from the teachings of his parents, especially his father, who didn't care a hoot for denominations. …