Robert Franklin
Cornel West calls Robert Franklin “one of the most prophetic leaders and visionary thinkers of his generation.” An educator and author of national stature, Franklin is the 10th president of his alma mater, Morehouse College, a historically black institution and the nation’s largest liberal arts college for men.
Franklin’s major fields of study include social ethics, psychology and African American religion. A native of Chicago, Franklin has served on the faculties of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, where he received his doctorate, and the Harvard Divinity School, where he received his master’s, as well as Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School and the Candler School of Theology, where he gained a national reputation as director of black church studies. As program officer in human rights and social justice at the Ford Foundation, he served as adviser on issues related to future funding for religion and public life initiatives. A frequent commentator for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, Franklin has built a national platform on social ethics and community values.
In his latest book, Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope to African American Communities, Franklin identifies crises in three anchor institutions that have played key roles in the black struggle for freedom — black families, the black church and historically black colleges and universities — and how they must address the rising rates of father absence, births to unmarried parents, divorce and domestic abuse or relationship violence. Franklin “exemplifies the best qualities of a Morehouse man,” says Morehouse Chairman of the Board Trustees Willie Davis.