Harold Alonza Franklin Sr. (November 2, 1932 – September 9, 2021) was an American academic who became the first black student to attend
Auburn University
Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...
in 1964 after successfully suing the university for excluding him because of race.
In order to prevent white students from being subjected to any contact with Franklin, Auburn removed all other students from an entire wing of a dormitory. Upon completion of his course work, professors used various pretexts to repeatedly refuse to accept his thesis. In 2001, Auburn recognized Franklin as their first black student, but didn't acknowledge that they had cheated him of a degree, and refused to allow him to discuss the Civil Rights Movement.
Several years later, he earned a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. from the
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...
. He later taught at
Alabama State University,
North Carolina A&T State University,
Tuskegee Institute
Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature.
The campus was de ...
and
Talladega College, eventually retiring in 1992.
[
Fifty-one years later at the age of 86, Auburn finally granted his master's degree on February 19, 2020.][
Franklin died on September 9, 2021.]
References
School desegregation pioneers
1932 births
2021 deaths
Auburn University alumni
University of Denver alumni
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