Robert Michael Franklin, Jr.
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On April 30, 2007, Morehouse College (Atlanta, Ga.)--the only historically black college for African-American men in the United States--announced the appointment of its 10th president, Robert Michael Franklin Jr., Ph.D., who officially took office July 2, 2007.
Previously, Dr. Franklin served as Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and the leader of Emory's university-wide, multi-million dollar initiative, "Confronting the Human Condition and the Human Experience," that focuses on themes of religion, race, and global health. He also is a senior fellow in the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Religion at the Emory University School of Law.
Dr. Franklin's major fields of study include social ethics, psychology, and African-American religion. Listed among the "Honor Roll of Great Black Preachers" (Ebony, 1993), he has served on the faculties of his alma maters, The University of Chicago and Harvard Divinity Schools, Colgate Rochester Divinity School, and the Candler School of Theology where he gained a national reputation as director of Black Church Studies. In his former role as program officer in Human Rights and Social Justice at the Ford Foundation, he served as an advisor to the president of the foundation on issues related to future funding for religion and public life initiatives.
From 1997 to 2002, Franklin served as president of the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), the graduate theological seminary consortium at the Atlanta University Center. He also served as the Chautauqua Institution's "Theologian in Residence" for the 2005 season.
Born in 1954, Dr. Franklin is a native of Chicago, and a 1975 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and religion (B.A., 1975); Harvard Divinity School with Master of Divinity in Christian Social Ethics and Pastoral Care (M. Div., 1978); and The University of Chicago Divinity School with a doctoral degree in Ethics and Society (Ph.D., 1985). He undertook international study at the University of Durham, United Kingdom (1973 English Speaking Union scholar).
Dr. Franklin has served on the boards of the Community Foundation of Metro Atlanta, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Character Education Partnership, Congress of National Black Churches, Public Broadcasting of Atlanta, Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasting, Demos: A Network for Ideas and Action, FaithTrust Institute (formerly the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence), and the Fund for Theological Education.
In 2000, Mayor Bill Campbell appointed Franklin co-chair of Atlanta 2000, the city’s official coordinating committee for Y2K activities and celebrations. Since 2003, he has served as a consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation. He is the recipient of a Ford Foundation grant to examine religion in public life in Asia and produced NPR commentaries based on this research.
Having traveled extensively throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, he has studied six languages (French, German, Biblical Hebrew, Koine Greek, Russian and Spanish) and is currently studying Arabic.
Dr. Franklin is the author of Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities (2007), Another Day’s Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis (1997), and Liberating Visions: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African American Thought (1990),and the co-author of From Culture Wars to Common Ground: Religion and the American Family Debate (2001). Currently, he is co-editing (Timothy Jackson) a Cambridge University Companion to the Life and Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr.
A frequent commentator for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" he also provides weekly commentary for Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasting. In 1999, Franklin also was invited by American film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg to prepare an online “Study Guide for the Congregational Use of The Prince of Egypt," a DreamWorks film.
Dr. Franklin is a member of the Kappa Boule of Sigma Pi Phi fraternity and a member of the 1999 class of Leadership Atlanta. He currently serves on several prestigious boards, including the Jessie Ball duPont Fund (Jacksonville, Fla.), Character Education Partnership (Washington, DC), Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference (Chicago, Ill.), Joseph Lowery Institute for Justice and Human Rights at Clark Atlanta University (Atlanta, Ga.), Public Broadcasting of Atlanta - WABE (Atlanta, Ga.), and Visiting Committee, National Centers for Disease Control (Atlanta, Ga.).
In response to his appointment to the Morehouse presidency, Franklin said: "At a time of social crisis in African American communities and throughout the nation, the educational mission of Morehouse is more urgent than ever," said Franklin. “I am both humbled and energized by the Boards invitation to serve the College that has produced extraordinary change agents and thought leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Maynard Jackson, Julian Bond and Spike Lee."
Dr. Franklin is married to Cheryl Goffney Franklin, M.D., an OB-GYN physician and graduate of Stanford University (B.A.), Columbia University School of Public Health (M.P.H.) and Harvard Medical School (M.D.). He is the father of three children: Imani Renee Franklin; Robert M. Franklin, III and Julian Michael DeShazier. Julian is a 2005 graduate of Morehouse College (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa).
Web site: http://www.candler.emory.edu/test/franklin.cfm
Dr. Franklin's résumé and downloadable photo are available at www.morehouse.edu/presidentialsearch.
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