When the John Hope Franklin Young Scholars studied the 1898 Massacre in Wilmington, NC, they became enraged that such an important event was not covered in North Carolina eighth grade history textbooks. With the approaching 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Franklin, the man who did for academia what Jackie Robinson did for baseball, the 30 Young Scholars, grades six to nine, decided to write and self-publish a novel as a tribute to the late Duke historian. Running for Hope follows Kendrick, an African American ninth grader plagued by girl problems, divorcing parents, and changing friendships. He finds direction when his history class studies the 1898 Wilmington massacre, in which the South's only black daily newspaper is set afire by a white mob, and the integrated city government is overthrown at gunpoint in the country's only coup d'état. As the main character Kendrick decides to take action to draw attention to this historical event, he is inspired by the life of John Hope Franklin, presented in graphic strips in an innovative hybrid approach suggested by one of the Young Scholars. The novel is a tribute to the Duke historian John Hope Franklin, author of the ground-breaking From Slavery to Freedom (McGraw Hill, 2010), which changed the way African American history is understood and taught.

John Hope Franklin Scholars, Photo credit: Jenny Warburg

The John Hope Franklin Young Scholars Program, part of Duke University’s Center for African and African-American Research, introduces high-potential, mostly minority middle school students from the Durham, NC public schools to university research, paving their path toward college. The students who collaborated on Running for Hope brought diverse perspectives to the novel. The group includes two Jarai (Vietnamese) refugees, five Muslims, the granddaughter of a sharecropper from the Stagville Plantation in Durham, and two young teens whose parents are in prison. The novel addresses numerous racial issues faced by teens of color today:  interracial dating, driving while black, and minority students drawing more disciplinary action by the principal. The novel also deals with issues young adults of any race can identify with: adolescent love, parents breaking up, and the burning desire to make a difference. How do 30 young adults collaborate to write a novel? With a lot of work, including writing retreats, brainstorming ways to get in trouble (piece of cake!), and papering the wall with Post-It notes on plotlines and time lines. During the process, the Young Scholars tackled many racial issues:  should the character who encourages stealing be black or white? Ditto the girl Kendrick has a crush on. At each juncture, they discussed the kind of message they might be sending. After nailing down the characters, the teens got on the floor, outlined their bodies on cardboard, and created life-size cut-outs for each character. Breaking into groups, they carried around the cut-outs and improvised dialogue for specific scenes, recording the dialogue on smartphones, which the parents transcribed. An example of the conversations included: What would you say if a white girl brings you home for dinner without letting her conservative parents know your race? They then fanned out into the community with their reporters' notebooks and wrote down details of the locations—a skateboarding park, a jail holding cell, and the board room of North Carolina Mutual, one of the largest black businesses in the United States. For the graphic portion of the novel on Dr. Franklin, the Young Scholars combed through cartons and cartons of archives at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University.  To see the world through Dr. Franklin's eyes, the Young Scholars traveled to Orchid Trails Greenhouse to find out about orchids, one of Dr. Franklin's passions. To learn about fly fishing, another of Dr. Franklin's passions, the kids practiced casting in the middle of Duke's West Campus quad.

Signed copy, Running for Hope

After a rough cut of the novel, six teens were chosen to polish the story and fill in the gaps. The program director David Stein did the final cut, checking for transitions and continuity. The result is a novel that includes vivid character descriptions, heartfelt emotions about family and romance, searching questions about racial identity, historically accurate information about the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot, and inspirational stories from the life of John Hope Franklin. Additional information: JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN YOUNG SCHOLARS. Running for Hope. CreateSpace. 2014. pap. $9.99. ISBN 9781505502336. FRANKLIN, John Hope. Mirror to America: the Autobiography of John Hope Franklin. FSG. 2005. Tr $23. ISBN 9780374299446. New York Times review of Mirror to America. The 1898 Wilmington Massacre  Video of the Young Scholars in Wilmington, NC