Thurgood Marshall- Thaddeus Stevens - Lincoln Abolitionists

Dr. John Hope Franklin is the tie that binds- Not only is he the son of the great Civill Rights Lawyer Buck Franklin he was also an advisor to Thurgood Marshall during the historical Brown v. Board of Education Topeka 

Dr. Franklin's father Buck Franklin sued the City of Tulsa for passing an ordinance that effectively barred blacks from rebuilding their city, "Black Wall Street" after the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921.  Buck Franklin won that suit before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

His father’s success – and his critical importance to the Greenwood community – became a preamble to the success and importance of the son. Dr. John Hope Franklin became one of the most important American historians of the 20th Century.

As a historian, a scholarly voice working for American civil rights, an advisor to Thurgood Marshall during the United States Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of  Education, Dr. Franklin was on Marshall’s team of historians which uncovered a speech written in 1866 by Thaddeus Stevens, (Steven Spielberg's Movie Lincoln (Tommy Lee Jones) the leader of the Aboltionist Republicans who introduced the 14th Amendment. 

Steven delivered his speech before Congress Steven said in part: “Where any State makes a distinction in the same law between different classes of individuals, Congress shall have the power to correct such discriminations and inequality.” Marshall and his team argued that the drafters of the amendment -Bingham himself had stated that constitutional provisions should be “writ broad for ages yet unborn.”