Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/356

348 His father died in 1868, or when he was but 16 years of age, but his mother is still living.

His education was received in the schools of Knoxville and at Maryville College, he being the first Afro-American to graduate from that institution, which event occurred in 1SS0. His theological training was had at the Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, from which he graduated in 1883. The Cincinnati Commercial Gazette and The Afro-American, edited by Prof. Peter H. Clark, paid high tributes to the scholarship and oratory of young Franklin. He is at present pastor of the Presbyterian church at Rogersville, Tenn,, and principal of the Swift Memorial Seminary, a school of high grade.

Beginning to write for newspapers when quite young, his experience and ever-increasing knowledge made him prominent as a correspondent, and his articles are read by all. He began his newspaper work in 1878, when he became correspondent of The Knoxville Examiner, W. F. Yardley, Esq., editor. He has also given articles to The Star, of Tennessee, Herald Presbyter, Critic, and other papers. He now writes for The New York Age, and The Knoxville Negro World, two representative Afro-American journals.

Rev. Mr. Franklin is one of the most conversant correspondents that now write for the press. His articles are always fresh and well received, and demand careful thought. He is logical, argumentative and free from abrupt phrases. We wish to reproduce a few extracts from articles of his, which have appeared in various issues of The Age and World. In one in The Age, Mr. Franklin fears that the 7 present administration will mistake the difference in the AfroAmerican of four years past and the Afro-American of to-day. He very fittingly writes: "If the present administration thinks that it has returned to power, and found us where it left us when it went out of power, it makes a great mistake.