Durham, N.C. - Distinguished scholar John Hope Franklin will be one of the featured speakers at a Nov. 18 symposium celebrating the 10th anniversary of the John Hope Franklin Collection of African & African American Documentation in the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University.

The event, called "Cross Currents: Conversations about Collecting and Documenting African and African American History & Culture," also recognizes the recent publication of "Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin."

All events are free and open to the public, and will be held in the Gothic Reading Room of Perkins Library on Duke's West Campus.

The event will feature panel discussions on documenting Durham's African community and African Americans in Africa, as well as a conversation between Duke English professor Houston Baker and Franklin on the African-American autobiography.

The program will end with in a reception and book signing followed by remarks by Franklin.

Franklin, James B. Duke professor emeritus of history at Duke, is considered a leading figure in the field of African-American history, American race relations and Southern regional history. He is author of the book "From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans," which is still used in college courses more than 50 years after its publication, as well as numerous other books. He has won dozens of awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1997, he chaired President Bill Clinton's Initiative on Race.

In addition to his work as a historian, Franklin was involved in some of the key events of the Civil Rights movement. As an expert on Southern history, he was recruited by NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall in 1953 to help prepare the brief in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Later he accompanied King on the march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965.

The John Hope Franklin Collection, founded in 1995, has worked to acquire, preserve and promote the use of library materials bearing on the history of Africa and people of African descent. The collection includes letters, diaries, ledgers, photographs, films and rare books documenting three centuries of the African-American experience. The collection is especially strong regarding 19th century slavery and African-American life in the post-World War II Civil Rights era. For more information on the collection, go to http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/franklin/

In addition, Duke opened the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies in 2001. It is dedicated to bringing together humanists and social scientists to study important societal issues from a variety of perspectives. For more information on the John Hope Franklin Center, go to http://www.jhfc.duke.edu/

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Schedule of Nov. 18 events (all events will be held in the Gothic Reading Room, Perkins Library, Duke West Campus):

-- 1 p.m. Opening remarks and panel discussion, "Documenting Durham's New African Voice." Panelists: Shirl Spicer, curator of community history, North Carolina Museum of History; Bouna Ndiaye, program coordinator, John Hope Franklin Center for International and Interdisciplinary Study, Duke; and Freddie Parker, professor of history, North Carolina Central University.

-- 2:45 p.m. Panel discussion, "African Americans in Africa." Panelists: Lee D. Baker, associate professor of cultural anthropology and African and African American studies, Duke; John W. Franklin, program manager and curator, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage; and the Rev. Tiffney Marley, director, Office of Black Church Studies, Duke Divinity School. Moderator: Jeffery Kerr-Ritchie, visiting associate professor, Department of History, University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

-- 4:30 p.m. Conversation, "African-American Autobiography." With Houston Baker, Susan Fox Beischer and George D. Beischer Arts and Sciences professor of English and professor of African and African American Studies at Duke, and John Hope Franklin, James B. Duke professor emeritus of history at Duke.

-- 5:30 p.m. Reception

-- 7 p.m. Remarks by John Hope Franklin on "Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin."