Jonathan Zimmerman: What John Hope Franklin could teach Ward
Churchill  [Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history at New York
University.]  Should the University of Colorado have fired Ward
Churchill, the fiery ethnic-studies professor and Native
American advocate who is suing to get his job back?  I really
don't know. But here's what I do know: By playing fast and loose
with historical truth, Churchill harms the same racial
minorities he claims to defend. To see why, take a quick look at
the long career of John Hope Franklin.  Franklin, who died
Wednesday at the age of 94, was the preeminent African American
historian of the postwar United States. He was a warrior for
civil rights, too, marching with Martin Luther King Jr. and
assisting Thurgood Marshall's team of lawyers in the landmark
Brown v. Board of Education case.  But Franklin understood that
social justice demanded rigorous attention to historical fact,
detail, and logic. To fight American racism, which was built
upon fantasy and deception, minorities nee