Hawai'i lies a long way from the pulse of African-American history, the history that scholar John Hope Franklin, who died this week at 94, knew so well.

But we do have our own civil rights tales to tell, so it's with great appreciation for his life's work that Hawai'i residents — including those able to meet the historian during his recent Isle visit — join the rest of the nation in paying tribute to his achievements.

Franklin, an authority on Southern U.S. history, has published some of the most important texts on the African-American experience. He was among the academicians who helped make the winning case in Brown v. Board of Education, culminating in the landmark ruling outlawing the "separate but equal" doctrine in public schools.

Barred from attending the University of Oklahoma in his home state, Franklin attended the historically black Fisk University, and then earned master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University, where he later taught.

But even greater than the history he studied was the history he witnessed. This is a man with childhood memories of being ejected from a train because his mother refused to retreat to the "Negro car." Then this man watched all the civil rights battles that were won over the decades, culminating in the election of the first African-American president.

Franklin embodied the "hope" of his middle name, a belief in a better future that serves as an inspiration to all.