John P. Franklin Sr. was the right man at the right time.
In 1971, the longtime educator, who died Thursday, became the first – and, it turned out, only – black person ever elected to the Chattanooga City Commission, paving the way for more diverse representation on area governmental bodies.
Had Franklin been a table-pounding, sign-carrying, epithet-spewing campaigner, he never would have been elected in the dusk of the civil rights era. But as a kind, courtly, measured candidate, he was able to win over whites and blacks and went on to five terms on the body as commissioner of education and health.
In four of those terms, he was Chattanooga’s vice mayor, meaning he had gotten the most votes of all commission candidates, an indication of his popularity. Indeed, he was a city commissioner for longer than any other person in the city’s history except for one man.
At the end of Franklin’s fifth term, a lawsuit that claimed blacks couldn’t be elected citywide – an assertion to which he was the exception – was successful, and the current city council form of government was ushered in. However, Franklin, after receiving support to run for mayor of the new body, decided to retire.