Hal Franklin b. 1940

Hal Franklin pivoted from a career in the sciences to photography, working as a staff photographer for United Press International and contributing images as a freelancer to the Buffalo Evening News and assorted publications. Though his contributions to the formation of the center were brief, Franklin would leave Buffalo to pursue a dream. By the end of 1968 he was hired as a staff photographer for Ebony Magazine. Working out of their Chicago office, he captured photographs of prominent Black figures, politicians, and the Black American experience. The 1974 Ebony Jr. book What color are you? utilized Franklin’s photographs to define “color” breaking down the significance and insignificance of color based on scientific data for grade school children.