“But I never failed physics – I withdrew from it before I got an F.”īut the roadblock would help lead Franklin where he needed to go. “I had taken pre-cal and trig in high school, but Michigan was a different story,” he said. But when he got to physics, he knew he was at the end of the road. When he got to Michigan, Art continued down the pre-med path his high school had put him on. “So while you are smart here, you’re going to be faced with a whole different environment.” Going Blue “Michigan’s a tough institution,” Howze told him. He’d already been accepted to the University of Michigan.
He’d had a 3.8 GPA and done well on his SAT. Toward the end of his time at Southeastern, Howze approached him. Howze was one of the teachers in the program, guiding the students through the difficult academics with compassion and grace. In his time at Southeastern High School, Franklin was one of 33 students placed on a biomedical sciences track aimed at paving their road to medical school. I got everything that I think kids should be afforded – a good family, a good foundation.” “I grew up playing in the park, jumping on trains that you should not have jumped on – some things that were quite dangerous,” he said. Sometimes, he’d go down by the Roostertail, which looked across the river to Belle Isle, and onto Windsor, just across the water, but a country away. He’d go to the river, or to the Detroit Yacht Club. The Detroit River was only two city blocks from his home. His mother Annie, he said, made sacrifices so that he could live comfortably.įranklin spent his childhood exploring the city, pushing the boundaries to learn about the world around him. His stepfather, Andrew, was an assemblyman at Chrysler, and Franklin said he and his siblings didn’t do without anything they needed. Franklin grew up on the east side of Detroit in a working-class neighborhood. He didn’t doubt God’s presence, but Art Franklin knew his parents, too, had a hand in shaping his future.
Seven is God’s number of perfection, she’d tell Art, and “God has a hand in your life.” Motown memoriesĪnnie Franklin knew her seventh child would be special. A Detroit native with a decades-long track record of thoughtful, dogged journalism, Franklin said there’s much more he hopes to accomplish as he moves forward. He said he will remain in the Magic City, though, continuing to tell the stories of community members and empowering them to change the world around them for the better. It’s only the beginning.įranklin, the first Black man to anchor a primetime news broadcast in Birmingham, signed off from CBS 42 for the last time on Friday. ( WIAT) – It’s not the end for Art Franklin.