Rate My Professor Sekou Franklin

Sekou Franklin is a professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University, where he also served as the Coordinator of the Urban Studies Minor Program in the Department of Political and Global Affairs. Holding a Bachelor of Science from Santa Clara University, a Master of Arts from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. from Howard University, Franklin completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois African American Studies and Research Program. His academic career includes teaching positions at Williams College, the University of Illinois, and as an adjunct professor at Belmont University College of Law. For more than twenty years at MTSU, he contributed to teaching, research, and service, particularly impacting underserved and at-risk students through excellence in these areas.

Franklin's research specializations include urban politics, social movements, juvenile justice, the anti-death penalty movement, youth activism, Venezuelan politics, African-American politics, and state and local politics. Notable publications are After the Rebellion: Black Youth, Social Movement Activism, and the Post-Civil Rights Generation (New York University Press, 2014), Losing Power: African Americans and Racial Polarization in Tennessee Politics co-authored with Ray Block Jr. (University of Georgia Press, 2021), and the edited volume The State of Blacks in Middle Tennessee. In 2014, he received MTSU's John Pleas Faculty Recognition Award for outstanding teaching, research, and service. Franklin served on the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2016 to 2020 and as President of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. He has provided expert preparation analyses for voting rights and redistricting cases across the American South and engaged with organizations such as the NAACP, Tennessee Citizen Action, and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on election protection efforts.