Moral Leadership in the 21st Century

In his position as the inaugural James T. and Berta R. Laney Chair in Moral Leadership at Emory’s Candler School of Theology, The Rev. Dr. Robert M. Franklin Jr. challenges students to explore the concept of moral leadership in the 21st century in different cultures and contexts in the United States and around the world. Franklin is a former Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics and a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, both at Emory, and was also the founding director of Candler’s Black Church Studies program from 1989 to 1995.

In addition to his role at Candler, which he began in 2014, Franklin is a senior advisor to the Emory University president. He was director of the religion department at The Chautauqua Institution from 2014 to 2017, president of Morehouse College from 2007 to 2012, and president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta from 1997 to 2002. In 2016, Franklin was named to the Human Rights Campaign’s project council on expanding LGBTQ equality and inclusion efforts at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. He is on the board of Demos and on the Council of Past HBCU Presidents, and a member of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics.

One of the nation’s foremost public theologians, Franklin has authored four books: Moral Leadership: Integrity, Courage, Imagination (Orbis, 2020); Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities (Fortress, 2007); Another Day’s Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis (Fortress, 1997); and Liberating Visions: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African American Thought (Fortress, 1990). He co-authored From Culture Wars to Common Ground: Religion and the American Family Debate (Westminster John Knox, 2001). He also penned the foreword to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, reprinted by Trinity Forum in 2012.

Franklin is an ordained minister in both the American Baptist Churches USA and the Church of God in Christ.