The South can be a place of convenient distortion, of romantic tales of slaves content on the plantation. John Hope Franklin's South, he decided early on, would not be influenced by a victim's rage or a hometown gloss. He would dispassionately render a portrait of black and white.

This is the story of the South he has taken around the world, to Argentina, Australia, England, Germany, Japan, Norway and Russia. By virtue of his age and his life experience, this unsentimental South is delivered through a mix of personal anecdotes and scholarly research. His book "From Slavery to Freedom" is considered the definitive text of the African-American experience. His stories are essential to his vision: a better future grounded by the lessons of the past. But John Hope Franklin is not just a scholar.

That's why, approaching his 84th birthday and 13 years after his official retirement from Duke University, Franklin is in demand as never before. His modest brick house on Pineview Road in Durham sometimes feels more like a way station than a home. The dining room table is stacked with mail, research papers and phone messages, typed and listed by an assistant in order of priority.

In just the past six weeks, he has huddled with Bishop Desmond Tutu in Senegal, been honored by the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund in New York City and given a keynote address at the National Communication Association in New York City. All this, only weeks after completing 15 months as chairman of President Clinton's advisory board on race, perhaps the most visible assignment of his career.

Most people would consider a presidential appointment the culmination of a life's work. In Franklin's case, it is just a chapter in the story of a great intellectual, a figure mentioned in the same breath as C. Vann Woodward, E. Franklin Frazier, Thurgood Marshall and John Kenneth Galbraith. He, like one of his mentors, W.E.B. Du Bois, is a black leader embraced by the white establishment, but also willing to push it.

"He is one of the most credible and prolific historians of this century," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said in a recent interview. "His writings on American history was a focus of the African-American experience, which is basically the untold dimension of American history. American history is the relationship between the slaves and the slave masters. It's America's moral dilemma."

"Dr. Franklin is a legend in the field of race relations," Clinton added in a statement made this month.

Clinton chose Franklin not only for his accomplishments, but also for how he continues to achieve in a society that still manages to let him down. Franklin has lived through race riots, civil rights crusades and days when he, with a doctorate from Harvard, couldn't get a sandwich because of his dark skin. It has been a long road, for a poor boy in an all-black town to become an ambassador for the South.

And it was that persistence Clinton needed on his board. During a time of relative racial peace, it wouldn't be easy to prove that race still mattered. Franklin would also have to convince the other side, those fed up and eager for a quick fix, to be patient, that "The President's Initiative on Race" was just a step in the ongoing quest for a truly equal society.

The greatest challenge would be Franklin's leap from scholarship into politics and a spotlight under which every motive is questioned. Almost from the start, he would face something he had rarely encountered: criticism. But once his cardiologist told him that his body could handle the pressure, Franklin knew he had no choice. How could he, a man whose life was crafted by the notion that reasoned discussion could bring change, turn down the ultimate assignment?

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