An Unplanned Life

<p><strong>A major autobiography of a remarkable life that broke down racial barriers transformed institutions and energized the struggle for justice by the former president of the Ford Foundation<br><br>Frank has that quality of honesty and authenticity and people trusted him . . . and because very disparate people trusted him he could bring them together across their differences. <br>-Gloria Steinem</strong></p>
<p>Franklin Thomas was one of the most influential people of our time. As former president of the Ford Foundation (the first African American to hold this position) former president of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (the first community development organization of its kind) member of countless corporate boards and a key player in facilitating the end of the apartheid era in South Africa Thomas shaped public policy philanthropy and the movement for human rights for over half a century.</p>
<p><em>An Unplanned Life</em> offers an insider's account of some of the most crucial transformations of the contemporary era: efforts to rebuild America’s cities struggles to reform philanthropy and the quest to establish a global order based on human rights and racial equity. As a story of firsts Franklin’s memoir also chronicles a formative era when a generation of African Americans first broke through into the halls of power navigating complicated and sometimes treacherous cultural and political currents.</p>
<p>Much of Franklin Thomas’s life was marked by his desire to stay out of the spotlight and to let his accomplishments speak for themselves. Now in <em>An Unplanned Life</em> we have Thomas’s full story in all of its nuance drama and richly narrated detail.</p>