By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – A Washington State University Tri-Cities history professor is part of a history film focusing on the Manhattan Project that was recently in the category of “Outstanding Daytime Non-Fiction Special.”

Robert Franklin, assistant director of the ���سԹ� Hanford History Project and teaching assistant professor of history, was one of a handful of talent that starred in “” produced by based out of New Orleans. The project focuses on the three major sites that were instrumental in the Manhattan Project, which developed the technology and produced the plutonium and uranium for the world’s first atomic bombs: Hanford, Washington; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The 70-minute film, which is also , has been shown to middle schools and high schools across the country throughout the last year, exploring the science, sites and stories of the creation of the atomic bomb.

Franklin, with his role and expertise on Hanford as part of the ���سԹ� Hanford History Project, was approached about participating in the project in 2019. That summer, crew from the National WWII Museum traveled to all three sites, using a local high school student as the host for each site and referencing local experts in the region on the history of each site as part of the film. Franklin had the opportunity to not only voice his expertise on the site as part of the film, but also provided input to the script.

Sara Cassin, a student from Delta High School, was selected as the local student host, who, with Franklin, led filmmakers through the B Reactor, the world’s first large-scale nuclear reactor, as well as other historical landmarks and buildings located at Hanford.

Franklin said even with the excellent production of the project, neither he, nor any of the members of the crew or other talent, anticipated they would be nominated for a Daytime Emmy for the project.

“I was kind of in shock when I found out,” he said. “Really, I was just a small part of the project – it was the folks at the museum who organized it, wrote the script and packaged the whole thing. But I am honored to have participated in it. I never thought I would say that I was in something that was nominated for an Emmy. It’s not a sentence I ever thought I would say.”

Franklin said to be part of a project that is now recognized with such a prestigious award is an incredible honor. He said working at ���سԹ� and bringing the knowledge he has gained and cultivated about the Manhattan Project, and specifically Hanford history, to students and the public is his dream job.

“Being able to teach in the classroom and bring what we’re doing with the Hanford History Project to students and further cement my role as a historian means the world to me,” he said. “The film was such a great project to be involved with. It’s such an incredible way to engage students and the public, and it’s just really well-done. It was such an honor to be a part of and apply even a small part of my work as a historian to the project.”

The will air at 8 p.m. Friday, June 25, on CBS. It will also be available on-demand and via streaming.

 

Media contacts:

Robert Franklin, assistant director of the ���سԹ� Hanford History Project and teaching assistant professor of history, robert.franklin@wsu.edu

Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� director of marketing and communication, 619-403-3617 (cell), maegan_murray@wsu.edu

By Maegan Murray, ���سԹ�

RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington State University Tri-Cities will host a free seminar discussion on exclusion and segregation in the mid-Columbia region on Tuesday, Jan. 26, as part of the WSU Common Reading Program.

This event, which takes place from 4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. online, coincides with the launch of the third book in the “Hanford Histories” series that documents historical accounts and realities of the Hanford Site and surrounding regional area.

Both the book and event parallel themes in this year’s WSU Common Read book, “Born A Crime” by Trevor Noah, who lived in racially segregated areas in South Africa.

“As part of the Common Reading program, WSU freshman read an assigned book that introduces students to the value of research, power of ideas and interconnected ways in which disciplines across WSU approach similar issues,” said Tracey Hanshew, ���سԹ� history faculty and coordinator for the event. “Because these conditions and societal views mirror local mid-Columbia history, the seminar contributes to the student experience by highlighting the common community value of the Common Reading program.”

As part of the event, ���سԹ� history faculty Robert Bauman and Robert Franklin, as well as Laura Arata, history faculty at Oklahoma State University, will specifically discuss racial segregation and resistance to discrimination in the mid-Columbia region.

“Racial segregation and exclusion are realities that some may find hard to admit occurred even in our own Tri-Cities regional community,” Bauman said. “The book provides a glimpse into some of those realities by exploring first-hand accounts from those who lived through them.”

The new book, “Echoes of Exclusion and Resistance: Voices from the Hanford Region,” draws reflections from a number of oral histories on the experiences of non-white groups in the Hanford region, such as Wanapum tribal members, Chinese immigrants, World War II Japanese incarcerated individuals and African American migrant workers from the South. The book was edited by Bauman and Franklin.

“While writing it, we had no idea how relevant conversations surrounding this book would be to today’s political and sociological context,” Franklin said. “These are true stories of individuals who provide a perspective of what it was like living and working in the Hanford area.”

Following the seminar presentation, a question and answer session will follow.

For more information about “Echoes of Exclusion and Resistance” and to order the book, visit .

 

Media contacts:

Tracey Hanshew, ���سԹ� scholarly assistant professor of history, 509-372-7390, tracey.hanshew@wsu.edu

Bob Bauman, ���سԹ� professor of history, 509-372-7249, rbauman@wsu.edu
Robert Franklin, ���سԹ� assistant director of Hanford History Project, 509-372-7678, robert.franklin@wsu.edu

Maegan Murray, ���سԹ� director of marketing and communication, 619-403-3617 (cell), maegan_murray@wsu.edu

RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington State University Tri-Cities launched its first book for a new series known as the Hanford Histories during a launch event at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Interim Visitors’ Center, located at 2000 Logston Blvd in Richland.

During the launch, ���سԹ� history professor Bob Bauman and Robert Franklin, ���سԹ� Hanford History Project archivist and oral historian, talked about their book, “Nowhere to Remember: Hanford, White Bluffs and Richland to 1943.” The event also featured representatives of the Hanford History Project and Hanford Histories series partner and publisher WSU Press.

“The first volume in the Hanford Histories series uses oral history interviews conducted as part of the Hanford Oral History Project to tell the story of the towns of Hanford, White Bluffs and Richland in the years before World War II,” Bauman said. “Many people in the region know about the Hanford Site, but not many know about the towns and people that were removed to make way for Hanford. In many ways, those people and towns have been erased from history. This volume hopes to remedy that.”

Copies of the book are now available for purchase for $24.95 on the WSU Press website at .

Detailing the early days of pre- and post-Hanford

Franklin said the purpose of the book, as well as the series in general, is to examine different subjects and themes surrounding Hanford history through the voices of those who have lived it.

“Little could the residents of these communities imagine …. how radically their fates would diverge from their fellow frontiersmen with the arrival of government troops in 1943,” said Michael Mays, director of the Hanford History Project, in the preface for the book. “’Nowhere to Remember’ leans heavily on the oral histories that Hanford History Project and others have recovered over the years to recount a history that would otherwise very likely have vanished along with those displaced communities.”

Bauman said people represented in the first book tell fascinating stories of hardship, perseverance, community and displacement.

Hanford Histories as a book series

While the book is the first in the Hanford Histories series, other books will follow on Hanford, featuring subjects including science and the environment, race and diversity, constructing Hanford, the Manhattan Project and its legacies and an illustrated history of Hanford.

“Combining archival research and the narratives the Hanford Oral History Project has gathered since 2013, the books in the series balance the regional, national and international impacts of the Hanford Site,” Franklin said.

He said Hanford is often examined from the point of its environmental legacy, or as part of the much larger Manhattan Project or Cold War defense complex.

“These narratives often sacrifice detail and first-hand accounts for a wide scope,” he said. “It is our hope that by examining the history of Hanford through the words of former workers, residents of Richland and those affected by Hanford, that we can introduce the reader in a thoughtful and approachable way to this complex history.”