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Deacon J.D. and Gloria Franklin in their home on the newly renamed J.D. Franklin Drive. J.D. is Sulphur Springs’ first African American mayor. Staff photo by Taylor Nye
Street named in honor Sulphur Springs’ first black mayor
Deacon J.D. Franklin has one word to describe his life: “blessed.”
“We do have people that love us,” Franklin said. “We’re blessed; we’re so blessed.”
Resolution 1165 at the regular meeting of the June 4 city council declared a portion of Jackson Street in Sulphur Springs from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to College Street have its name changed to J.D. Franklin Drive.
This resolution was later read and entered into the record before the Hopkins County Commissioners on June 17.
It’s an uncommon honor for a street to be named after a living person, said Councilperson Freddie Taylor, but one that is well deserved.
“This man is worth his weight in gold,” Taylor told the council. “That’s someone who’s going to see the pearly gates and kick [them] down.”
Franklin is a lifelong resident of Sulphur Springs. Born here in 1937, he graduated from Frederick Douglass High School (now Early Childhood Learning Center) in 1956. Three years later, he married his sweetheart, Gloria Nash, who has been beside him ever since.
Franklin had a gradual transition into politics, he said. He was a member of several different organizations such as the Jaycees and the Masonic Columbia Lodge in his youth.
“I just grew up doing things, everything really,” Franklin said.
In 1975, when the city council elections came around, he said, “They asked me to run, so I did.”
His election as the city’s first African American city commissioner and a member of city council in 1975 was not without hiccups, Franklin said.
“A lot of times, it caused a lot of pressure,” he said. “It was a pretty close race.”
His transition into the role as the city’s first African American mayor was much like the city’s system today, Franklin said. The mayor is chosen by the other members of the city council to serve a term.
During this time, according to Franklin, he also served on the Ark-Tex Council of Governments.
“We just went from town to town a whole lot, traveling like that,” Franklin said.
“We used to be gone all the time, and I tagged along,” Gloria added. “They all took their wives with them.”
“Everybody was so nice,” she said. “We never ran into any trouble at all; we were just all together. Not the color of your skin or whatever. Every city, every time.”
After his term was over as mayor, though, Franklin didn’t have higher political ambitions, he said.
“I just wanted to serve the city, exactly that’s right,” he stated.
In 1972, he had become a deacon of the Morning Chapel Missionary Baptist church, where he continued to serve after his time on the council.
In 2012, Franklin came out of retirement to work at the Sulphur Springs Independent School District’s maintenance department.
“Mostly I work in the multi-purpose building,” he said. “I love that the kids are always coming up to me [calling] Mr. Franklin, Mr. Franklin!”
And, says Franklin, he doesn’t plan to retire any time soon.
“Maybe in two more years,” he said.
“Now he’s putting another year on from what he told me,” Gloria said. “But that’s what’s best for him, if he’s able. It keeps him young.”
As to what motivated those who admire Franklin to push to have a street named after him? Pastor Jason Lindley says it’s a vision from God.
“When I look at Deacon J.D. Franklin, he’s the picture of what a Christian man should be,” Lindley said. “[He’s] always willing to help others… he was the first African American mayor, during a time when people were adjusting to the new integration. He played such an intricate role.”
And J.D. and Gloria Franklin agree about God’s hand in all of this.
“We couldn’t have done it without Him,” Gloria said.