Who is the father of African-American history?

Answer 1

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)

"However, there is one major early historian of Africa in the best modern sense. This is Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), who, if he were better known to western scholars, might well usurp Herodotus' title of 'the father of history.' Iban Khaldun was, of course, a North African, native of Tunis. Part of his work is concerned with Africa."

"The development of African historiography" by J.D. Fage 26-27

As far as African American history goes:

Years before there were any black history departments, Franklin was researching the stories of African-Americans. His interest in African American history began while he was a graduate student in the 1930s, and he published the book, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans in 1947.

Franklin was the first African-American to hold an endowed chair at Duke University, the first African-American chairman of the University of Chicago's history department and the first African-American president of the American Historical Association.

Franklin also contributed to pivotal events of the Civil Rights Movement; he worked with Thurgood Marshall's team of lawyers in the landmark desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education and he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr in a 1965 protest for voting rights in Montgomery, Alabama.