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Peppermint patty peanuts black and white9/11/2023 Linus was obsessed with the Great Pumpkin, Snoopy flew his doghouse and Franklin found it odd. Later that year, on July 31, 1968, Franklin was born.įranklin appeared in hundreds of Peanuts comic strips over the years, always coming off as a voice of reason. Schulz had been thinking about adding a Black character to the strip for years, but Schulz was concerned that doing so would be seen as “patronizing.” After much introspection and consideration, Schulz decided it was worth a shot. Specifically, she noted that the introduction of Black characters into the “Peanuts” comic strip could help change the "vast sea of misunderstanding, fear, hate and violence."Īccording to Clark, the schoolteacher’s letter was timely. Martin Luther King Jr., and told the cartoonist she thought “Peanuts” could help influence the nation’s attitudes on race. That teacher, Harriet Glickman, wrote a letter to Schulz after the assassination of Rev. “Schulz used to think of characters in a comic strip like keys on a piano, and Franklin was a necessary note on that keyboard.” Sparking the idea for Franklinįranklin’s story began in early 1968 with a letter from a Los Angeles schoolteacher. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa. “Inclusion was a big part of (Schulz’) reasoning for including Franklin,” said Benjamin Clark, curator of the Charles M. But for Schulz himself, and for Black readers of the comic strip, Franklin’s arrival marked a new era, and a big first step toward increased representation in the cartoon pages every week. Initially, the move was controversial for some - particularly in Southern states, which were grappling with segregation. With that encounter, Franklin became the first Black character in the history of the “Peanuts” comic strip. The mild-mannered Franklin character came onto the scene quietly to join the “Peanuts” kids when creator Charles Schulz introduced him by having Franklin return Charlie Brown’s ball one day on the beach. Then, with the nation battling civil unrest, a cartoon boy named Franklin changed everything. For the first 18 years of the “Peanuts” comic strip - from 1950 until 1968 - all the characters looked mostly the same: They were all white kids.
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