Franklin Armstrong, the only black character to date in the iconic "Peanuts" comic strip, was the product of a white teacher's frustrations in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.
Harriet Glickman wrote a letter to creator Charles Schulz a few weeks after King was shot to death outside his Memphis hotel room, asking that he consider including characters of color in his popular strip.
“Since the death of Martin Luther King,” she began, in the letter dated April 15, 1968, “I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help change those conditions in our society which led to the assassination and which contribute to the vast sea of misunderstanding, hate, fear and violence.”
Why not start with children, she figured.
She continued: “In thinking over the areas of the mass media which are of tremendous importance in shaping the unconscious attitudes of our kids, I felt that something could be done through our comic strips and even in that violent jungle of horrors known as children’s television.”
Surprisingly, Schulz responded. He appeared hesitant to add a black character, fearing the potential backlash.
“I appreciate your suggestion about introducing a Negro child into the comic strip, but I am faced with the same problem that other cartoonists are who wish to comply with your suggestion,” he wrote to her in a letter dated April 26, 1968. “We all would like very much to be able to do this, but each of us is afraid that it would look like we were patronizing our Negro friends.”
The two went back and forth over the idea, with Glickman even surveying several of her black friends to see whether they would be offended, reporting the results to Schulz. A letter from Schulz on July 1, 1968, showed how much he appreciated her efforts.
“You will be pleased to know that I have taken the first step in doing something about representing a Negro child in the comic strip,” Schulz wrote.
Franklin was introduced to audiences on July 31. The move was met mostly with praise, according to historians who have written about it.
“Is this your beach ball?” Franklin asks Charlie Brown at a beach.
Critics — particularly black people — panned the character for lacking a personality. While the strip’s other characters were known for their individual quirks, Franklin had no distinguishable traits other than the color of his skin.
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