Franklin’s Impactful Introduction to the Peanuts Comic Strip
Valleyfair
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In 1968, a gallon of gas cost $1.79. The number one song was “Hey Jude” by The Beatles. Funny Girl raked in the most money at the box office. The Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl. But it was the event on April 4 in Memphis, TN, when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated on his hotel balcony that shocked and changed the nation.
Impact Felt Around the World
Segregation and racial discrimination had reached a boiling point in the United States and King’s death left many Americans and people around the world wondering how they could make a change. A schoolteacher in California, Harriet Glickman, was troubled by the events that had happened in Tennessee and felt the calling to try to make her community a more inclusive and accepting place. Harriet, like millions of Americans, read the Peanuts comic strip daily in her local newspaper. She decided to write a letter to Charles Schulz to encourage him to integrate the Peanuts.
Letter from Harriet Glickman to Charles M. Schulz, April 15, 1968. Collection of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Santa Rosa, California.
Letter from Charles Schulz to Harriet Glickman, April 26, 1968. Collection of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Santa Rosa, California.
Letter from Harriet Glickman to Charles M. Schulz, April 27, 1968. Collection of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Santa Rosa, California.
Glickman continued to exchange letters with Schultz over the next few months, ultimately showing Schultz’s responses to her local and diverse community, encouraging them to write to Schultz in support. As the letters of encouragement started coming in, Schultz started taking the first steps.
Time for A Change
Beginning on July 29, 1968, Schulz presented a multi-day storyline placing Charlie Brown and his sister Sally at the beach—setting the stage to introduce a new character. Schulz saw the beach as a neutral place where children from every neighborhood could meet and interact, building sandcastles and throwing beach balls. This was the ideal environment for Charlie Brown to meet Franklin for the very first time.
On July 31st, almost four months after Martin Luther King Jr. assassination, Franklin debuted nationally in the first integrated comic strip. He and Charlie Brown have an immediate, warmhearted friendship that lasts throughout the duration of their time together.
Cartoonist Charles Schulz debuted his comic strip Peanuts' first black character, Franklin, on July 31, 1968. Peanuts Worldwide LLC
A Shift to Inspire Generations
The introduction of Franklin into the Peanuts comic strip inspired future generations of artists and cartoonists. Robb Armstrong was six years old at the time of Franklin’s introduction and seeing that comic strip gave him the hope to one day be able to start his own comic, which he did with the creation of JumpStart. "He inspired a kid. I don't think there's a higher calling in this life," Armstrong told NPR. "He inspired some kid 3,000 miles away. ... It's incredible what happens when you inspire a kid, and that's what Schulz did."
Schultz in return was so inspired by Armstrong's work that in 1990 when he was preparing the Peanuts for a TV special he realized that Franklin was the only Peanut to not have a last name and ask Armstrong if he could name Franklin, Franklin Armstrong.