In 1968, with the introduction of Franklin in Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz wasn’t merely adding a new character to Charlie Brown’s group. He was introducing a Black character in one of the most popular comic strips in America at a time when the nation was facing racial and civil rights tensions, as well as the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Franklin has few parallels to other characters because Schulz didn’t initially have the idea. The character exists largely because one reader decided that Peanuts could do more.
Who Is Franklin in ‘Peanuts’?
Franklin made his debut on July 31, 1968, when he met Charlie Brown at the beach. The two boys played together, built a sandcastle, and became friends. It was an intentionally ordinary introduction, which is part of what made it significant. Franklin wasn’t introduced as a lesson about race or saddled with a grand explanation for why he was suddenly there; he was simply another kid.
Franklin was thoughtful, sociable, and showed a strong academic commitment, but he was less troubled and tormented than many of his friends. Franklin attended school with Patty and Marcie; he exchanged stories with Charlie Brown, and some of Charlie Brown’s antics were as confusing to him as they might be for anyone else.
The comics also indicated that Franklin had a father in the Vietnam War — a significant detail that grounded the character in the realities of the late 1960s. In later adaptations, his full name became Franklin Armstrong, a surname connected to Black cartoonist Robb Armstrong, who had a longtime relationship with Schulz and would eventually help expand Franklin’s story.
Franklin Was Created After a Letter to Charles Schulz
On April 15, 1968, just 11 days after King’s assassination, Los Angeles schoolteacher Harriet Glickman wrote to Schulz. She wasn’t asking him to turn Peanuts into a political comic strip; instead, she suggested he introduce a Black child into the gang. The comic strip was published in newspapers nationwide and had become deeply embedded in American childhood, so it might be an effective strategy to feature Black characters alongside established characters such as Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, and Linus to reflect the reality of Black children’s lives. Initially, Schulz feared he would create a stereotypical image of a Black person; however, as with any artistic undertaking, he committed to creating a Black character after further discussions with Glickman. On July 1, he wrote to her that readers would see the new character in the strip during the week of July 29.
The response wasn’t universally positive, as some editors objected to Franklin interacting too casually with Charlie Brown. Others specifically protested when Franklin appeared sitting in the same classroom as white children. One Southern editor reportedly asked Schulz not to show Black and white children together at school, but Schulz ignored the request. When United Feature Syndicate president Larry Rutman pushed him to alter Franklin, Schulz gave an ultimatum to either print the strip as he had drawn it, or he would quit. Franklin stayed, ultimately. Schulz could have made Franklin a carefully isolated guest who existed on the edges of the Peanuts universe, but he insisted that Franklin occupy the same spaces as everyone else.
Why Franklin Still Matters Nearly 60 Years Later
Franklin wasn’t a perfect solution to America’s complicated history with race, and Peanuts occasionally stumbled in how it handled him. The most infamous example came in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, when Franklin was conspicuously seated alone at one end of the table while everyone else crowded together.
Decades later, however, Peanuts found an unexpectedly elegant way to address that image. The 2024 special Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin revisited the character’s introduction and expanded his backstory. Near the end, Franklin again finds himself sitting at the empty side of a table. This time, Linus tells him that the group saved him a seat with everyone else.
Franklin’s significance is that Schulz recognized the power of an enormously popular piece of children’s entertainment to make inclusion feel normal. Franklin didn’t need to be extraordinary simply because he was Black, but just needed to be allowed to be a kid. Armstrong has spoken about seeing Franklin as a child and realizing that becoming a cartoonist himself was possible. For generations of readers, Franklin offered reassurance to children, and perhaps that’s why he remains one of Peanuts’ most relevant characters nearly 60 years after his first appearance. The world has changed considerably since 1968, but the need to see yourself reflected in the stories everyone else is reading hasn’t.
- Release Date
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2016 – 2017-00-00
- Network
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Cartoon Network
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Aiden Lewandowski
Charlie Brown (voice)
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Emma Yarovinsky
Sally Brown (voice)
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Bella Stine
Lucy van Pelt (voice) / Crybaby Boobie (voice) / Peggy Jean (voice)
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Jude Perry
Linus van Pelt (voice)
