How the Peanuts comic strip became racially integrated 47 years ago

Interesting article on the introduction of the Franklin character 47 years ago.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...y-heres-how-a-teacher-changed-comics-history/

 

That's a truly marvelous story.

The moral is: every one of us has the ability to help eradicate bigotry from our society. It doesn't have to be a huge gesture to be effective; just speak up!

 

I like the way Schultz simply put Franklin in instead of "introducing" him.

 

Agreed. Franklin was not presented as "different" or something like that... he's just another kid.

 

I also read Archie comics beginning around that time, and they introduced Chuck Clayton and his father Coach Clayton somewhat unceremoniously, which is how it should be. There was also Josie & The Pussycats, who had Valerie.

The fact is, many schools, and many neighborhoods had always been (somewhat) integrated since the Reconstruction. This was just the media catching up.

 

Good article. Our newspaper still runs Peanuts and I still read it. I read it and said, hey Charlie Brown is meeting Franklin. This must be the first time. Cool. It is always nice to see the origin of a character. Knowing that it was in 1968, one of the most turbulent years in American history. It makes sense to see the story behind his introduction.

 

The beauty of something like this is how normal and natural the interaction between Charlie Brown and Franklin is.

Mom and Dad might be bigots, but to a little white kid in 1968, seeing things like this in the comics just might have had some affect on how he regarded black people from that point on.

 

Very cool. Thanks for posting.

 

I loved it when Chris Rock complained that Franklin didn't have anything to do. "Why don't they give him a Jamaican accent?"

 

It's a great story but it makes me wonder how the Our Gang/Little Rascals shorts which began in the 1920's were racially integrated but in 1968 you had resistance to putting a black character in a comic strip.

Did the media become somehow less tolerant in some aspects during this time?

 

Buckwheat, et al., were crude racial caricatures. Nothing remotely progressive about those characters.

As others have said, Schulz made his point with Franklin by making no point at all.

 

that was great! thanks for posting...

 

This just further cements my belief that Peanuts is the greatest comic strip in the history of comics.

 

This is a great article. I guess.
Notice how they've seated Franklin.

 

Thanks for posting. A great, affirming, Off-Topic thread.

 

True. He was never really part of the core gang. Even Pig Pen, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie were in more. But, then, I quit reading their comics somewhere in the 70s. That could be because some writers get nervous about having them say or do something offensive, so they don't do anything at all.

 

What's funny about "Our Gang"/"The Little Rascals" is that, what I learned from a long ago documentary, when they had the first Black kid, (Farina, was his name?), he was treated equally as the other kids with Pathe distribution. When they switched to MGM with Buckwheat, the studio bosses had a problem with him being around the White girl, and having equal camera time with the rest.

 

We keep trying. As long as everyone behaves and doesn't try to sabotage it, it will work fine.

 

Yes, hope so.

I always looked forward to reading the Peanuts strip when I was a kid. In the Los Angeles Times, it appeared in the first section of the newspaper, at the top of page 3, IIRC, next to the weighty news of the day. That's how prominent the Peanuts comics strip was. I do remember when Franklin was introduced, and on one level I recognized that he was a black character, but at the same time I did not grasp that there was anything significant about that.

 

I suspect that Schulz found it tough to give Franklin much personality because he worried about falling into stereotype/offensive elements. He may have wanted to keep Franklin such an "ordinary kid" that he didn't feel free to do much beyond have him seem... ordinary!

That seems like the message he sent in his first reply to the request to integrate "Peanuts": he was concerned that as a white cartoonist, the inclusion of a black character wouldn't go well. As such, I get the impression he made Franklin bland and generic to avoid such pitfalls.

Not that Franklin is the only bland/generic "Peanuts" characters. Dude's really just Shermy with darker skin!

 

At least I remember Franklin. The name Shermy doesn't even ring a bell!

 

Shermy was one of the original characters - he, Patty (not "Peppermint Patty") and CB were the ones we saw in the very first comic:



Schulz started to phase Shermy out fairly early, and he was gone completely after 1969.

Shermy was a bland character without any discernible personality - that's why he got the boot!

 

I remember that there were two girls named Patty -- Patty and Peppermint Patty -- but even after seeing Shermy in the strip above, I still don't remember him at all and I was a major Peanuts fan from a very early age (born in 1961).

 

Dunno what to tell you - Shermy did exist!

Patty was another major character from the early years who essentially got phased out over time. She didn't go totally MIA like Shermy, but she didn't get much to do after the early days.

She also didn't have much of a personality. IIRC, eventually she did little more than pair with Violet to mock CB. I think Schulz figured he had other characters - ones with actual personalities - who could do that better so she got Le Boot!

Schulz also may have diminished Patty's role because it was so confusing to have 2 characters with that name. He clearly found a lot more comedic possibilities from Peppermint Patty...