Why Charles M. Schulz Gave Peanuts A Black Character (1968)

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In 1968 Schulz noticed the Civil Rights movement, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and read a letter from Los Angeles schoolteacher Harriet Glickman. She had a question for Schulz: would he include a black child in the Peanuts gang?




The 1st comic strip featuring Franklin





Mrs. Glickman wrote:

Dear Mr. Schulz,

Since the death of Martin Luther King, 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, fear, hate and violence.

As a suburban housewife; the mother of three children and a deeply concerned and active citizen, I am well aware of the very long and tortuous road ahead. I believe that it will be another generation before the kind of open friendship, trust and mobility will be an accepted part of our lives.

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.

You need no reassurances from me that Peanuts is one of the most adored, well-read and quoted parts of our literate society. In our family, teen-age Kathy has posters and sweat shirts … pencil holders and autograph books. Paul, who’s ten and our Charlie Brown Little Leaguer … has memorized every paper back book … has stationery, calendars, wall hangings and a Snoopy pillow. Three and a half year old Simon has his own Snoopy which lives, loves, eats, paints, digs, bathes and sleeps with him. My husband and I keep pertinent Peanuts cartoons on desks and bulletin boards as guards against pomposity. You see … we are a totally Peanuts-oriented family.

It occurred to me today that the introduction of Negro children into the group of Schulz characters could happen with a minimum of impact. The gentleness of the kids … even Lucy, is a perfect setting. The baseball games, kite-flying … yea, even the Psychiatric Service cum Lemonade Stand would accommodate the idea smoothly.

Sitting alone in California suburbia makes it all seem so easy and logical. I’m sure one doesn’t make radical changes in so important an institution without a lot of shock waves from syndicates, clients, etc. You have, however, a stature and reputation which can withstand a great deal.

Lastly; should you consider this suggestion, I hope that the result will be more than one black child… Let them be as adorable as the others … but please … allow them a Lucy!

Sincerely,

Harriet Glickman




Via



Schulz replied, expressing a fear that the sudden appearance of a black child would make seem clumsy and patronising.







Mrs. Glickman responded:

Dear Mr. Schulz,

I appreciate your taking the time to answer my letter about Negro children in Peanuts.

You present an interesting dilemma. I would like your permission to use your letter to show some Negro friends. Their responses as parents may prove useful to you in your thinking on this subject.

Sincerely,

Harriet Glickman




Strip 2



True to her word, Mrs Glickman showed the letter to others. Kenneth C. Kelly, one of Mrs. Glickman’s ‘Negro friends’, saw the missive and wrote to the artist:

Dear Mr. Schulz:

With regards to your correspondence with Mrs. Glickman on the subject of including Negro kids in the fabric of Peanuts, I’d like to express an opinion as a Negro father of two young boys. You mention a fear of being patronizing. Though I doubt that any Negro would view your efforts that way, I’d like to suggest that an accusation of being patronizing would be a small price to pay for the positive results that would accrue!

We have a situation in America in which racial enmity is constantly portrayed. The inclusion of a Negro supernumerary in some of the group scenes in Peanuts would do two important things. Firstly, it would ease my problem of having my kids seeing themselves pictured in the overall American scene. Secondly, it would suggest racial amity in a casual day-to-day sense.

I deliberately suggest a supernumerary role for a Negro character. The inclusion of a Negro in your occasional group scenes would quietly and unobtrusively set the stage for a principal character at a later date, should the basis for such a principal develop.

We have too long used Negro supernumeraries in such unhappy situations as a movie prison scene, while excluding Negro supernumeraries in quiet and normal scenes of people just living, loving, worrying, entering a hotel, the lobby of an office building, a downtown New York City street scene. There are insidious negative effects in these practices of the movie industry, TV industry, magazine publishing, and syndicated cartoons.

Sincerely,

KCK

Schulz sent Mrs. Glickman a personal note:







Franklin was in the gang.




Via



But would his publishers go for it? Would the readers?

In the 1980s, Schulz recalled the fight to feature Franklin:

“There was one strip where Charlie Brown and Franklin had been playing on the beach, and Franklin said, ‘Well, it’s been nice being with you, come on over to my house some time. [My editors] didn’t like that. Another editor protested once when Franklin was sitting in the same row of school desks with Peppermint Patty, and said, ‘We have enough trouble here in the South without you showing the kids together in school.’ But I never paid any attention to those things, and I remember telling [United Features president] Larry [Rutman] at the time about Franklin—he wanted me to change it, and we talked about it for a long while on the phone, and I finally sighed and said, ‘Well, Larry, let’s put it this way: Either you print it just the way I draw it or I quit. How’s that?’ So that’s the way that ended….

“People say, ‘Don’t you ever deal in social issues?’ ‘Well, don’t you read the strip?’ If you read the strip every day, you’ll see that I deal with more social issues in one month than some of these deal [with] in a whole year. But you have to be a little more sensitive to it.”




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peanuts-thanksgiving-table.jpg


Some people look at this and see the brother by himself .. i tend to think he is teaching them and thats why they all around the table and he on one side by himself.
 
was listening to sports talk a few weeks ago and they were talking about this while talking about the charlie brown movie
 
Man this dude is the shit. Props to late Mr. Schulz and whomever wrote that letter expressing representation of the black contingent that man sounds brilliant.

I had to look up supernumerary as used here. That's deep shit.
 
I TOTALLY get this...white people crack me up trying to break their arms patting themselves on the back for doing some minor common sense HUMAN thing..
look at what she asked :
It occurred to me today that the introduction of Negro children into the group of Schulz characters could happen with a minimum of impact. The gentleness of the kids … even Lucy, is a perfect setting. The baseball games, kite-flying … yea, even the Psychiatric Service cum Lemonade Stand would accommodate the idea smoothly.

Sitting alone in California suburbia makes it all seem so easy and logical. I’m sure one doesn’t make radical changes in so important an institution without a lot of shock waves from syndicates, clients, etc. You have, however, a stature and reputation which can withstand a great deal.

what the hell is she asking about???? ACKNOWLEDGING THAT BLACK PEOPLE..NON WHITE PEOPLE EXIST IN THE WORLD OF A FUCKING CARTOON.

Schulz replied, expressing a fear that the sudden appearance of a black child would make seem clumsy and patronising.

you know why it would seem clumsy and like tokenism... because the Peanuts premiered on October 2, 1950 and there isn't a thought of showing anyone not white until 18 YEARS later.

and whats the request again...showing that nonwhites exist in the world in some regular non-stereotypical way. So Schulz doing so only AFTER much debate and prodding ISN'T an accomplishment when you really think about it.
 
I'd hate to be at Christmas dinner with yall. Can't enjoy a muthafuckin thing. Dis be white, wtggt adding plates for the husband , cousin that is alive today but hasn't been around 14 yrs ago by New years 2k16. Truth and Slowhands arguing Slow trying set the mood singing Sam Smith tunes.
 
To me, this is an example of how white people DONT have to do shit for us, but occasionally they do support the cause, minimally. I have no problem with the timeline in which Schultz introduced the black character on Peanuts. But my hope would have been that we could have used 'Franklin' as a teaching tool to the youth...showing them that it's important for people of different backgrounds to get along, and more importantly, for them to understand that they can be and achieve anything they set their minds to.
 
Great story and Shiltz wanted white characters living in a white world but if you've watch Charlie Brown he's one depressing down in the dumps motherfucking cartoon,him and the rest of the gang.

Snoopy was the only one living life,good bad or sad.

....Charlie Brown turned into a mass murderer and took his own life after offing snoopy for doing what he wanted to do.
 
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