Subject
Franklin Armstrong; Peanuts; Charles Schulz
Description
In the summer of 1968, the world was still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. And Charles Schulz’s Peanuts characters were at the height of their popularity, having recently starred in their fourth TV special after A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown had been established as instant classics. Though seemingly unrelated, a schoolteacher in Los Angeles saw a way to bring the two events together.
On April 15, 1968, Harriet Glickman sent a letter to Charles Schulz, which began:
“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 seas of misunderstanding, fear, hate, and violence.”
She went on to express the importance mass media had “in shaping the unconscious attitudes of our kids,” and how “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 … yes, even the Psychiatric Service cum Lemonade Stand would accommodate the idea smoothly.”
Immediately, Schulz replied; while his response was honest, it’s not what Glickman had hoped for. In Schulz’s letter, dated April 26, 1968, the cartoonist thanked Glickman for her suggestion, but said that by introducing an African-American character, he was “faced with the same problem that other cartoonists are who wish to comply with your suggestion. 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.” Schulz closed by stating that, “I don’t know what the solution is.”
Creator
Source
Publisher
mentalfloss.com
File
