June 13 – November 1, 2026
“All of human life can be found in Charles M. Schulz’s 17,897 Peanuts comic strips.” The Saturday Evening Post, July 2018
He never kicked that football. His baseball team was historically terrible. He got nothing but rocks for Trick-or-Treating. Yet Charlie Brown can count one absolute triumph on his resume. Fifty-eight years ago, Charlie Brown made a friend. That friend, Franklin, broke barriers, infuriated segments of the readership, and remains a radical statement from a tumultuous time. Why? Franklin was the first Black character in the Peanuts comic strip.
In the summer of 1968, the world was reeling from the assassination of Rev. Dr. 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.
Schulz was a perceptive observer. He was always curious, and with his wit and wry sense of humor, he opened minds and hearts that others could not. Shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., he received a letter from Harriet Glickman, a Los Angeles school teacher. Mrs. Glickman strongly believed that the Peanuts comic strip could positively influence attitudes on race and proposed that Schulz add a Black child to the Peanuts gang. Her tenacity inspired Schulz to defy his editors, and on July 31, 1968, Franklin, made his national debut.
Fifty-eight years ago, Charlie Brown lost his beach ball. It was found and returned to him by a boy named Franklin, and the two teamed up, and built a sandcastle together. It was straightforward, sweet, and completely radical. The simple encounter of two boys on a beach was how Schulz introduced the first Black character in his widely read comic strip. Franklin went on to appear regularly in the comic strip and in media spin-offs.
Franklin, a national traveling exhibition, organized by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Santa Rosa, CA, explores the origins of this beloved Peanuts character. Making its Southeastern United States debut at the Upcountry History Museum, the exhibit, designed for audiences of all ages, will be on display June 13 – November 1, 2026. The exhibit includes archival materials, comic strips, objects, and hands-on-activities.
