Franklin (Peanuts)

For other uses, see Franklin (disambiguation).

Franklin
Peanuts character
First appearance	July 31, 1968
Last appearance	September 12, 1999
Voiced by	Original: Todd Barbee Other: Phil LaMarr
Information
Gender	Male

Franklin is a character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. Introduced on July 31, 1968, Franklin was the first African-American character in the strip. He goes to school with Peppermint Patty and Marcie. In his first story arc, he met Charlie Brown when they were both at the beach. Franklin's father was a soldier fighting in Vietnam, to which Charlie Brown replied "My Dad's a barber...he was in a war too, but I don't know which one." Franklin later paid Charlie Brown a visit and found some of Charlie Brown's other friends to be quite odd. His last appearance was in 1999, the year before Schulz's death.

Political or non-political means

At a time when segregation and race relations were an ongoing national debate in the United States, the introduction of Franklin proved somewhat controversial. Schulz, however, insisted that there was no political motivation in his introduction. Rarely was it expressly mentioned in the strip that Franklin was black, most characters merely accepting him as part of the gang. In an interview in 1997, Schulz discussed receiving a letter from a Southern editor "who said something about, 'I don't mind you having a black character, but please don't show them in school together.' Because I had shown Franklin sitting in front of Peppermint Patty, I didn't even answer him." Franklin's skin color, however, was mentioned in The Charlie Brown Dictionary, a picture dictionary using the Peanuts characters. Franklin was referred to in the definition of "black" in showing a picture of him talking on the telephone; the color of the phone is black. The description also says that "black may also refer to Franklin's skin tone, which is also known as a Negro person."

Biography

Franklin sits in front of Peppermint Patty in school, revealed November 12, 1969, and is the center fielder of her baseball team. Franklin acts as a thoughtful counterpart to Linus, and is as adept at quoting the Old Testament as Linus is. One connection that Franklin and Charlie Brown have is their mutual interest in their grandfathers; with Franklin describing his as energetic and content with his age with the motto, "When you're over the hill, you pick up speed." Franklin has few anxieties or obsessions and the novelty of his racial background has long since faded. In Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, Franklin is among the other children who must deal with culture shock of transitioning from his nice neighborhood back home to living in a Spartan summer camp in the Western United States, and learning that they will wake every morning at 5 A.M. In It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown, Franklin is shown to be a fan of disco dancing and breakdancing, and frequented a discothèque with Snoopy. He is also quite knowledgeable about jazz music and plays Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" in the "Music and Heroes of America" episode of This Is America, Charlie Brown, which aired May 23, 1989.

Family name

According to the animated television special You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown, Franklin's family name is Armstrong, making his full name Franklin Armstrong. This is never stated in the comic strip (nor any other special); therefore, it is considered apocryphal.

Impact in culture

Various actors have played Franklin in the animated specials, one of them being Todd Barbee, who went on to become the voice of Charlie Brown from 1973 to 1974. Franklin also appeared on Tiny Toon Adventures in the episode "Life in the 1990s" and he was played by Phil LaMarr.

In a "Weekend Update" commentary on a 1992 episode of Saturday Night Live, Chris Rock, who incorrectly stated that Franklin has not said a single word for 25 years and related his own childhood experience as the only black student in his grade school class.

External links

• The first appearance of Franklin in the Peanuts comic strip from July 31, 1968.