On October 2, 1950, three kids appeared on the funny pages of seven newspapers. Over the next 50 years, Charlie Brown, Patty, and Shermy would be joined by a whole cast of characters and forever change the landscape of the Sunday comics.

Charles M. Schulz—the cartoonist behind Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and the rest of the Peanuts gang—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 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Los Angeles school teacher, Harriet Glickman, believed that the popular comic strip Peanuts could positively influence attitudes on race. Due to their correspondence, Charles Schulz introduced Franklin to his cartoon in the summer of 1968. Franklin has remained an important member of the Peanuts gang ever since.

Franklin includes correspondence between Glickman and Schulz, comic strips from the multiday storyline of when Franklin and Charlie Brown first met at the beach, as well as the story of how Franklin Armstrong’s last name came to be, as told by the cartoonist Robb Armstrong.

“I have wanted to introduce a black character for some time…the reaction was tremendous. We got quite a stack of mail saying, “thank you.” — Charles M. Schulz, 1970 

Franklin is organized and toured by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, Santa Rosa, California. It is sponsored locally by the Marion Park Lewis Foundation and The Power of Change, a grant program through Rappahannock Electric Cooperative. Exhibition materials were fabricated locally by Winchester Printers.