In the spring of 1968, Charles Schulz receives a letter from a stay-at-home mom in Southern California by the name of Harriet Glickman. She asks him to introduce black characters into peanuts and he responds that he is very much in sympathy with her concern. And so she writes again and she says, well, I understand your concern about potentially being patronizing to African-American readers. So why don't I put you in touch with some friends from my community, some African-American families that could tell you their perspective on this? That's when Charlie Brown introduces Franklin at the beach with Charlie Brown.
Cartoonist Charles Schulz wrote and drew Peanuts every day for half a century. In his new book Charlie Brown's America, Historian Blake Scott Ball uses the strip (and the fan mail archive at the Schulz museum) to illuminate the Wishy-Washy politics of Cold War America.