Franklin (Peanuts)

Franklin is a character in the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz. Introduced in the late 1960s, Franklin was the first black character in the strip. He went to school with Peppermint Patty and Marcie, and didn't meet Charlie Brown in his early appearances.

At a time when segregation was an ongoing national debate, the introduction of Franklin proved somewhat controversial. Schulz, however, insisted that there was no political motivation in his introduction. No one in the strip ever mentioned the fact that Franklin was black, merely accepting him as part of the gang.

Franklin sits in front of Peppermint Patty in school, and is the center-fielder of her baseball team. Franklin acts as a thoughtful foil 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 few anxieties or obsessions, Franklin could be considered one of the less interesting of the characters in the Peanuts universe.