‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ Turns 50 This Year. How Has It Held Up?

Now, dean of Loyola Marymount College of Communication and Fine Arts, Alexander says he adored Franklin as a child growing up in Louisiana.

“Dear Franklin, you have always been my hero,” Alexander wrote in an essay in the 2022 collection Performative Intergenerational Dialogues of a Black Quartet: Qualitative Inquiries on Race, Gender, Sexualities, and Culture.

“Oh, how lonely it must have been as the first, and only Black Peanut on the Charlie Brown cartoon series, being the perpetual other. But you always presented with such style, grace, insight and character. I wanted to be you when I was growing up. You gave me great joy. A boy with few words but great presence. ”

As someone who often finds himself the only Black man sitting at the table, Alexander says Franklin was the first to show him what it’s like and modeled that position with dignity.

The widow of Peanuts‘ creator addressed the dinner scene in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving in her blog, which is on the Charles M. Schulz Museum website.

“While it can’t be known now which animator drew that particular scene, you can be sure there was no ulterior motive,” Jean Schulz wrote in 2019, reflecting on how her husband created Franklin’s character out of sincerity and an intention of inclusiveness.