On July 1, 1968, the popular comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz showed Charlie Brown staring sadly out to sea. His sister Sally had thrown his beach ball into the ocean, and then told her brother, “Your beach ball just left for Hawaii.”

It was just one more defeat for the long–suffering Charlie Brown. Suddenly a boy named Franklin walked up and asked Charlie Brown, “Is this your beach ball?” After thanking him the two worked on a Sand Castle together, talked about baseball, shared a little family history (Franklin’s father was in Vietnam, Charlie’s father was a barber but served in a war — Charlie wasn’t sure which one), and after Franklin’s mother told him it was time to go home, Charlie Brown shouted after him, “Ask your mother if you can come over sometime and spend the night! We’ll play baseball and build another sandcastle.”

Charlie Brown’s happy ending didn’t last long. His sister walked up to announce his beach ball was floating off to Hawaii again.

Oh, and the significance of this moment? Franklin was the first black character introduced into the Peanuts cast. He went on to become a regular character involved in the same schools, sports and activities as the rest of the gang.

At the time, Schulz had been resisting introducing such a character, but only because he was worried about “patronizing” his African American fans, something we might now call cultural appropriation.

However, 1968 was a racially charged year, with both peaceful non–violent demonstrations as well as civil unrest that led to rioting. Later that year an openly racist governor of a southern state ran for President and won five states, dramatically altering the November election.

Most importantly, a few months before Franklin walked across that beach, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. This caused Harriet Glickman, an LA school teacher, to write a letter to Schulz asking him to create a black character for his comic strip.

It’s hard to imagine today just how groundbreaking this was. The world of popular media was as segregated as much of American society. Schulz admitted later that one Southern newspaper editor asked him not to show black and white characters sharing the same classroom. Schulz simply did not reply. Schulz, Charles M., The Complete Peanuts:1967 to 1968, Fantagraphics Books, 2008, pp. 248–249.