Stewart who landed the most devastating blows when, in 1973, she published an article in the literary digest Black World with the shots-fired title, “ Sesame Street: A Linguistic Detour for Black-Language Speakers.” To their eyes and ears, the language and behavior shown in the Roosevelt Franklin segments “ perpetuated racist stereotypes.”īut it was Black academic Barbara H. This was a major source of criticism from Black parents and Black executives such as Lutrelle Horne and Evelyn Davis at the Children’s Television Workshop. The vibe is unmistakably Black, such as when Roosevelt leaves the classroom to go eat his lunch - “a whole pot of black-eye peas, waiting for me.” Or as he puts it, “That’s just another number one golden rule, from the Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School.” ![]() The moral being not to take something that doesn’t belong to you. Eventually, Roosevelt leads all the other kids in a call-and-response with refrains like, “All alone in the doghouse.” It’s canine-focused because he’s telling the story of two dogs who cooperate to liberate a big ol’ bone from the doghouse. ![]() He starts to beatbox - or as close to it as the 1970s would get (it’s more like a street-corner doo-wop group, or the backbeat of a Nuyorican poetry reading). In one particular scene, Roosevelt asks his friend Hard Head Henry Harris to give him a beat. And so, in Season Two, Roosevelt Franklin was given a larger stand-alone role in his own segments to “ address criticisms from some in the Black community that the program lacked ‘soul,’ and that it should feature Black vernacular language and humor more prominently.” Nonetheless, Sesame Street received early criticisms that it wasn’t Black enough. Everything about him - the songs, the voice, the way he moved - that was my dad.” He was too Black for them.” His daughter, actress Holly Robinson-Peete, added, “Roosevelt basically was the essence of my father. That’s what those people heard and objected to. Years later, his ex-wife Dolores Robinson recalled, “Matt’s pride in his race and his anger with racism all came out in Roosevelt. ![]() ![]() Roosevelt was originally created, scripted and voiced by Matt Robinson, the actor who played Gordon. This was the same reason that in 1970 the show introduced a Muppet who was Black, a character named Roosevelt Franklin.Īnd yet, in the space of only a few years, Roosevelt Franklin would become “too Black for Sesame Street” and was phased out of the show. The cast was carefully selected so children from urban centers across the country, particularly Black children, would see themselves in the faces on the screen. The brownstone at 123 Sesame Street was owned by a young Black couple, Gordon and Susan Robinson, and the pair functioned as the heart of the series (while also “ serving as surrogate parents” for the children watching at home). Sesame Street started out as a very Black show.
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