Why did Sesame Street phase out Black Muppet Roosevelt Franklin?

Mel Magazine

Roosevelt Franklin was originally created, scripted and voiced by Matt Robinson, the actor who played Gordon. “Roosevelt basically was the essence of my father. Everything about him — the songs, the voice, the way he moved — that was my dad," says his daughter, the actress Holly Robinson-Peete. As Zaron Burnett III points out, Sesame Street started out "as a very Black show." And in Season 2, to address complaints it wasn't Black enough, 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.” But as Roosevelt became more prominent, he attracted criticism from Black parents and Black executives that he was perpetuating racist stereotypes. In 1973, Black academic Barbara H. Stewart wrote that Roosevelt  spoke with a “stage Negro dialect," claiming that Sesame Street believed in the “fallacious assumption that poor Black children are verbally destitute.” The next year, Sesame Street phased out Roosevelt Franklin.