• The superstar rise and sudden fall of Sesame Street’s ‘black Elmo’

    The superstar rise and sudden fall of Sesame Street’s ‘black Elmo’

    In 1970, alongside Cookie Monster and Big Bird, a new Muppet appeared on “Sesame Street.” Roosevelt Franklin was a young boy with a shock of black hair atop his head, dressed in a striped turtleneck — and although he was technically purple in color, he was explicitly created to be black. Nearly from his first …