Dedicated to the Cause of the People

Ricardo Guthrie on "Dedicated to the Cause of the People: Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett The San Francisco Sun-Reporter and Black Consciousness, 1947-1966"

Visiting researcher Ricardo Guthrie will discuss how a Black physician used his weekly newspaper to help transform San Francisco's neighborhoods of Negro migrant workers into an activist Black community after World War II.
Only the third practicing Black physician in San Francisco during the 1940s, Carlton Goodlett parlayed his popularity and leadership skills into the political arena—leading the local NAACP chapter, agitating for more African American employees at the city level, breaking down segregation in local hospitals, building multiracial coalitions, and forging two newspapers into a unified voice for African Americans.

Goodlett and the Sun-Reporter staff contributed to the developing consciousness and empowerment movements which found fertile ground in the Bay Area during the 1950s and 1960s. Guthrie’s research tells part of the story about why this occurred in San Francisco, and explores the continuing social and political legacy of Black and ethnic journalism in establishing a more inclusive, multicultural public sphere.