Oral history interview with Carlton B. (Carlton Benjamin) Goodlett, 1972.

Biographical Note

Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett (1914-1997) was a physician, civil rights leader, and publisher of the San Francisco Sun Reporter. Goodlett obtained a BA in psychology from Howard University, a PhD in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.D. from Meharry Medical College. In 1945, Goodlett moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to practice medicine in the black community. He served as president of his local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1947 to 1949 and headed the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) from 1973 to 1979. Goodlett became the owner of the Reporter, which he merged with a competitor the Sun to form the Sun Reporter. He authored editorials for his newspaper. Following his death in 1997, the address of San Francisco City Hall was renamed 1 Carlton B. Goodlett Place.

Scope and Contents

In the first part of his two-session interview with Henry La Brie III, Goodlett describes the Black Power movement and his San Francisco community. He details how publication costs and advertiser discrimination censor the black media, inhibiting community control of both radio and newspaper communication. Also discussed are black businesses, black and Latino newspapers in California, the demands of black youth on the press, and the militancy of the Sun Reporter. The first session concludes with a summary of Goodlett's work with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and description of how the black press agitates white establishments. The second session begins with Goodlett's description of the events that led to his community's migration to Omaha, Nebraska, and his becoming racially conscious as a high school student. He proceeds to describe his experience in higher education. Goodlett goes on to describe the financial challenges of the Sun Reporter from 1949 to 1955, the tenets that guided his work, and the role the Sun Reporter had in local and national elections. In the last session, Goodlett speaks on the Sun Reporter's increasing circulation since the civil rights actions of 1962-1964, his activism regarding advertiser discrimination, and the importance of apprenticeships for young black reporters. Also discussed are the possibility of a black news service, the relative importance of a newspaper's various sections, the activist orientation of the black press, and why the black press will not be mainstreamed.

Subjects

• Advertising--Newspapers.
• African American journalists.
• African American press.
• African Americans--Civil rights.
• Goodlett, Carlton B. (Carlton Benjamin), 1914-1997--Interviews.
• Interviews.
• Journalism--Political aspects.
• Journalists--Interviews.
• La Brie, Henry G., interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• National Newspaper Publishers Association (U.S.)
• Newspaper publishing--Economic aspects--United States.
• Newspapers--Circulation.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• San Francisco (Calif.)--Newspapers.
• The Sun-reporter.
• United States--Race relations.