1. See Klein, Jennifer, For All These Rights: Business, Labor, and the Shaping of America’s Public-Private Welfare State (Princeton, 2003)Google Scholar; Mittelstadt, Jennifer, From Welfare to Workfare: The Unintended Consequences of Liberal Reform, 1945–1965 (Chapel Hill, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Reese, Ellen, Backlash Against Welfare Mothers: Past and Present (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2005).Google Scholar

2. There is a flourishing literature on homophile activism in this period: the key works are Meeker, Martin, Contacts Desired: Gay and Lesbian Communications and Community, 1940s–1970s (Chicago, 2005)Google Scholar; Boyd, Nan Alamilla, Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2003)Google Scholar; D’Emilio, John, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940–1970, 2nd ed. (Chicago, 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; D’Emilio, , “Gay Politics, Gay Community: San Francisco’s Experience,” Socialist Review 55 (1981): 77–104Google Scholar; Stryker, Susan and Buskirk, Jim Van, Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area (San Francisco, 1996).Google Scholar

3. Mark Forrester, letter to SIR members, 10 November 1964, Don Lucas MSS, Box 11, folder 3.

4. Boyd, Wide-Open Town, 4.

5. California enacted a major expansion of its welfare state before the culmination of efforts to forge a welfare rights movement in the mid-1960s, and the Golden State provides an interesting case study of a meeting ground between politics from the top down and grassroots organizing. For a discussion of this relationship, see Kornbluh, Felicia, The Battle for Welfare Rights: Politics and Poverty in Modern America (Philadelphia, 2007), esp. 27–33Google Scholar.

6. For an interesting political science perspective on the dynamics of coalition-building and ideological self-identification, see Bawn, Kathleen, “Constructing ‘Us’: Ideology, Coalition Politics, and False Consciousness,” American Journal of Political Science 43, no. 2 (April 1999): 303–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Bawn uses Game Theory to construct a general principle of why individuals make political alliances based on shared ideological goals. My work seeks to historicize coalition building and ideological affiliation, and to use the shared history of different interest groups to paint a broader picture of political culture in California in these years.

7. Mayhew, David R., Placing Parties in American Politics: Organization, Electoral Settings, and Government Activity in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, 1986), 185Google Scholar; see also Wilson, James Q., The Amateur Democrat: Club Politics in Three Cities (Chicago, 1966), 96–109Google Scholar; Owens, John R., Constantini, Edmond, and Weschler, Louis F., California Politics and Parties (Toronto, 1970)Google Scholar.

8. The weekly report, Sun Reporter, 13 October 1956.

9. Proceedings of the California Labor League for Political Education pre-primary endorsement convention, 7 April 1952, California LLPE MSS, Box 7, folder 6, San Francisco State University Labor Archives and Research Center.

10. Val Washington of the Republican National Committee to Dellums, 20 April 1953; various letters from Dellums to Warren, 17 February–5 March 1953; Dellums to McIntyre Faries, 17 March 1953, Dellums MSS, Box 8, ibid.

11. See Senator Tom Kuchel to Dellums, 26 March 1953; William Knowland to Dellums, 28 March 1953; Memorandum listing membership of the Committee on Governmental Efficiency and Economy, Dellums MSS, Box 8. For an analysis of the way conservative control over legislative committees killed economic and social reform, see Reese, Backlash Against Welfare Mothers, 87–97.

12. Phil Burton campaign leaflet, 1954, Burton MSS, Box 1, 1954 campaign file. See Bell, Jonathan, “Social Democracy and the Rise of the Democratic Party in California, 1950–1964,” Historical Journal 49, no. 2 (June 2006): 497–524CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Jacobs, John, A Rage for Justice: The Passion and Politics of Phillip Burton (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1995)Google Scholar.

13. Louis Cannon memo on Potrero Hill precinct work, 1956; “How ‘the Unbeatable’ Was Beaten,” Frontier, February 1957, Burton MSS, Box 16, 1956 election publicity and wires file.

14. Willie Brown, oral history, “First Among Equals: California Legislative Leadership, 1964–1992,” Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, 35.

15. Delbert Barnett campaign letter, 29 February 1956, David Selvin MSS, California State University Labor Archive, Box 24, folder 3.

16. “Brann takes lead in race: Neighbors back Brann campaign,” 22nd District Democrat, 1959, Selvin MSS, Box 24, folder 4. See also Willie Brown, oral history, 79.

17. Weinberger, quoted in “Political Mortar That Hardened into Burton’s ‘Bloc,’” San Francisco Examiner, 7 February 1967. Weinberger was wrong to say Burton partisans ran only in areas of liberal strength, but it is true that Burton’s obsession with voting patterns and political affiliation allowed him to select areas in which his top allies could run for office and win.

18. “A moral look at right to work laws,” Selvin MSS, Box 27, folder 8; Selvin to George Johns re Labor Day TV spot, n.d., Selvin MSS, Box 27, folder 11; TV script for “Every Other House,” KRON-TV and KQED–San Francisco, 1 September 1958, Selvin MSS, Box 27, folder 10.

19. See Labor Committee for Mayor Christopher release, “It’s time to tell the truth!” Burton MSS, Box 8, 1950s clippings file.

20. San Francisco Call-Bulletin, 8 October 1959, Don Lucas MSS, Box 7, file 6.

21. Ibid. See also Boyd, Wide-Open Town, 204–6; Stryker and Van Buskirk, Gay by the Bay, 42.

22. San Francisco Examiner, 9 October 1959. The editorial in the Examiner that day called Wolden’s charges “an unforgivable slur on San Francisco,” arguing that “homosexuality is a complex police and medical problem in every community, large and small, and has been from the beginning of time.”

23. Boyd, Wide-Open Town, 205.

24. See material in Don Lucas MSS, Box 7, file 7, Wolden campaign libel suit file.

25. For a discussion of the federal background, see Zelizer, Julian, Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945–1975 (Cambridge, Mass., 2000)Google Scholar; Matusow, Allen J., The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s (New York, 1984)Google Scholar. A very good recent analysis of the ability of state bureaucracies to perpetuate themselves is Davies, Gareth, See Government Grow: Education Politics from Johnson to Reagan (Lawrence, Kans., 2007)Google Scholar. For a full description of Phil Burton and his role in passing AB 59, see Jacobs, A Rage for Justice; and Bell, “Social Democracy and the Rise of the Democratic Party in California.”

26. See Bell, “Social Democracy and the Rise of the Democratic Party in California,” 517–18.

27. tenBroek, Jacobus and Matson, Floyd W., Hope Deferred: Public Welfare and the Blind (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1959), 1, 2, 25, 127–29, 137Google Scholar.

28. Assembly Bill 59 summary, Jack Casey MSS, California State Archives, LP161:123.

29. Memorandum, Tom Moore, Legislative Coordinator, California Department of Social Welfare, to Cal Locker, Health and Welfare Agency, 26 February 1963, Brown MSS, Box 642, health and welfare file 2.

30. See Burton press releases on Assembly bills in Burton MSS, Box 16, California Assembly bills file.

31. AB 59 summary, p. 5.

32. John Burton form letter, Philip Burton MSS, Box 4, John L. Burton file; Department of State Employees Local 1100 resolution, February 1964, Burton MSS, Box 2, special election correspondence file.

33. Jacobs, A Rage for Justice, 102–10.

34. AB 59 summary details the various stages of the bill’s legislative passage on pp. 23–27.

35. AB 59 summary, p. 23.

36. Director’s newsletter, California Department of Social Welfare, December 1963–January 1964, Casey MSS, LP161:123.

37. H. R. and Mary Drummond to Pat Brown, 28 January 1963, Casey MSS, LP 161:123.

38. Resolution of Kern County Board of Supervisors, 7 January 1964, Casey MSS, LP161:123.

39. See John Burton, oral history interview, 1986–87, by Julie Shearer, Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, BANC 90/81c, 37–40. Burton argues that Reagan often managed paper victories only in practice, and that legislative stalemate was normal during his governorship. See also Dallek, Matthew, The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan’s First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics (New York, 2000)Google Scholar.

40. See D’Emilio, John, “Gay Politics, Gay Community: San Francisco’s Experience,” Socialist Review 55 (1981): 77–104Google Scholar, and D’Emilio Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities; Stryker and Van Buskirk, Gay by the Bay; Boyd, Wide-Open Town; Meeker, Contacts Desired. There are many other studies, many of them focused on particular case studies: an example of an urban study is Stein, Marc, City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945–1972 (Chicago, 2000)Google Scholar; a rural milieu is depicted in Howard, John, Men Like That: A Southern Queer History (Chicago, 1999)Google Scholar.

41. On the latter point, an excellent treatment remains Shilts, Randy, The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (New York, 1982)Google Scholar.

42. John D’Emilio rightly notes in his landmark survey of San Francisco gay political development that sexual “orientation created a kind of unity, but other aspects of identity brought to the surface conflicting needs and interests.” See D’Emilio, “Gay Politics, Gay Community,” 94. Randy Shilts is less reserved, noting that many gay activists in Democratic clubs in the 1970s that were direct descendents of SIR and CRH were unwilling to campaign hard for openly gay men and women to run for elected office “as long as there was an adequate supply of liberal friends willing to attend their cocktail parties, make annual appearances at Toklas [Club] dinners and assure members that there were heterosexuals who thought gays were just fine after all.” See Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street, 150.

43. Another example was the Committee on Religion and the Homosexual (CRH), and often the same key individuals took central membership positions in several different groups that aimed to recruit support for the homophile cause from different sources. There is a flourishing literature on homophile activism in this period: see Meeker, Contacts Desired; Boyd, Wide-Open Town; and D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities. For an interesting new theoretical perspective on how homophile activism uses public protests to advance its political agenda, see Ghaziani, Amin, The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington (Chicago, 2008)Google Scholar.

44. Quoted in Meeker, Contacts Desired, 154; see chap. 4 for a full analysis of the media’s “discovery” of queer subcultures in the 1960s.

45. This was never a simple division, and it would inspire vigorous debate in both movements in later years, but it was a political strategy in the 1960s: see Ghaziani, The Dividends of Dissent, 19; Nadasen, Premilla, Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States (New York, 2005)Google Scholar.

46. Minutes of the meeting of the SIR committee, 14 December 1964, Lucas MSS, Box 11, folder 2.

47. Report to the President and Board of SIR, n.d., Lucas MSS, Box 11, folder 2.

48. For neat summaries of these events, including, in addition, the repeal of the state’s vagrancy law, the State Supreme Court decision that decoupled the licensing of bars from the sexual orientation of the clientele, the aftermath of the police raid on the Tay-Bush Inn, and the well-known drag queen José Sarria’s run for supervisor in 1961, see Boyd, Wide-Open Town, 204–18.

49. SIR form letter from President William Beardemphl and Secretary Mark Forrester, n.d., Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin MSS, Box 19, file 7.

50. Introduction to the Statement of Purpose of SIR, 1965, Don Lucas MSS, Box 11, folder 2.

51. Consultation on the Church and the Homosexual, Report from Group 1, summary by Del Martin, 30 May–2 June 1964, Lyon/Martin MSS, Box 17, file 14. For discussions of the relationship between Christianity and civil rights, see Chappell, David L., Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow (Chapel Hill, 2003)Google Scholar; Newman, Mark, Divine Agitators: The Delta Ministry and Civil Rights in Mississippi (Athens, Ga., 2003)Google Scholar; Newman, , Getting Right with God: Southern Baptists and Desegregation, 1945–1995 (Tuscaloosa, 2001)Google Scholar.

52. Report to the President and Board of SIR, Don Lucas, Lucas MSS, Box 11, file 2. The classic study of Mattachine and the problems it faced in its search for respectability in the 1950s remains D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities.

53. Program for the 4th annual convention of the DOB, San Francisco, 20 August 1966, Lyon/Martin MSS, Box 20, file 21.

54. SIR leaflet, “Tuesday 3 November 1964: Vote Today,” Lucas MSS, Box 11, folder 3.

55. Williams, “On getting and using power,” Vector, January 1965, 4.

56. Vector, January 1965, 12.

57. Vector, September 1965.

58. SIR memo to members re meeting with Moscone and Hedricks, 1966, Lyon/Martin MSS, Box 19, file 7.

59. Burton made reference to his long-standing alliance with Martin and Lyon since the early 1960s in his campaign literature in 1982, when he was forced to run an aggressive campaign for the first time in years against Republican Milton Marks after letting his constituency work languish. See Burton for Congress committee handout, 1982, Burton MSS, Box 4, gay/lesbian file 2. The boast is supported by Del Martin herself, who was quoted in Burton’s literature that year as saying, “I’ll never forget Phil Burton being at gay organizations twenty years ago—when no other public official would have dreamed of coming around.” See Jacobs, A Rage for Justice, 462.

60. Del Martin to Doris Thomas in Phil Burton’s office, 12 July 1967, Burton MSS, Box 9, gay/lesbian community pre-1980 file.

61. Del Martin to John Burton, 12 July 1967, Burton MSS, Box 9, gay/lesbian pre-1980 file.

62. Paper, “Directions for SIR in 1965,” Lucas MSS, Box 11, file 2.

63. Mark Forrester of SIR to gay rights activists, n.d., Lyon/Martin MSS, Box 19, file 7.

64. For the national story, see Brown, Michael K., Race and the American Welfare State (Ithaca, 1999)Google Scholar; Davies, Gareth, From Opportunity to Entitlement: The Transformation and Decline of Great Society Liberalism (Lawrence, Kans., 1996)Google Scholar; Lieberman, Robert, Shifting the Color Line: Race and the American Welfare State (Cambridge, Mass., 1998)Google Scholar. For material on San Francisco, the Don Lucas papers at the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco provided much useful information.

65. See Calvin Brook Colt, Chairman of Steering Committee of the Central City Citizens’ Council, to Edward Anderson, Chair, Mission Community Action Board, 18 March 1966, Don Lucas MSS, Box 15, folder 2.

66. See CCCC membership list, Lucas MSS, Box 15, folder 3.

67. Edward Hansen, Fred Bird, Mark Forrester, and Victor de Marais, “The White Ghetto: Youth and Young Adults in the Tenderloin Area of Downtown San Francisco,” Lucas MSS, Box 15, folder 5. Forrester was president of SIR, and Ed Hansen was involved in the Glide Memorial Church, a prominent center of homophile activism. CRH also contributed material to the drafting of the report: see Lucas MSS, Box 15, folder 7. See also “Proposal for Confronting the Tenderloin Problem: A Proposal submitted to the EOC by Mattachine Society Inc.,” Lucas MSS, Box 15, folder 1.

68. Calvin Brook Colt of Central City Citizen’s Council to Edward Anderson, 18 March 1966; Colt to members of EOC, 29 April 1966, Lucas MSS, Box 15, folder 2. For implementation of the Central City project, see Lucas MSS, Box 11, folder 11, and Box 13, folders 13–15.

69. Hansen, Bird, Forrester, and Marais, “The White Ghetto,” 12–13.

70. Nancy May, SIR political committee report, Vector, December 1965, 9.

71. See Kornbluh, The Battle for Welfare Rights, chap. 7.

72. Central City target area statistical profile, Lucas MSS, Box 15, folder 1.

73. Colt to EOC, 29 April 1966, Lucas MSS, Box 15, folder 2.

74. Calvin Colt to Edward Anderson, Chair, Mission Community Action Board, 18 March 1966, Lucas MSS, Box 15, file 2.

75. Hansen, Bird, Forrester, and Marais, “The White Ghetto,” Lucas MSS, Box 15, folder 5.

76. Statement of Mrs. Maryland Gray, Hearings of the California Assembly Committee on Social Welfare, 12–13 December 1966, San Francisco, California State Archives file LP105:14.

77. Del Martin, “If That’s All There Is,” 5 September 1970, Lyon/Martin MSS, Box 35, file 12.

78. Escoffier, Jeffrey, American Homo: Community and Perversity (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1998)Google Scholar, esp. chap. 2.

79. Martin, “If That’s All There Is.”

80. Martha Shelley, “Gay Is Good,” Lyon/Martin MSS, Box 21, file 6.

81. Committee of Concern for Homosexuals, Berkeley, Carl Wittman, “Refugees from Amerika: A Gay Manifesto,” fall 1970, Social Protest Collection (microfilm), Bancroft Library, Berkeley, reel 28.

82. Barbara Stephens to Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, 1971, Lyon/Martin MSS, Box 21, file 6. See also Eisenbach, David, Gay Power: An American Revolution (New York, 2006)Google Scholar; for a contemporary account of gay liberation, see Teal, Donn, The Gay Militants (New York, 1971)Google Scholar.

83. Stephens to Lyon and Martin, Lyon/Martin MSS, Box 21, file 6.

84. Harvey Milk Gay Democratic Club advertisement, n.d., in ibid.

85. See Shilts, The Mayor of Castro Street, 83–84.

86. Burton letter to Executive Board of Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, 23 April 1980, Burton MSS, Box 4, 1981/82 PB campaign, gay/lesbian file; “Phillip Burton: Statesman of Welfare: A Tribute Delivered by Prof. Jacobus tenBroek,” 30 October 1963, Welfare Achievements Luncheon, Jewish Community Center, San Francisco, Burton MSS, Box 18, 1963 press releases file.

87. Brinkley, Alan, The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War (New York, 1995)Google Scholar; Dudziak, Mary, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton, 2000)Google Scholar; Delton, Jennifer, Making Minnesota Liberal: Civil Rights and the Transformation of the Democratic Party (Minneapolis, 2002)Google Scholar; Thurber, Tim, The Politics of Equality: Hubert H. Humphrey and the African American Freedom Struggle (New York, 1999)Google Scholar. An alternative account can be found in Hamilton, Dona Cooper and Hamilton, Charles V., “The Dual Agenda of African American Organizations Since the New Deal: Social Welfare Policies and Civil Rights,” Political Science Quarterly 107, no. 3 (1992): 435–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

88. See, for example, Miroff, Bruce, The Liberals’ Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party (Lawrence, Kans., 2007)Google Scholar, which argues that the seismic changes that characterized the McGovern presidential bid in 1972 really dated back only to 1968 and the antiwar movement.