The Homophile movement

This collection documents the activist and professional activities of Donald Stewart Lucas, a central figure in the 1950s and 1960s homophile (gay civil rights) movement in San Francisco. The materials in this collection showcase the homophile movement and the manifestation of antipoverty measures in predominantly gay areas of San Francisco. Lucas became acquainted with the gay-rights oriented Mattachine Society in 1953 and quickly achieved a position of leadership in the organization, alongside Harold (Hal) Call. The Lucas papers include a nearly complete set of meeting minutes of the Mattachine Society coordinating council, annual meetings of the national organization, and conventions, including notes on the two conventions in 1953 that witnessed a change in the leadership of the organization. The Mattachine Society correspondence not only documents the function of the organization, but also provides first-person accounts of the lives of gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. The collection also contains the records of Pan-Graphic Press (cofounded by Lucas and Call in 1954) and the Mattachine Review, including correspondence with authors and documentation of the business finances. Rare and original Pan-Graphic Press publications, including Helen Branson's The Gay Bar (1957), can be found here as well.