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14 Death of a Revolutionary “May I still be called your protégé?”1 Such was the rather droll query put to Patterson by Dr. Carlton Goodlett, the affluent Negro publisher, medic, and political activist whose influence reached into the White House, and who maintained extensive ties to diverse strata within black America. Born in Florida in 1914, he grew up in Omaha and served as leader of the NAACP chapter in Patterson’s own San Francisco in the late 1940s. There he cooperatedwiththeorganizedleft2—oftenenergetically3—evenasRoyWilkinswas pointing toward a different course.4 Dr. Goodlett’s newspaper, the leading purveyor of news in black San Francisco, was praised by Patterson in 1962, particularly for its coverage of Moscow’s peace initatives—“none equals yours in any respect,” said the Communist leader.5 Dr. Goodlett, like Earl Dickerson—“my great friend covering many years” was the Chicagoan’s description of Patterson6—was among the black affluent with whom Patterson maintained a close relationship. “[I] hear regularly from Carlton,” was Patterson’s 1968 remark that could easily be extended backward and forward in time.7 Dr. Goodlett—Patterson’s “protégé”—also had access to the U.S. ruling elite: “We spent an entire day on the 16th visiting at the State Department discussing fair employment practices with the top personnel, including Dean Rusk. . . . [W]e started the day with breakfast with Hubert Humphrey and spent two hours with LBJ . . . [and] briefly presented him the proposition that the U.S. should stop bombing North Vietnam.” Dr. Goodlett, planning to visit the Soviet Union and then Bulgaria, signed off—quite typically—with the arresting words: “Cordially, your protégé.”8 As Patterson’s lifespan wound down, it became evident that despite his association with a reviled organization—the CP—it was difficult to isolate him altogether, not only because of his track record, which inspired admiration, but also because many African Americans were not necessarily prone to bow to those who only recently had declared their unwavering support for Jim Crow. Thus, a man who made no secret of his desire for a revolutionary transformation of the United 208 chapter fourteen States, a nation where conservatism was ingrained, continued to win adherents even as his debilities mounted and his life was expiring. Even Patterson, at times, had to be reminded of the reality that African Americans were not as affected by the ascendant Red Scare as others. The Communist historian Herbert Aptheker felt compelled to inform him—after Patterson had questioned the receptivity to the scholar’s ideas within the profession—that the “Journal of Negro History and Journal of Negro Education generally welcomed and encouraged my work—and this was true above all of Dr. Carter G. Woodson,” the doyen of the field.9 Dr. Goodlett was also active in the international peace movement, where Communists from various regions played pivotal roles and also maintained ties to Dr. King and his top deputy, Ralph David Abernathy.10 Weeks after King’s murder, Goodlett, who knew this deputy “both as a patient and a friend,” invited Patterson and Abernathy to a meeting, then agreed that “your ideas will be communicated directly to Ralph,” while requesting that Patterson discuss his ideas with leading African American Reds such as “[James] Jackson, [Henry] Winston, and probably [Claude] Lightfoot and John Pittman.”11 It was Dr. Goodlett who attended to Patterson in April 1977 when he needed care in San Francisco. He was “Pat’s doctor while we were there and attended him very solicitously,” said Louise Patterson, which was needed, since Patterson “was quite ill” and “had to be hospitalized.”12 Patterson had his own ties to King and his deputy. Ruth Reese—who called herself the “Black Rose”—resided in Oslo and, like others, referred to her comrade as “Pat.” She knew Dr. King—“I gave a concert in his church in 1949 and renewed acquaintance with him and his wife when they came here to Oslo in 1964” to receive a Nobel Prize. Coretta Scott King “took sick while they were in Oslo,” she told Patterson chattily, days after Dr. King’s murder, and “Dr. and Mrs. King asked me to spend as much time with her as possible.”13 She was yet another conduit between Dr. King and Patterson; the latter leader was “deeply moved” when she chose to “dedicate” her book to him—though, he conceded, “I can’t read Norwegian.”14 In 1977, when Patterson was approaching the age of ninety, Dr...

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