San Francisco

"What is San Francisco?
To anyone trying to put a typewriter finger on its complexities and perplexities, that’s a question with a hundred answers—no one of them completely satisfying.

The truth lies somewhere between the old and the new, the progressive and the backward, the fog and the sunshine. Even those who have searched longest for it are confused afresh each day, for in any part of the city, a totally unexpected and unexplored San Francisco can be discovered—just around the next corner in the very next moment.”

—Herb Caen, The San Francisco Book, 1948

Johnny Kan’s Cantonese Cuisine
Johnny Kan (1906–72) managed Fong Fong Bakery–Ice Cream in the 1930s in San Francisco’s Chinatown where he introduced novel ice cream flavors, such as lychee and ginger. In 1953, he opened Kan’s on Grant Avenue where he refused to cater to mainstream tastes and serve Westernized dishes, such as chop suey. Instead, Kan introduced sophisticated Cantonese cuisine to patrons. In 1959, Johnny Kan commissioned a series of twelve paintings by Chinese American artist Jake Lee (1911–91) for his restaurant Kan’s. Lee also illustrated the cover for his cookbook Eight Immortal Flavors.

San Francisco Jazz
Jazz pianist Thelonious Monk recorded “Thelonious Alone in San Francisco” at Fugazi Hall in North Beach without an audience present. The Blackhawk, which operated from 1949–63, was located in the Tenderloin and featured live jazz performances by renowned musicians, such as John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie. Bop City, one of the most famous Fillmore clubs on Post Street, opened in 1950 as Jimbo’s Waffle Shop. When local musicians discovered an unused backroom and began holding after-hours jam sessions, it quickly became a magnet for famous jazz musicians visiting San Francisco. 

LGBTQ
During the post-Prohibition 1930s, a visibly gay nightlife culture flourished in San Francisco. At the time, the most prominent LGBTQ area was North Beach. Mona’s, owned by Mona Sargent, opened in 1934 and operated at 440 Broadway, where it featured drag kings. Nightclubs in the area, such as Finocchio’s, which opened in 1936, attracted gay, straight, and celebrity audiences to their drag shows. Several decades later, in 1972, San Francisco held its first large-scale Pride parade downtown, with more than two thousand participants and thousands of spectators. Gilbert Baker (1951–2017) debuted his rainbow flag design at the 1978 Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade.
 

1969 Occupation of Alcatraz
On November 20, 1969, Richard Oakes (1942–72) and a group of Indigenous activists and students claimed Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians. The group adopted the name “Indians of All Tribes” as many different nations were represented among the occupiers. Occupiers intended to develop a Native American studies center, a spiritual center, training school, and museum. On June 10, 1971, federal marshals swarmed Alcatraz and the occupation ended. Nevertheless, Alcatraz remains the longest prolonged occupation of a federal facility by Native Americans. It awakened the public to the injustices endured by Indigenous Americans, prompting new federal policies and nationwide political action.

Mission District 
The largest share of Latinx people in San Francisco called the Mission District home by the 1960s, and ’70s, and the neighborhood experienced a cultural renaissance. El Tecolote, first published in 1970 by San Francisco State University La Raza Studies Professor Juan Gonzales, serves the area’s Latinx community and remains the longest running bilingual (English/Spanish) newspaper in California. Two of the city’s most influential poster printing workshops also emerged from the Mission: La Raza Silkscreen Center and Mission Gráfica, which still operates today as part of the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.