Charlotta Spears Bass
Charlotta Spears Bass was a prominent African American journalist, publisher, and civil rights activist born on February 14, 1874, in Sumter, South Carolina. Raised in a large family, she moved to Providence, Rhode Island, in her early adulthood, where she began her career in journalism. In 1910, she relocated to Los Angeles and became involved with The California Eagle, a significant black newspaper. After taking over as editor and publisher in 1912, Bass transformed the publication into a platform for addressing social and political issues affecting the African American community.
Throughout her career, Bass fought against racial oppression and inequality, advocating for civil rights, women's rights, and political engagement. She was notably involved in campaigns against the film "Birth of a Nation" and supported causes such as the defense of the Scottsboro Boys and labor rights for African Americans. Additionally, she founded organizations aimed at combating discrimination and promoting entrepreneurship within the black community. In 1952, she made history as the first African American woman to run for national office when she was nominated for vice president by the Independent Progressive Party.
Bass's legacy is marked by her relentless activism, which not only mobilized black voters but also brought national attention to critical issues of her time. She passed away in 1969, leaving behind a profound impact on civil rights and social justice movements.
Subject Terms
Charlotta Spears Bass
- Born: February 14, 1874
- Birthplace: Sumter, South Carolina
- Died: April 12, 1969
- Place of death: Los Angeles, California
Journalist and activist
Bass was a pioneering civil rights leader who devoted her life to social justice. Fighting job and housing discrimination, police brutality, and media defamation, she mobilized black voters and influenced the quality of city life for African Americans.
Areas of achievement: Civil rights; Journalism and publishing; Women’s rights
Early Life
Reports conflict about the early years of Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass. While the U.S. Census lists a Charlotta Amanda Spears born in October of 1879 or 1880, her birth date is believed to be February 14, 1874. She was born in Sumter, South Carolina. Her parents were Kate and Hiram Spears, a blacksmith, and she was the sixth of eleven children. By 1900, Bass was living with a brother in Providence, Rhode Island, and selling ads at a Providence newspaper. After a number of years there, she moved to California.
After arriving in Los Angeles in 1910, Bass worked for The California Eagle, a black newspaper founded in 1879. Although her job was in sales, illness prompted the editor, John Neimore, to turn the operations of The Eagle over to her. Upon his death in March, 1912, Bass took over as editor and publisher, continuing to print news of African American society before gradually devoting more column inches to social and political issues.
Sometime between 1912 and 1914, Bass hired Joseph Blackburn Bass, a well-established journalist, to be the newspaper’s editor. They subsequently married. Over the next two decades, the couple used the newspaper to formulate, promote, and implement strategies for fighting oppression.
Life’s Work
Bass thrived as managing editor and publisher of The California Eagle, from 1912 to 1951. She used the newspaper to identify instances of inequality, formulate strategies to fight back, and promote participation in direct-action campaigns and the political process. She battled to stop production of the film The Birth of a Nation (1915), which celebrated the Ku Klux Klan. Her newspaper expressed support for the black soldiers of the Twenty-fourth Infantry after the 1917 Houston race riot and defended the “Scottsboro Boys”—a group of African American men accused of raping two white women—in 1931. The Eagle also endorsed A. Philip Randolph’s efforts to fight discrimination in railroad employment.
Bass used her newspaper to encourage African Americans to lobby government officials and boycott white establishments, in particular promoting the “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaign. Beyond the newspaper, she founded organizations to address injustices. Her Industrial Business Council fought discrimination in employment and encouraged entrepreneurship among African Americans. Her Home Protective Association worked to defeat restrictive housing covenants.
A political candidate at the local, state, and national level, Bass recognized that she could use the platform of her unsuccessful campaigns to raise important issues. The Independent Progressive Party nomination for United State vice president in 1952 enabled her to call for civil rights, women’s rights, an end to the Korean War, and peace with the Soviet Union. She was the first African American woman to run for national elective office.
In the 1950’s, Bass was called before the Tenney Committee and investigated by several federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Post Office, because of her activism. She died in a Los Angeles nursing home in 1969.
Significance
Bass identified and addressed problems in the black community generated by racist and unjust policies; mobilized black voters and engaged public attention; and achieved results that had immediate and far-reaching impact on the daily lives of African Americans. Her sphere of influence and concern broadened from the local to the national to the international, and yet she consistently managed the details while keeping the big picture in view. Her leadership, courage, and dedication, along with her sound and practical methods, have much to teach activists of succeeding generations.
Bibliography
Bass, Charlotta A. Forty Years: Memoirs from the Pages of a Newspaper. Los Angeles: C. A. Bass, 1960. Bass’s autobiography provides invaluable insight into her ideals and approach to activism and journalism.
Cairns, Kathleen A. “The Press as Pulpit: Charlotta Bass and The California Eagle.” In Front-Page Women Journalists, 1920-1950. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. Credits Bass’s journalism with playing a major role in developing community consciousness and assesses the success of her activism in the context of gender.
Charlotta A. Bass Papers and Manuscript Collection. Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research. Los Angeles, California. The collection comprises correspondence, photographs, ephemera, and the manuscript of Bass’s autobiography.
Freer, Regina. “L.A. Race Woman: Charlotta Bass and the Complexities of Black Political Development in Los Angeles.” American Quarterly 56, no. 3 (September, 2004): 607-632. Examines Bass’s life and political activism in light of the particularities of Los Angeles and African American expectations.
Gottlieb, Robert, et al. “Charlotta Bass: A Community Activist for Racial and Economic Justice.” In The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Describes the legacy of Bass’s advocacy and coalition building, enumerating the positive effects of her work and the progressive activism it generated.
Leavitt, Jacqueline. “Charlotta A. Bass, The California Eagle, and Black Settlement in Los Angeles.” In Urban Planning and the African American Community: In the Shadows, edited by June Manning Thomas and Marsha Ritzdorf. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1997. Bass’s fight against restrictive covenants and other discrimination in housing demonstrates her influence on the shape and quality of city life.
Streitmatter, Rodger. “Charlotta A. Bass: Radical Precursor of the Black Power Movement.” In Raising Her Voice: African American Women Journalists Who Changed History. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1994. Argues Bass’s activism paved the way for the militancy of Malcolm X and other radical leaders.