Charlotta Bass (born Charlotta Amanda Spears) was born on February 14, 1874. She was the sixth of 11 children born to Hiram and Kate Spears.
It is debated as to whether she was born in Sumter, South Carolina or Little Compton, Rhode Island. Not much is known about her childhood outside of the fact that she attended and received a public education.
Soon after high school, Bass traveled to Rhode Island to live with an older brother, where she attended Pembroke College for a semester. While there, Bass began working for the Black-owned newspaper Providence Watchman selling ads and subscriptions. In 1910, she moved to California needing a drier and warmer climate to manage her asthma and arthritis.
In Los Angeles, Bass continued her career in communication by working for the oldest African-American newspaper in the west called the California Owl, eventually renamed the California Eagle. The paper provided essential information such as available jobs and housing to its readers.
At first Bass sold subscriptions for the paper but soon moved onto writing, editing, and anything else that needed to be done. Impressed by her work ethic and talent the owner of the paper, John James Neimore, requested from his deathbed that Bass take over the paper. She obliged, buying it for $50 a couple of weeks after his death, making her what is thought to be the first African American woman to own and operate a newspaper in the U.S. She eventually went on to make a 40-year career out of it.
Bass and her husband Joseph grew the paper from a four-paged tabloid to a 20-page weekly. With a circulation of nearly 60,000, it became the largest Black newspaper on the West Coast. Bass used her platform to advocate for the Civil Rights of African Americans, which led to opportunities to tour and speak out against racial Injustice. The matters closest to her heart, which she called the two-headed monster, were segregation and discrimination.
While Bass’ speaking engagements and articles garnered praise and interest, she made enemies too. After detailing and publishing crimes of the Ku Klux Klan, Bass was sued for libel. She was not convicted and ended up winning the case. But eight members of the Klan took it upon themselves to pay her a visit while she was alone in her office one night. However, when they opened the door to her office, Bass was ready, brandishing a pistol. The Klan members retreated and she emerged victorious once again.
Bass’ activism would lead to many victories for African Americans in the Los Angeles community in the form of jobs and housing. She continued working after her husband’s death in 1934, but eventually sold the paper and moved to New York in 1951. A once longtime Republican, Bass changed course and became a member of the Progressive Party. She dedicated herself to Progressive Party politics, and became the first African American woman nominated to be vice president. She ran alongside Vincent Hallinan but their bid for the White House was unsuccessful.
Bass would later move back to California, where she continued giving speeches and eventually published a book titled “Forty Years: Memoirs from the Pages of a Newspaper.” Bass passed away at age 95 in 1969.
A native of Phoenix, Arizona Aundrea Sayrie is a firm believer in the power of words, faith and a strong spirit. Her greatest desire is to encourage those around her to discover and honor their truth, and to passionately live on purpose.
