Charlotta Bass

Charlotta Bass
Charlotta Bass, ca. 1901-1910
Born	Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass (1874-02-14)February 14, 1874 Sumter, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	April 12, 1969(1969-04-12) (aged 95) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	cerebral hemorrhage
Resting place	Evergreen Cemetery, East Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Occupation	American educator, newspaper publisher-editor, and civil rights activist
Known for	first African-American woman to own and operate a newspaper in the United States first African-American woman nominated for Vice President
Spouse(s)	Joseph Bass
Parent(s)	Hiram and Kate Spears

Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass (February 14, 1874 – April 12, 1969) was an American educator, newspaper publisher-editor, and civil rights activist. Bass was probably the first African-American woman to own and operate a newspaper in the United States; she published the California Eagle from 1912 until 1951. In 1952, Bass became the first African-American woman nominated for Vice President, as a candidate of the Progressive Party.

Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass was born in Sumter, South Carolina, on February 14, 1874, to Hiram and Kate Spears. She was the sixth child of eleven. When she was twenty years old, she moved to live with her brother in Providence, Rhode Island, where she worked for the Providence Watchman. Spears worked for the Providence Watchman for about ten years.

She moved to California for her health and ended up working at the Eagle. In 1912, a new editor Joseph Bass joined the Eagle. Bass had been one of the founders of the Topeka Plaindealer. He shared his concern with Spears about the injustice and racial discrimination in society.

Spears married Joseph Bass, and they ran the newspaper together.

The Eagle developed a large black readership. By 1925, the California Eagle employed a staff of twelve and published twenty pages a week. The Eagle's circulation of 60,000 made it the largest African-American newspaper on the West Coast.

When the editor John J. Neimore become ill, he turned the operations of the Eagle over to Spears. After Neimore's death, the paper's new owner put Spears in charge. She renamed the newspaper company to the California Eagle due to increasing social and political issues. Her purpose for the California Eagle was to write about the wrongs of society. The newspaper served as a source of both information and inspiration for the black community, which was often ignored or negatively portrayed by the predominant white press. As publisher, Bass was committed to producing a quality periodical. In her weekly column "On the Sidewalk", begun in 1927, she drew attention to unjust social and political conditions for all Los Angeles minority communities and campaigned vigorously for reform.