Before Kamala, there was Charlotta
24th February 2025 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
When a white mob numbering in the thousands brutally lynched Thomas Thurmond and John Holmes, in 1933, after they were accused of kidnapping and killing Brooke Hart, the white scion of a department store tycoon, Charlotta Bass and her newspaper, the California Eagle, didn’t mince words in a page 1 editorial in the Dec. 1 issue of the paper.
Under a headline titled, “Who Is Guilty,” the newspaper excoriated then-California Gov. James Rolph Jr. for openly encouraging the lynching of Thurmond and Holmes, and for refusing to send the National Guard to protect the accused pair in jail.
The editorial charged that Rolph “put the stamp of approval on lynching,” and the article stated that the murders of Thurmond and Holmes were proof that “this nation of ours becomes the land of mob rule and lynch law!”
The pointed, passionate commentary was just one example of many of Charlotta Bass’ tireless civil rights efforts as the owner and publisher of the California Eagle, a newspaper founded in 1879 and published by Bass – a South Carolina native who began working for the Eagle selling subscriptions – from 1912 to 1951. Upon taking over the publication, Bass became the first African-American woman to own and publish a newspaper in the United States.
While Bass led the Eagle, it covered, commented on and crusaded against police brutality, the restriction of voting rights and efforts to defeat labor movements. She vexed politicians, millionaires and other members of the establishment in Los Angeles and the state as a whole, while encouraging empowerment, education and uplift through the city’s burgeoning African-American community.
Bass actively supported and participated in other forms of civil rights and labor activism, including leadership roles in the Progressive Party, including becoming the first African-American woman to be nominated for vice president, a feat she achieved when she earned the Progressives’ nomination in 1952.
Summed up by the Los Angeles Times’ Cecilia Rasmussen in a 1993 retrospective: “For more than 50 years, [Bass] defended and taught and shaped Los Angeles’ growing black community.”
Dr. Andrea S. Boyles, an associate professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Tulane University, said Bass deserves more recognition by the public for her accomplishments and role as a pioneering activist.
“Charlotta Bass is an unsung hero whose legacy is one of admirable social justice accomplishments, precedence and example, whereby, representing an all too often trend of progressive Black women; that is, Black women catalysts past to present, who vehemently and continuously work and often lead overlapping professions and community angles at multiple levels of civic engagement.
“All of Charlotta Bass’s accomplishments were great, influential and deserving of historical recognition,” she added.
Boyles said that Bass’ career and life can serve as a blueprint for modern-day civil rights activists, noting that “today’s movement leaders may use her diverse efforts as examples for doing the same. Meaning, today’s activists and movement leaders may continue to imagine and draw motivation similarly from Bass’ legacy for believing for possible gains, regardless of perceived or tracked suppression, elimination, or attempted rollbacks to date.”
In his 1994 book, “Raising Her Voice: African-American Women Journalists who Changed History,” Rodger Streitmatter called Bass a “radical precursor to the Black Power Movement,” writing that “Bass fought for equal rights for the millions of African Americans who moved to the West Coast during the migration of the World War I and II era, pitting them against the hegemonic white establishment.”
Streitmatter praised Bass’ courage and determination in battling often-withering blowback from those in power, noting that “[a]s a vehicle for Bass’s demands, the Eagle became a lightning rod for protest, and she became a target of hatred and violence.
“Bass suffered verbal and physical abuse, libel suits, unlawful arrests, and death threats, but she remained uncompromising in her war against racism.”
Bass’ legacy as a crusading journalist and activist is kept alive by the Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab at the University of Southern California. The organization was founded in 2022 by its current director, Dr. Allissa V. Richardson, as “a pioneering research and teaching initiative that is dedicated to preserving the rich legacy of Black media makers, while empowering the next generation of imaginative storytellers,” according to the Lab’s website.
Richardson told The Louisiana Weekly that the Bass Lab and its team strives to honor and sustain Bass’ vision of journalism as a tool for achieving social justice and racial equality.
“Charlotta Bass’s legacy is her fearless journalism and civil rights activism,” Richardson said. “As the first Black woman editor of a newspaper on the West Coast, she used The California Eagle to fight racism, voter suppression and police brutality. She was also a pioneering Black woman in politics, who championed equality, and inspired future generations to challenge injustice and advocate for social change through media and activism.
Richardson said Bass “turned the Los Angeles-based paper into a major voice for civil rights. She fearlessly reported on police brutality, housing discrimination, voter suppression, and the Ku Klux Klan’s presence in California. Her paper played a crucial role in mobilizing Black communities and exposing systemic injustices that mainstream publications often ignored.” She also added that Bass’ efforts extended into other forms of activism, including fighting against redlining and mandated segregation in housing, job discrimination against African Americans and other marginalized groups.
In her view, Richardson believes that Bass can serve as inspiration for modern journalists at a time when the notions of diversity, equity and inclusion are under attack and the powerful bluntly try to chip away at the gains in social justice made by previous generations.
“Charlotta Bass was a truth warrior – modern journalists must be fearless, relentless, and unshakable in exposing injustice, too,” she said. “And activists: take notes. She fought voter suppression, housing discrimination and police brutality head-on. Her legacy is a battle cry: Speak loud, stand firm, never back down. Justice moves when we push – harder, louder, always.
“Charlotta Bass demanded justice, not permission,” Richardson added. “Today, we must do the same – call out oppression, challenge power, mobilize communities. Journalism must reveal truth; activism must spark action. Change isn’t given, it’s taken. Her fight continues through us.”
This story has been updated with a correction to the job title of Dr. Andrea S. Boyles, who is an associate professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Tulane University.
This article originally published in the February 24, 2025 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
