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1/29/2003 Part of the BlackPressUSA Network <!-- // Begin IMAGE rollovers function newImage(arg) { if (document.images) { rslt = new Image(); rslt.src = arg; return rslt; } } function changeImages() { if (document.images && (preloadFlag == true)) { for (var i=0; i<changeImages.arguments.length; i+=2) { document[changeImages.arguments[i]].src = changeImages.arguments[i+1]; } } } var preloadFlag = false; function preloadImages() { if (document.images) { // name of variable does not matter blank = newImage("Images/Blank.gif"); arrow = newImage("Images/menu/Arrow.gif"); arrow2 = newImage("Images/menu/Arrow2.gif"); arrowClear = newImage("Images/menu/ArrowClear.gif"); preloadFlag = true; } } preloadImages(); // end IMAGE rollovers // --> HOME NEWS EDITORIAL LIFESTYLE SPORTS HISTORY archives gallery timeline cartoons links ABOUT US NETWORK SITES Charlotta Spears Bass (1874-1969) Fighter of racism and publisher of the California Eagle Playing David to the nascent film industry’s Goliath, publisher Charlotta Spears Bass ignited protest against D.W. Griffith’s overtly racist 1915 film ”The Birth of a Nation,” which glorified the Ku Klux Klan and negatively portrayed African Americans. Black-owned newspapers across the nation responded to the Los Angeles-based California Eagle’s call to denounce the film and ”The Birth of a Nation” eventually was even banned in some communities. ”We of the Eagle pioneered in an important field of social struggle… the struggle to make the film industry responsible morally for the content of its products, the struggle to lift higher artistic standards in the entertainment world, standards reflecting a sense of social duty and propriety rather than prejudice and vainglory,” Bass later wrote.Under Bass’s direction, the Eagle also fought restrictive housing covenants, used to keep new housing developments segregated, police brutality, and discriminatory hiring practices. Born Charlotta Spears in Sumter, S.C., on Feb. 14, 1874, Bass moved to Los Angeles in 1910 due to health reasons. There she began working for a newspaper called the California Owl. She took over control of the paper upon the death of its founder in 1912, renamed it the California Eagle and served as its publisher until 1951. Bass met her husband, journalist Joseph Blackburn Bass, at the paper and they married in 1914. With Charlotta writing most of the articles and Joseph heading up the business side, the couple built the California Eagle into the state’s leading Black-owned newspaper. Following her husband’s death in 1934, Charlotta continued running the newspaper alone. In 1951, she sold the paper to Loren Miller, the Eagle’s former city editor. Bass spent her remaining active years involved in politics, writing and speaking out against racial injustice and intolerance. She became the first African-American woman to run for national office as the vice presidential candidate on the Progressive Party ticket in 1952. ”Win or lose, we win by raising the issues,” Bass said of her candidacy. She published her book, ”Forty Years: Memoirs from the Pages of a Newspaper,” in 1960. She died in Los Angeles on April 12, 1969 at the age of 95. Please use the drop down box to see the biographies of other African American Publishers. Robert S. Abbott Ida B. Wells-Barnett Charlotta Spears Bass Cheryl Brown and Hardy Brown Samuel E. Cornish Frederick Douglass Carl J. Murphy John B. Russwurm Cornelius Adolphus Scott William Alexander Scott II John H. H. Sengstacke Robert L. Vann Plummer Bernard Young Sr. Back to Previous Page Email This Story to a Friend SEARCH Click here for anAdvanced Search Contact Us: Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved :: Legal and Privacy Policy