Thread by @BlackPressRC

🧵The first Black woman to run for the VP of the United States, one of the first African American women to own and run a newspaper, sued by the KKK, and suspected of Communist leanings to say Charlotta Bass was influential would be an understatement. #WomensHistoryMonth

The details of her Bass’s early life are murky, with accounts claiming she was born anywhere from 1874-1888, in Sumner South Carolina or Rhode Island.

By 1900 Bass was living in Rhode Island with one of her elder brothers. It would be there that she got her start in the newspaper industry selling subscriptions for the Providence Watchman.

By 1910 Bass had moved to California, where it was hoped the milder climate would help with her asthma. Shortly after arriving in LA Bass would land a job at the Black owned newspaper, The Eagle. By 1912 she was the editor and owner of the paper.

The Eagle was founded as The Owl in 1789 by John James Neimoren. Neimoren was born in Washington Co. Texas around 1862 and moved to LA in his late teens where he founded the Owl. Upon his death in 1912, Neimoren would name Bass as his successor

After the death of Neimoren, Bass brought the paper for $50 at an action becoming one of the first African American women to own and run a newspaper. She would rename it the California Eagle.

By 1930 the California Eagle was the largest Black newspaper on the West coast with a circulation of around 60,000. Bass would use the paper to call out racism of the movie Birth of a Nation 1915, employment discrimination, racial violence, and housing segregation.

Bass also used the Eagle to detailed the crimes of the Ku Klux Klan. In1925 Bass would publish a letter by head of the Klan who was attempting to target local black leaders. In response the Klan would sue her for libel, a case in which Bass would win.

In 1951 Bass would sell The Eagle and moved to New York where she would work for the Progressive Party. In 1952 she would run for Vice President on a ticket with California attorney Vincent Hallinan under the Progressive Party, receiving less than 1% of the vote.