Bass, Charlotta A. Spear(S) (? –1969)

Charlotta A. Spear (or Spears) Bass was an early advocate of gender equality and social and economic egalitarianism for all minorities. As the editor of the African American periodical the California Eagle for almost 40 years, she used journalism as her public platform to challenge local employment practices and restrictive covenants, become a local and national political activist, and promote women's agency. As a female editor and politician, she transcended many racial and gender barriers of her generation. Her attempt to liberalize American racial ideologies on a local and national level contributed toward Los Angeles's demographic diversity, and improved racial and gender relations in the 21st century.

Despite the proliferation of documents regarding her adult life, Charlotta A. Spear's childhood remains elusive. Various sources including legal documents and her autobiography record the birth of Charlotta A. Spear in either 1874, 1879, or 1880 to Hiram and Kate Spears in either Ohio; Little Compton, Rhode Island; or Sumter, South Carolina. Even the spelling of her maiden name, Spear or Spears, has been contested. Charlotta's writings indicate that she had four siblings, yet other sources claim that she was the sixth of 11 children. As a young woman, Charlotta was inspired by Edward Bellamy's 1888 visionary work Looking Backward, which prophesized that by the year 2000 America would be a utopia with a nationalized industry and equal distributions of wealth that eliminated class divisions. This nationalist philosophy emphasized that evolutionary not revolutionary tactics lead by an educated elite would be the harbinger of social change. Although Bellamy's egalitarian ideals were inspirational, Charlotta's subsequent activism to secure economic and social impartiality for all minorities more closely aligned with W. E. B. DuBois's methods of confrontational political activism.

In 1910, Charlotta moved to Los Angeles, California. John J. Neimore, who in 1879 founded the California Eagle, the oldest African American newspaper, hired Charlotta at $5.00 per week, thus beginning her career as a voice of reform. Charlotta shouldered the editing, publishing, distributing, and bookkeeping duties with the death of Mr. Neimore in 1912. Needing assistance in 1913, she hired and eventually married Joseph Blackburn (J. B.) Bass, an experienced editor. Working as a team, which in itself promoted women's equality in marriage and the workplace, the Basses [Page 49]continued to address myriad issues including race, class, and gender.

Charlotta and her husband's efforts to assure civil rights for the paper's African American readers and other minorities alike included coverage of labor strikes, boycotts, riots, peaceful demonstrations, as well as individual battles against the courts or landlords. Besides these efforts, Charlotta lobbied the Los Angeles City Council and County Board of Supervisors regarding employment and housing equality and became the president of the Marcus Garvey United Negro Improvement Association's (UNIA) 156th Division, which promoted Black separatism. She also joined the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which conversely supported integration, where she met and worked alongside her source of early inspiration, W. E. B. DuBois. During her tenure at the UNIA, however, Charlotta continued to support integration despite the organization's official prosegregation platform. Charlotta also organized and was elected president of the Industrial Business Council, an organization that battled employment discrimination. Charlotta and the California Eagle became an institution of reform in the African American community, which prepared her for the subsequent events that dramatically changed the social and physical landscape of Los Angeles.

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