Part journalist, part politician, and part activist, Charlotta Bass broke barriers as the first African American woman to own a newspaper in the United States and run for vice president. Bass was born around 1874 and moved to California at age eighteen, where she worked for a local Black newspaper. When she inherited the newspaper in 1912, she renamed it The California Eagle and dramatically expanded its coverage to include issues faced by Black people in California, including discriminatory hiring practices, restrictive housing covenants, and police brutality. Gaining traction in the political realm for her progressive ideals, Charlotta Bass became the vice presidential candidate for the Progressive Party in 1952, the first African American woman to be nominated. Bass passed away in 1969 having made valuable contributions to the Civil Rights movement via journalism and politics.
