Vice Presidential Nomination

She made history in 1952 as the first Black woman to run for vice president of the United States. Running on the Progressive Party ticket, Bass's candidacy spotlighted her policies and set a precedent for future Black women to run for high office. “Win or lose, we win by raising the issues” was her campaign slogan. When accepting the nomination, Bass remarked, “For 40 years I have been a working editor and publisher of the oldest Negro newspaper [on the West coast]… During those 40 years I stood on a watch tower, watching the tide of racial hatred and bigotry rising against my people and against all people who believe the Constitution is something more than a piece of yellowed paper to be shut off in a glass case in the archives, but [a] living document, a working instrument for freedom.”