In honor of Women’s History Month, BET.com’s “How She Built This” series is delving into the stories of Black women who’ve both shifted culture and built a lasting legacy in the process.

Before Kamala, there was... Charlotta. 

​Today, the spotlight is on Charlotta Bass, the trailblazing politician, civil rights leader, and fearless journalist, who was also the first black woman to run for Vice President of the U.S.

The ever-determined Bass was never one to sit around waiting for permission, nor was she too disillusioned by the state of the country to strive for a better future.

Instead, Bass grabbed every opportunity by the reins and dared to venture into uncharted territory: She created her own newspaper and turned it into a platform that called out injustice, while dutifully keeping her community informed. This trailblazer built a media empire, sparked boycotts that shook Los Angeles, and capped it all off by becoming the first Black woman nominated for vice president. Meet: Charlotta Bass.

Her Great Migration

Born February 14, 1874, in Rhode Island (or South Carolina; this is widely disputed), Charlotta Amanda Spears moved west at age 36 for health reasons and for a better life. After years of handling operations for Black newspapers back East, she soon landed a gig handling subscriptions at a tiny Black paper called The California Owl, founded in 1879 by John J. Neimore. 

As Neimore’s health declined, he asked his young protege to run the newspaper after his death. She agreed. However, after Neimore's death, Bass quickly discovered this Black newspaper was actually owned by a white man, who insisted on making her his “sweetheart.” Instead of leaving the paper and backpeddling on her promise to her old boss, she borrowed $50 and bought it.

Soon after, she married Joseph Blackburn Bass, and the two co-edited the paper and reinvented the struggling tabloid. The paper was renamed The California Eagle, and it ultimately became the longest-running Black newspaper on the West Coast. After Joseph died in 1934, Bass continued to run the paper until she retired in 1951.

Under Bass’s leadership, reader subscribers increased, and it became one of the most iconic Black newspapers in the U.S. 

“Who had ever heard of a woman running a newspaper?” Bass wrote in her autobiography, Forty Years: Memoirs from the Pages of a Newspaper, “It was the talk of the town.”

Bass’s Eagle wasn’t some fluff-filled community newsletter; she and her team blasted racist housing deals that barred Black families from certain neighborhoods, now known as red-lining.

She exposed cops brutalizing her people and covered the KKK threats that white papers frequently ignored. If a hospital or bus line stiffed Black workers, she’d run their names until they folded. She turned ink into action, proving a Black woman’s press could force real change.

She was also blacklisted by the government due to her fearless reportage and leadership at the Eagle. After being accused of having ties to Germany and Japan and of being a communist, she was interrogated and heavily surveilled by the Hoover administration. These accusations were legally proven to be false, though it didn’t stop her from being heavily surveilled by the government. 

A Historical Ticket

Though for Bass, journalism was just one of many steps to her civil rights crusade. In the ’20s and ’30s, she jumped into fights against job discrimination, teaming with the NAACP to sue over segregated schools and pool closures. Her big swing: the “Jobs for Negroes” pickets and “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” campaigns. Black dollars dried up at discriminatory spots, and suddenly, doors began to crack open.

She didn’t stop local. Bass helped birth groups like the Industrial Business Council to boost Black-owned shops, she mentored young journalists, and stared down the FBI tailing her for being “too radical.” 

In 1943, she ran for city council herself—a close race—pushing for fair policing and open housing when those ideas sounded wild. Her Sojourners for Truth and Justice crew amplified Black women’s voices on Jim Crow violence, way ahead of the curve.

VP Run That Redefined the Game

By 1952, at 78, Bass wasn’t slowing down—she leveled up. The Progressive Party tapped her as their vice presidential pick, pairing her with Vincent Hallinan in a symbolic bid against Eisenhower. While she didn’t win, her run was a breakthrough during a time when segregation was still legal in classrooms and a decade before the existence of the Voting Rights Act.  

“Win or lose, we win by raising the issues,” was her campaign slogan.

She crisscrossed the country, debating heavyweights and firing up crowds. After selling the Eagle in ‘51 and after her campaign run, Bass kept grinding—from voter drives to peace marches, and holding voter registration drives in her garage—till her death in 1969 at 95.

At age 91, she was still classified as a potential security threat by the FBI.

And though her gravesite is only marked with her husband's name, there's no denying Bass' remarkable legacy.