West Coast Connections: Charlotta Bass x Dr. King
Charlotta Bass and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were towering figures in the fight for racial justice in the United States, though they belonged to different generations. While Bass was deeply entrenched in the early civil rights movement of the early to mid-20th century, King emerged as the face of the movement during the 1950s and 1960s. The two shared a deep commitment to combating racial inequality, and their paths intersected in meaningful ways as they each made significant contributions to the struggle for justice, particularly on the West Coast.
Charlotta Bass: Pioneering West Coast Civil Rights Activist
Charlotta Bass was a trailblazing journalist, publisher, and political activist based in Los Angeles, California. Born in 1874 in Sumter, South Carolina, she migrated to California in 1910, where she would go on to lead The California Eagle, one of the nation’s most prominent Black newspapers. Bass’s newspaper was a vital platform for advocating civil rights, and she used it to address issues such as police brutality, housing discrimination, and voter suppression. Her work spanned several decades, making her one of the most vocal advocates for Black Americans on the West Coast during the first half of the 20th century.
While Bass’s activism began long before Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged on the national stage, her influence and foundational civil rights work, particularly in California, were pivotal. In many ways, Bass was a precursor to the activism that would shape King’s later efforts on the West Coast, a region often overlooked in the national narrative of the civil rights movement.
King’s West Coast Work
Though Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is most often associated with the American South, his work extended far beyond places like Montgomery and Selma. The West Coast, particularly California, played a key role in the broader civil rights movement, and King understood the strategic importance of this region. Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco were home to large African American populations who faced forms of systemic racism, including housing discrimination, police violence, and segregation in schools and public accommodations.
In 1961, King visited Los Angeles, a city rife with racial tension. During his visit, King gave a powerful sermon at the Second Baptist Church, one of the most prominent Black churches in the city. In his sermon, he addressed the evils of racism, drawing connections between the struggle for civil rights in the South and the experiences of Black Angelenos. He called for unity among Black Americans nationwide, underscoring the importance of working together to fight injustice regardless of geographical location.
King also visited the San Francisco Bay Area, where civil rights leaders welcomed him with open arms. In 1967, he delivered a speech at Stanford University titled “The Other America,” in which he spoke about the two Americas that existed—one of privilege and prosperity and one of poverty and disenfranchisement, particularly for African Americans. In his speech, he said,
“The American Negro finds himself living in a triple ghetto. A ghetto of race, a ghetto of poverty, a ghetto of human misery. So what we are seeking to do in the Civil Rights Movement is to deal with this problem. To deal with this problem of the two Americas. We are seeking to make America one nation, Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
His West Coast visits helped galvanize support for the national movement while highlighting the unique challenges faced by Black people on the West Coast.
Bass’s Influence on King’s West Coast Strategy
Although Charlotta Bass had retired from public life by the time King made his most significant strides in the civil rights movement, her earlier work undoubtedly laid the groundwork for the following activism. As the editor of The California Eagle, Bass fought tirelessly against many of the same issues that King would later address on his visits to the West Coast—namely, housing discrimination, police brutality, and systemic racism in education.
Bass’s advocacy for fair housing policies in Los Angeles, a city deeply segregated by race, foreshadowed King’s later focus on economic justice and the need to address the structural inequities that kept Black families locked out of the housing market. Bass had long pointed out that the West Coast was not immune to the racial injustices that plagued the South, and her newspaper offered a space for Black Californians to voice their struggles and call for action. She spoke about her commitment to fighting racial injustice,
“I have walked and will continue to walk in picket lines for the right of all men and women, of all races, to organize for their own protection and advancement. I will continue to cry out against police brutality against any people, as I did in the infamous zoot suit riots in Los Angeles in 1944, when I went into dark alleys and reached scared and badly beaten Negro and Mexican American boys, some of them children, from the clubs and knives of city police.”
King, in his speeches and sermons on the West Coast, amplified these issues on a national stage, bringing greater attention to the racial disparities that persisted outside of the South. Moreover, Bass’s emphasis on political engagement and voter mobilization was another area where her work aligned with King’s efforts. In the 1950s, Bass had run for vice president on the Progressive Party ticket, becoming the first African American woman to do so. Though her bid was unsuccessful, it inspired generations of Black activists to engage with the political system as a means of enacting change. King’s work in promoting voter registration, particularly through his involvement in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), was similarly focused on empowering African Americans to use the ballot as a tool for liberation.
Mutual Respect and the Fight for Justice
Though Charlotta Bass and Martin Luther King, Jr. never collaborated directly, there was mutual respect between the two figures, especially in how they approached the civil rights struggle. Bass admired King’s nonviolent philosophy and often featured him in The California Eagle during her tenure as editor. She believed King represented the new generation of civil rights leaders who continued the work she and others had started in the early part of the century. For his part, King was well aware of the legacy of West Coast activists like Bass, who paved the way for civil rights advocacy in a region that was often seen as more progressive than the South but still deeply flawed regarding racial equality.
As King’s work on the West Coast expanded, Bass’s contributions to the region’s civil rights history became even more apparent. In many ways, King’s visits to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland were a continuation of the battles Bass had been fighting for decades. She had long championed the idea that racial justice was not confined to any one region of the country, and King’s involvement on the West Coast underscored the national scope of the civil rights movement.
About the Author
Kathleen Anaza
Kathleen ‘Kat’ Anaza is a multi-genre storyteller, organizer, and entrepreneur whose works center on narratives and experiences of the Black Diaspora. She has been featured in Vogue Magazine, Lonely Planet, Viator, and more. Connect with her work at https://linktr.ee/Kat_Anaza.
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