South LA Highlight: Charlotta Bass (feat. Susan Anderson)

MHD Off the Record

On this episode, we are doing our first posthumous highlight honoring Charlotta Spears Bass, a pioneering African American journalist and civil rights activist, best known for her work with the California Eagle, one of the oldest and longest-running African American newspapers in the United States. For this conversation, we speak with historian and author Susan Anderson. Susan is  the History Curator and Program Manager at the California African American Museum here in Los Angeles, and a member of the editorial board of California History journal. Previously, she was Director of Collections, Library, Exhibitions and Programs at the California Historical Society in San Francisco, as well as Interim Chief Curator at the African American Museum & Library at Oakland, and Curator of Collecting Los Angeles at UCLA Library Special Collections. Susan was also featured on PBS’s special on Charlotta Bass titled “Unladylike” and is the author of Nostalgia for a Trumpet: Poems of Memory and History.

Resources:

www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/charlotta-spears-bass-first-black-woman-vp-nominee-epkd15/15441/

www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/us/california-black-history-month.html

www.heydaybooks.com/authors/susan-d-anderson/

caamuseum.org

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