The California Eagle published the home addresses of landlords who wouldn't rent to Black families.

Charlotta Bass bought the paper for $50.

She understood what a newspaper could be.

The police officer who shot a Black child in the back and walked free. The studio executive who would only cast Black actors in service roles. The shop owner with a help wanted sign who told Black applicants the position was filled.

She made them answer for what everyone knew but no one would say.

The Klan sued her for libel in 1925. She won in court.

Then eight of them came to her office one night while she worked alone.

She pulled a pistol from her desk.

They left.

By the 1930s, 60,000 people were reading her paper every week, the largest Black newspaper on the West Coast.

When Japanese families disappeared from Little Tokyo overnight in 1942, she wrote their names. Testified for them.

She sold the paper in 1951 and ran for Vice President of the United States on the Progressive ticket.

Win or lose, she said, we win by raising the issues.

Image Credit: Los Angeles Public Library