California Eagle

The California Eagle, was one of the oldest African American newspapers in Los Angeles, California, and the West, traces its origins to 1879. [ [http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/view/scl-m0255.html USC Digital Archive:] "John J. Neimore, founder and editor of the California Eagle"] John J. Neimore was founder, and editor, who had escaped slavery in Missouri. Originally called "The Owl", he later he renamed it "The Eagle". The later owner Charlotta Bass changed the name in 1912 to the "California Eagle". The newspaper was published from 1879 to 1964. [Hoffman, Claire Giannini. "California, Past, Present, Future", California Almanac Co., Original from the University of California (April 19, 2007)]

Earlier history

The newspaper served as a source of both information and inspiration for the black community, which was either ignored or negatively portrayed by the predominant white press. Neimore established a newspaper to help newly-arrived African Americans adapt to life in Los Angeles. The newspaper contained information about housing, jobs and news items relevant to the African American community. One of the new arrivals was Charlotta Bass, who took a job selling subscriptions to the newspaper in 1910. By 1912, Neimore was in very poor health. In her autobiography, Bass recalled how Neimore called her to his bedside and made her promise to keep the newspaper alive. Bass took control of the newspaper upon Neimore's death in 1912, and ran the "California Eagle" until she retired in 1951.The "California Eagle" had the following platform:

*hiring of Negroes as a matter of right, rather than as a concession, in those institutions where their patronage creates a demand for labor;
*increased participation of Negroes in municipal, state, and national government;

*the abolition of enforced segregation and all other artificial barriers to the recognition of true merit;

*patronizing of Negroes by Negroes as a matter of principle;

*more rapid development of those communities in which Negroes live, by cooperation between citizens and those who have business investments in such communities; and

*enthusiastic support for a greater degree of service at the hands of all social, civic, charitable, and religious institutions

Later history

Charlotta Bass sold the "California Eagle" in 1951 to Loren Miller, the former city editor of the "Eagle". [Sides, Josh. "L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present", (2003), page 20] Miller was a Washington University, Kansas law graduate. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1930, and began writing for the "Eagle", which earned him a reputation in the black community as an articulate and outspoken defender of African Americans. Miller continued in the same tradition of putting out an activist paper as Bass and Neimore. He was a civil liberties lawyer, had a particular interest in discrimination and housing. In 1945, Miller represented Hattie McDaniel and won her famous "Sugar Hill" restrictive covenant case. [Watts, Jill. "Hattie McDaniel: Black Ambition, White Hollywood", New York, NY: HarperCollins, p. 328, (2005) - ISBN 0060514906] His work against restrictive covenants and other racially segregated practices led to his appointment as Superior Court of California judge by former Governor Edmund "Pat" Brown. [ [http://www.socallib.org/bass/research/eagle/ California Eagle History] ] In 1964, Miller sold the paper to fourteen local investors in order to accept a judgeship. The "California Eagle" increased its circulation from 3,000 to 21,000 papers. [ [http://www.socallib.org/SCLWebsite/hiseagle.htm "California Eagle" Photograph Collection] ] But, within six months the paper went bust due to missed business opportunities and mismanagement. The paper rapidly deteriorated and on January 7, 1964, the "California Eagle" ceased publication after its beginning 85 years before.

Footnotes

References

* Flamming, Douglas. "Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America", University of California Press, (2005) - ISBN 0520239199
* Sides, Josh. "L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present", University of California Press, (2003) ISBN 0520238419
* Wheeler, B. Gordon. "Black California: The History of African-Americans in the Golden State", Hippocrene Books, New York, (1993) - ISBN 0781800749