Forty Years: Memoirs from the Pages of a Newspaper
Los Angeles was founded in 1781. Among the forty-four individuals who founded it, there were twenty-two adults and twenty-two children. Not very many people know that there were only two Whites among the founders, but there were sixteen Indians and twenty-six Afro-Mexicans. The illustration that accompanies this entry, from the Great Wall mural of Los Angeles, is an accurate portrayal of the initial pobladores of Los Angeles.
Forty Years is a memoir and a history of Black Los Angeles written by Charlotta Bass (1880–1969), publisher-editor of the California Eagle for forty years and one of the most important, yet unrecognized, journalists in the City of Angels. In her book (now available digitally), Bass chronicles the development of Los Angeles from a small pueblo to a sprawling city written principally to show the most important role early Black pioneers played in its growth, including Afro-Mexicans.
Click “Read More” to access the book through the CSUN library system.
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