page_title: California Eagle
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: California Eagle / History
caption_attribution_description: English: John J. Neimore, founder and editor of the California Eagle, circa 1901/1910, Los Angeles
context_page_description: The California Eagle was an African-American newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded as The Owl in 1879 by John J. Neimore.
  Charlotta Bass became owner in of the paper after Neimore's death in 1912. She owned and operated the paper, renamed the California Eagle, until 1951. Her husband, J. B. Bass, served as editor until his death in 1934. In the 1920s, they increased circulation to 60,000. During this period, Bass was also active as a civil rights campaigner in Los Angeles, working to end segregation in jobs, housing and transportation.
  The newspaper was next owned for more than a decade by Loren Miller, who had been city editor. He also worked as a civil liberties lawyer and was a leader in the community. After he sold the paper in 1964 to accept an appointment as a judge of the Superior Court of the State of California [i.e., the trial courts] for Los Angeles County, the publication quickly lost ground, and closed that year.
context_section_description: Neimore, a staunch Republican founded the newspaper as The Owl in 1879 to serve new arrivals to Los Angeles during the Great Migration, when millions of African-Americans left the Deep South. The paper offered information on employment and housing opportunities as well as news stories geared towards the newly arrived migrant population. After Neimore's death in 1912, Charlotta Bass bought the paper and renamed it California Eagle. She retired in 1951. Her husband, J.B. Bass, was editor until his death in 1934.
  By 1925, the newspaper had a circulation of 60,000, the largest of any African-American newspaper in California. Its publishers and editors were active in civil rights, beginning with campaigns for equitable hiring, patronage of black businesses, and an end to segregated facilities and housing.
  In 1951 Bass sold the California Eagle to Loren Miller, the former city editor. Miller was a Washburn University, Kansas law graduate. After he relocated to Los Angeles in 1930, he began writing for the Eagle and eventually became city editor. In 1945, Miller represented Hattie McDaniel and won her case against the "Sugar Hill" restrictive covenant case. He was appointed in 1963 as a judge of the Superior Court [i.e., the trial courts] for Los Angeles County by Governor Edmund "Pat" Brown. In 1963, Miller sold the paper to fourteen local investors in order to accept his appointment as judge. The California Eagle initially increased circulation from 3,000 to 21,000. But within six months the paper had to close; on January 7, 1964, the California Eagle ceased publication after 85 years.
caption: John J. Neimore, founder
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