Harry W. Bass (Pennsylvania politician)

Harry W. Bass (4 November 1866 – 9 June 1917) was an American lawyer and politician who became the first African American to serve in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, winning two consecutive terms in the state house in 1911 and 1913 to represent the seventh ward of Philadelphia.

Harry W. Bass
Portrait on the front page of The Crisis (1911)
Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
In office
1911–1914
Personal details
Born(1866-11-04)November 4, 1866
West Chester, Pennsylvania, US
DiedJune 9, 1917(1917-06-09) (aged 50)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Alma materLincoln University, University of Pennsylvania Law School
OccupationLawyer, politician

Life and career

Bass was a native of West Chester, Pennsylvania, born on 4 November 1866.[1][2][3] After attending local public schools, he earned a degree from Lincoln University in 1886, then studied law at Howard University before graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1896.[1][3]

As a law student, Bass lived in South Philadelphia and ran for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the first time in 1896, while affiliated with the People's Legislative Party, and lost.[2][4] Bass contested the 1898 elections for state representative, again as a PLP candidate, and lost for a second time.[2][4] Shortly after completing his degree in law, Bass represented an African American tenant who, in 1900, had been evicted from his Bryn Mawr residence by the Methodist Episcopal Church, a church of white parishioners.[2]

Bass joined the Republican Party and served multiple terms as an elected representative of the Republican State Committee from Philadelphia.[5] As a Republican backed by Boies Penrose,[2] he won two consecutive terms to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1911 and 1913, becoming the first African American member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.[1][6] He represented the sixth district of the House, which comprised the heavily African American seventh ward of Philadelphia.[7] In 1911–1912, he was a member of a commission convened to organize celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and he was credited with helping the commission secure $20,000 in funding via appropriations.[6]

Bass was not a candidate for the state house during the 1915 election cycle.[1] Appointed to serve as an assistant municipal solicitor by Philadelphia's municipal solicitor John P. Connelly in February 1916, Bass served in this role until his death, when George Henry White succeeded him.[8][9]

Bass died on 9 June 1917 in Philadelphia of chronic interstitial nephritis, according to his death certificate. He was buried in Chestnut Grove Cemetery north of West Chester.[1] He never married and had no issue.[10]

References
  1. "Harry W. Bass". Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  2. Caruso, Stephen (28 February 2021). "Ice cream shops, machine politics, and the unfinished struggle of Pa.'s first Black legislator". Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  3. Smull, John Augustus; Smull, William P.; Cochran, Thomas Baumgardner; Baker, W. Harry, eds. (1911). "Biographical Sketches of Members". Smull's Legislative Hand Book and Manual of the State of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania General Assembly. p. 1006.
  4. Smith, Eric Ledell (1996). ""Asking for Justice and Fair Play": African American State Legislators and Civil Rights in Early Twentieth-Century Pennsylvania". Retrieved 6 February 2022. Alternate URL
  5. "Philadelphian's in harmonious caucus". Philadelphia Inquirer. 29 April 1908. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  6. "Plans complete for exposition: race to celebrate fifty years of freedom". Indianapolis Recorder. 17 May 1913. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  7. "Along the Color Line". The Crisis. 1 (4): 5–6. February 1911 – via HathiTrust.
  8. Justesen, Benjamin R. (2012). George Henry White: An Even Chance in the Race of Life. Louisiana State University Press. p. 417. ISBN 9780807144770.
  9. Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Vol. 25. Pennsylvania Bar Association. 1919. p. 160.
  10. "Certificate of Death, Harry W. Bass". Find a Grave. 1917-06-12. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
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