Harry W. Bass (Pennsylvania politician) facts for kids
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.
Life and career
Bass was a native of West Chester, Pennsylvania, born on 4 November 1866. He earned a degree from Lincoln University in 1886, then attended Howard University before graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1896.
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. Bass contested the 1898 elections for state representative, again as a PLP candidate, and lost for a second time. 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. Bass joined the Republican Party and served multiple terms as an elected representative of the Republican State Committee from Philadelphia.
As a Republican backed by Boies Penrose, Bass won two consecutive terms to the state house in 1911 and 1913, and was the first African American member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. He was a member of a commission convened to organize celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and credited with helping the commission secure $20,000 in funding via appropriations. Bass was not a candidate during the 1915 election cycle.
He was appointed an assistant municipal solicitor by Philadelphia's municipal solicitor John P. Connelly in February 1916, and served until his death, when George Henry White succeeded him. Bass died on 9 June 1917 in Philadelphia, and was buried in West Chester's Chestnut Grove Cemetery.
