Saluting Philadelphia and area African American Male Elected Officials

In the first and third weeks of the month of February 2024, I chose to shine the spotlight on African American women elected officials from Philadelphia, from the very first woman elected in PA to the State House to our most current success in Philadelphia’s 100th Mayor, Cherelle L. Parker.

- Thera Martin

In my final column saluting African American History Month, it is my delight to shine the spotlight on many of the African American men from Philadelphia and some surrounding areas who have made history by getting elected into political offices.

Thirty-nine years after the assassination of O.V. Catto in Philadelphia, Harry W. Bass became the first Philadelphia African American man to become an elected official--he lived from November 4, 1866 – June 9, 1917. He was a 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.

Bass was a native of West Chester, Pennsylvania, born on November 4, 1866. 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.

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 (PLP) 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.