THE INCREDIBLE LIFE OF CHARLOTTA BASS
The FBI agent had been sitting in his hot, stuffy car all day, once again tasked with surveilling the nursing home across the street. It was another uneventful day. He noted the comings and goings: deliveries of crates of milk and groceries; the postman making his rounds; nursing staff in their starched uniforms either arriving or leaving; and, towards early evening, a steady stream of relatives visiting elderly residents. When the agent finished his shift, he drove back to the office and typed up what he determined would be his final entry: “July 3, 1967, Charlotta A Bass – Case Closed”.
What possible security threat could a bedridden black woman in her nineties pose? Yet despite being incapacitated by a stroke, Charlotta Bass remained a target of FBI surveillance until 1967, two years before her death, and could be arrested on sight if deemed in breach of national security. Her 500-plus page dossier bulged with reports that spanned five decades. It chronicled her denunciations of the Ku Klux Klan; her elevation as
