Victorine Spears Kinloch

Victorine Spears Kinloch (1885 - 1951) was an African-American suffragist who lived and worked in Rhode Island, New York, and California. Her sister Charlotta Bass is well known for her civil rights activities in Los Angeles.

Biography Charlotta Bass and three women, circa 1901/1910. Photograph of Charlotta Bass, second from left, and her sister, Victorine Spears Kinloch, left. The other two women may be Bass's other sisters, Lillian and Lena.

Victorine Spears was born in 1885 in South Carolina.

As a young woman, she moved from South Carolina to Providence, RI, with her sister Charlotta. They lived with their brother Ellis Spears. She was part of the New Englanders club and planned or sponsored their events, and an officer of the Harlem Housewives League.

She moved to California with her son John and husband James, settling near her sister Charlotta Bass. Bass owned and operated the California Eagle, the first Black woman-owned newspaper in America. Bass did not have children and intended for her nephew John Kinloch to take over the paper when she retired. However, Kinloch died in Germany during World War II.

Marriage and children

In 1921, she married James Alexander Kinloch in New York. Their son, John Spears Kinloch, was born that same year.

Her son John Kinloch worked for his aunt Bass before he joined the military. He died in Germany on April 3, 1945, during WWII.

Death and legacy Victorine Spears Kinloch died on October 25, 1951, in New York City.

She predeceased her son. His remaining insurance policy passed to Charlotta Bass.