Missouri celebrates KC’s trailblazing Black journalist Lucile Bluford. See events
The state of Missouri will be honoring journalist and segregation fighter Lucile Bluford to kick start the month of July.
An established state observance since 2016, Missouri recognizes Bluford’s birthday, July 1, as Lucile Bluford Day.
Commonly referred to as Kansas City’s matriarch, Bluford served as a reporter, editor and publisher for The Kansas City Call for nearly 70 years after graduating from the University of Kansas’s journalism program, where she made history as the second-ever Black student in the program.
Bluford is widely celebrated for her journalistic skills and the work she did during her time at The Call, she is best known for her groundbreaking legal battle against the University of Missouri. In the legal battle, which lasted from 1939–1941, she challenged the university’s segregationist admissions policies after being denied entry to its graduate journalism program because she was Black.
After the lawsuits reached the Missouri Supreme Court, the 1941 ruling ordered the university to implement equal graduate educational programs.
To avoid integration, the university shut down its program, prompting Lincoln University to create one.
However, the decline in enrollment there led the University of Missouri to reopen its program. In 1950, the first Black graduate student was admitted into their journalism program.
In 1988, the Kansas City Public Library named its Prospect Avenue branch after Bluford to honor her work in being a leading voice in the Civil Rights movement, fighting for the rights of Black people in housing, education, voting and employment.
Bluford died at 91 in 2003.
Lucile Bluford Day in KC
The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated - Beta Omega Chapter is organizing events in honor of Bluford on Tuesday at the Kansas City Public Library.
Starting at 1 p.m., library visitors can join in on arts and crafts, story time for children and teens, and various book giveaways. There will be refreshments, a photo booth and a performance from the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra Trio between 4p.m. to 6 p.m.
In a full-circle moment of legacy and pride, Bluford’s nephew, John W. Bluford III, founder and president of Bluford Healthcare Leadership Institute and former president and CEO of Truman Medical Centers, will take the stage at the library that bears her name, The Lucile H. Bluford Branch of the Kansas City Public Library, to share personal anecdotes and stories about how his aunt’s work continues to impact Kansas City today.
For more information on Lucile Bluford Day, visit kclibrary.org.
