Lucile H. Bluford and the Kansas City Call

Book excerpt: This book on publisher and editor Lucile H. Bluford examines her journalistic writings on social, economic, and political issues; her strong opinionated views on African Americans and women; and whether there were consistent themes, biases, and assumptions in her stories that may have influenced news coverage in the Kansas City Call. It traces the beginnings of her activism as a young reporter seeking admission to the graduate program in journalism at the University of Missouri and how her admissions rejection became the catalyst for her seven-decade career as a champion of racial and gender equality. Bluford’s work at the Kansas City Call demonstrates how critical theorists used storytelling to describe personal experiences of struggle and oppression to inform the public of racial and gender consciousness. Lucile H. Bluford and the Kansas City Call illustrates how she used her social authority in the formidable power base of the weekly Black newspaper she owned, shaping and mobilizing a broader movement in the fight for freedom and social justice. This book focuses on a selection of Bluford’s news stories and editorials from 1968 to 1983 as examples of how she articulated a Black feminist standpoint advocating a Black liberation agenda—equal access to decent jobs, affordable health care and housing, and a better education in Kansas City, Missouri. Bluford’s writings represented what the mainstream news ignored, exposing injustices and inequalities in the African American community and among feminists.