User:Oskeans/Lucile Bluford

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= Lucile Bluford = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lucile Harris Bluford (July 1, 1911 Salisbury, North Carolina - June 13, 2003, Kansas City, Missouri) was a famous journalist and opponent of segregation in America's education system, and after whom the Lucile H. Bluford Branch of the Kansas City Public Library is named.

Contents

 * 1Early life
 * 2Career
 * 3Legacy
 * 4Honors and Awards[18]
 * 5References
 * 6External links

Early life[edit]
Lucile Bluford was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, to John Henry Bluford and Viola Harris Bluford. Bluford's father was a professor at the state's Agricultural and Technical College. In 1921 when Bluford was 10, John Bluford accepted a position teaching science at Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri. Bluford attended Wendell Phillips Elementary and Lincoln High School. At a young age, Bluford was exposed to segregated education, as Missouri was a Jim Crow state that adhered to "separate but equal" doctrine.

Career[edit]
Bluford was encouraged in her interest in journalism by a high school English teacher, Trussie Smothers, at the segregated Lincoln High School. She worked on the school newspaper and yearbook, and after school, at the Black-owned newspaper, the Kansas City Call. She was the valedictorian of her 1928 graduating class. After high school, she graduated from the University of Kansas School of Journalism with honors in 1932. Bluford was the second Black student to ever study at the KU journalism program, and served as night editor and telegraph editor on the school's student newspaper. After graduating, Bluford worked for The Daily World in Atlanta, reneging on her promise to work at the Call. Upon returning to Kansas City, she worked for the Black-owned weekly, The American. Chester A. Franklin, founder of the Call, contacted her and told her he had an opening for her at his newspaper. She began working for the Kansas City Call in 1932. She stayed at the Call for the entirety of her career, rising through the ranks until she was the second editor and publisher of the newspaper. After Franklin's death in 1955, Bluford became part-owner with Franklin's widow, Ada Crogman Franklin, and continued to work at the newspaper until her death.

In 1939, Bluford applied to the Master of Journalism program at the renowned Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri, and her application was dismissed because of her race. At the time Bluford attempted to enroll, African-American students were expected to attend all-black Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, 30 miles away from the Columbia, Missouri university campus. Lincoln University did not have a journalism program.

On October 13, 1939, Bluford made the first of eleven attempts to enter the University of Missouri's program. On October 13, 1939, with the help of Charles Houston of the NAACP, Bluford filed the first of several lawsuits against the University. Due in part to her association with the NAACP, Bluford was denied admission to the University of Missouri's graduate journalism program. MU officials insisted she must enroll in Lincoln University's journalism program, even though Lincoln had no such program. By 1941 her case had made it to the Missouri Supreme Court, but she lost. Citing low attendance because of World War II, the University of Missouri subsequently closed its graduate journalism program. Nonetheless, the case prompted the opening of a School of Journalism at Lincoln University. Bluford never attended the University of Missouri. Even though Bluford never attended the University of Missouri, the university decided to honor her in 2018.