Woven as she is into the history of Kansas City, Lucile H. Bluford is scarcely known outside Missouri and Kansas. Sheila Brooks is out to change that, examining Bluford’s life and pioneering work in a new book, Lucile H. Bluford and the Kansas City Call: Activist Voice for Social Justice.

The Kansas City-born Brooks is a former television reporter, anchor, news director, and documentary producer who founded and heads the Washington, D.C.-based SRB Communications. She discusses the book—co-authored with Howard University’s Clint C. Wilson II—which recounts Bluford’s fight for admission into the University of Missouri’s graduate journalism program and assesses her dual role as a journalist and advocate for the women’s and civil rights movements.

The state of Missouri celebrates Bluford’s birthday, July 1, as Lucile Bluford Day.

Co-sponsored by the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Beta Omega Chapter, and the Friends of the Kansas City Public Library.

Read more about Lucile Bluford and her legacy >