The second honors Lucile Bluford, the current editor and publisher of The Kansas City Call . The two newspapers share the same first name but throughout their history have had little else in common. In 1939, Bluford, a black woman, because of her race couldn't even gain entrance to the University of Missouri journalism school. Over the next six months, in a series of stories and surveys and four public forums, the two newspapers are co-sponsoring an effort to provide Kansas Citians a progress report on race relations, exploring how far we've come and where we are headed. Throughout, we'll offer suggestions for improvement from dozens of ordinary and extraordinary fellow citizens.
Forums are fine for dialogue.
But real change comes when people and institutions change their perceptions of others. I am hoping this collaborative effort between The Star and The Call is the beginning of changing perceptions and attitudes that are considered racist. It is not a task, frankly, that some of our readers wish us to undertake. But whether that stems from apathy, racism or a genuine belief that no problem exists, to ignore the issue deprives our community of not only the knowledge of where problems persist, but just as important, of where real progress has been made. Ten years ago, a major poll by The Star found an alarming gap between black and white residents in their perceptions of racism in Kansas City.