On Saturday, September 20, 2025, at 1:00 pm, the Greater Kansas City Black History Study Group resumed programming with its Founder’s Day Program held at the Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center, 4750 Troost Ave., Kansas City, MO 64110.
The 2025 theme, African Americans and Labor, continued to be explored in this month’s program featuring esteemed veteran journalist and author, Mr. Lewis Diuguid. Diuguid is chair of the political action committee for the National Association for Multicultural Education. He worked as a journalist for more than 39 years for The Kansas City Star and is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.
Addressing the 2025 ASALH theme, African Americans and Labor, Diuguid shared that, “Contrary to what many believe, European colonizers did not go to Africa to kidnap and enslave just any Black people. In many cases, they were very specific in seeking African artisans and farmers with special skills that could be put to use in the so-called New World. Also, contrary to the commonly held belief that Black doctors and lawyers made up the backbone of the Black middle class, it was actually the Pullman Porters and other Black railway workers who not only constituted the spine of the Black middle class, but also formed the core of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Lewis Diuguid is the author of A Teacher’s Cry: Expose the Truth About Education Today (2004) and Discovering the Real America: Toward a More Perfect Union (2007), Our Fathers: Making Black Men (2017), and Exploring Cuba: Erasing Fears Through Multicultural Education (2024). He is a founding member and treasurer of the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists. He is the winner of many awards, including the 2000 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism and the 2017 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Thoughtful questions and discussion followed the presentation. Gift cards and books were presented to the lucky door prize winners.
Pictures are: Lewis Diuguid, guest speaker, and Larry Lester, GKCBHSG President.
