Revisiting a dream
Lewis Diuguid explores Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech
“When I started at The Kansas City Star, I was told point-blank, ‘We hired you to be a journalist and leave “that black stuff” outside.’ All my career I’ve been trying to incorporate “that black stuff,” Lewis Diuguid says.
In 1977, the Star hired Diuguid fresh out of the Missouri School of Journalism. Today, Diuguid is vice president for community resources and columnist at the Star, and a certified diversity facilitator with the Newspaper Association of America. Diuguid will present the keynote address for the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration at 7 p.m., Jan. 25, in Bush Auditorium at Cornell Hall.
Diuguid tackles issues of diversity and equality in his column. Readers often have heated responses.
“A lot of times people say you have to have a thick skin. That’s not true. If you have a thick skin, you’ve done yourself and readers a disservice,” Diuguid says.
Diuguid reads and replies to the letters, phone calls and e-mails.
“It’s important to engage people, even if they are absolutely foul, because if we don’t engage them and give them an opportunity to see the person they’ve demonized, the person they’ve reduced to less than human, it allows bigotry and prejudices to go unchecked,” Diuguid says.
In his address at Mizzou, Diuguid will examine King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. In it, King said, “In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check … It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.”
More than 40 years later, the question remains: Has America made good on the promissory note? Diuguid will explore the question.
Diuguid is the author of an upcoming book, Discovering the Real America: Toward a More Perfect Union. He is a founding member, treasurer, newsletter editor and Media Awards Committee chairman of the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists, the Missourian Publishing Association Board of Directors, the William Allen White Foundation Board of Trustees (University of Kansas), and several other organizations. He has received more than 50 awards, including the 2000 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism. — Lisa Bruce
Illustration by Blake Dinsdale