Author to speak March 27 at library

Lewis Diuguid

Lewis Diuguid, author of “Our Fathers: Making Black Men,” will speak at the Next Chapter Kansas City Forum at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, at the West Wyandotte Branch of the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library, 1737 N. 82nd St., Kansas City, Kansas.

Diuguid, a St. Louis native, worked for the Kansas City Star from 1977 through 2016. He will speak about his book and present suggestions for writing a memoir.

His book, published in 2017, received the Philip C. Chinn Book Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education at its international conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Diuguid is a St. Louis native and a May 1977 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. He started working in 1977 for The Kansas City Star-Times as a reporter-photographer. He was a columnist for the newspaper from 1987 to 2016.

He served as vice president for community resources responsible for the newspaper’s philanthropic and outreach efforts from 1999 to 2009. He served on the editorial board from 1999 to 2016, resigning from the newspaper as a columnist, op-ed page editor, letters editor, editorial writer and blogger.

Diuguid is a founding member, newsletter editor and president of the Kansas City Association of Black Journalists. He is a longtime member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, the Trotter Group of Black Voices in Commentary and the National Association for Multicultural Education.

He serves on boards at the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Kansas schools of journalism. Diuguid’s newspaper career includes being on the team at The Kansas City Star that won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.

He is the recipient of many awards, including the 2000 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism and the 2017 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism from Harvard University.

His latest book published in 2017 is “Our Fathers: Making Black Men.” In November 2017, it received the Philip C. Chinn Book Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education at its international conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Next Chapter Kansas City’s purpose is to develop meaningful opportunities for persons 50 and over as they explore options for work, service, and learning in life’s next chapter. Next Chapter Kansas City is a program of Shepherd’s Center of Kansas City, Kansas, and partner organizations.

– Information from Kansas City, Kansas, Public Library