Bluford vs. Canada, Civil Action No. 42: Affidavit of Lucile Bluford supporting Challenge to Panel
Affidavit of Lucile Bluford supporting challenge to panel in Civil Action No. 42: Lucile Bluford v. S.W. Canada. Bluford and her attorneys provided support to her challenge that black citizens were illegally removed from the jury pool for her trial, resulting in an all white jury panel. This document provides population statistics for the Missouri counties from which her jury was selected, including population data for each race. She also argues that "no qualified Negroes or other Negroes have been called for jury service in this court for at least fifty years," and argues that that failure "has been due to a systemic, unbroken course of race discrimination against permitting qualified Negroes to serve on juries in this court solely because of race." At the time, Bluford was the managing editor of the Kansas City Call and her effort to gain admittance to the masters degree program at MU's School of Journalism, and repeated denials due to her race, lead to a a series of lawsuits that eventually reached the Missouri Supreme Court.