The Kansas City Call

The website for Kansas City’s black newspaper is a work in progress. In fact, a note at the top of The Call’s homepage declares “Public BETA ‘Site Under Construction.’”

The website is updated weekly, in conjunction with the newspaper’s printed version. When the reader clicks “Read Latest Issue” in the navigation bar, he or she is invited the download a copy for $1.00.

As it turns out, the latest downloadable issue dates back to the week of Sept. 27, 2013. The big headline on page one was “Obama Visits Ford Plant; Cruz Reads Dr. Seuss On Senate Floor,” an Associated Press (AP) story.

Local front-page stories for that week included, “Black Construction Workers Still On The Outside Looking In,” the latest in a series by The Call’s editor and staff writer Eric Wesson, and “Police Officers Give Their Views On Local Control Debate,” also by Wesson.

The 23-page issue includes local coverage of politics, the social scene, and the arts—as well as statewide issues. Each page features a number of advertisers, from barbershops and financial services to a local casino.

Kansas City residents can pick up a new copy of the The Call each Friday or have it delivered to their home or business.

Who’s Reading The Call?

The population of the greater Kansas City metropolitan area — which covers 15 counties in Missouri and Kansas — is about 2.3 million. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of the city (Kansas City, Mo.) itself is about 460,000. Of that number, blacks account for about 30 percent.

It is hard to know exactly how many people read The Call today. The newspaper’s masthead states it is a member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, but a search of that site to determine the paper’s circulation numbers yields no results. (A telephone message and emailed listed of questions to The Call were not returned).

Still, as the only newspaper catering to Kansas City’s black community — and judging by the variety and number of ads —African-Americans in the city are reading the paper.

“The Call remains a vital part of Kansas City, serving the black community as an advocacy press,” said Lewis Diuguid, a journalist who has lived in the city since the late 1970s.

Diuguid, a columnist for the Kansas City Star, describes himself as a long-time subscriber to The Call. As a native of St. Louis, he’s knows his hometown’s black paper very well.

“The (St. Louis) American is a better-funded newspaper,” Diuguid said. “It has a lot more glitz and canned copy. The Call is, for the most part, locally generated with a local staff.”

According to information in the Sept. 27 issue of The Call, that local staff numbers about 20 people.

History and Legacy

 (The above message appears in the print version of The Call)

The Call had its beginnings in 1919, with a small staff taking on a number of tasks to get the paper out. That first press run number 2,000 — with many readers pre-ordering their copy when they learned Kansas City would have its own black newspaper.

In the early days, founding publisher Chester A. Franklin rolled up his sleeves to report, write and even operate the newspaper’s typesetting machine. Later, reporters set their own type.

According to The Black Archives of Mid-America:

“From The Call’s inception, news policy has been constructive, presenting the achievements and worthwhile happenings among the African American community, rather than crime and other stereotypical aspects of the news.”

Franklin, who ran The Call for 36 years, was known for unflinching coverage and strong editorial stances on lynching, the Ku Klux Klan, and police brutality. The paper also fought segregation and discrimination in education, housing, employment, and the use of public facilities.

And, Franklin’s legacy of providing Kansas City’s black community with balanced coverage lives on.

“It reports on news that gets overlooked elsewhere,” Diuguid said. “The Call gives information to readers from a different and much needed perspective.”

Wesson’s series on 2013 series on black contractors is an example of how Franklin’s mission is alive in the pages of The Call today. In the print issue Kansas City residents read on Feb. 28 (excerpts available online) articles include Black History Month Black Barbershops: The New Black Think Tank include Black History Black Hair: The Crowning Jewel.

More About The Call

• President and Publisher: Donna F. Stewart
• Address: 1715-17 East Eighteenth Street Kansas City, Mo. 64108
• Telephone: (816) 842-3804,
(877) 475-6422
• Email: kccallnews@hotmail.com