Lewis Diuguid moved to Kansas City to write for the Kansas City Times after graduating from the University of Missouri.

Lewis planned on staying in Kansas City for about two years, but ended up extending his stay. He worked at the Times long enough to see the merger with the Kansas City Star in March of 1990.

Diuguid has lived in Indian Mound neighborhood since 2009. He raised his daughters here, both of whom have since grown and moved.

“I like that it didn’t feel constricted like St. Louis,” says Diuguid. He also said he noticed there were a lot of open-minded people in Northeast.

Currently, Diuguid is the co-chair of the Communications and Outreach Committee for the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME).

He started writing pieces for them after he left the Star in 2016. At the Star, Diuguid had a column that ran from 1986 to his resignation.

“I wanted to add depth and difference to the normal stream,” says Diuguid.

His column focused on a number of issues including race, gender, sexual orientation and mental illness. He said he wanted it to be a conversation starter.

“My biggest pet peeve is newspapers that bore the crap out of normal people.”

His column led to his first book, “A Teacher’s Cry: Expose the Truth About Education Today” (2004),  that was written as a part of a self-assigned project.

He followed a class of students at Washington High School throughout their four years there.

“We have to be engaged in the education of the children,” said Diuguid.

During the time he was doing his project in the school, he continued his column and eventually got in touch with Harper Lee, the late author of “To Kill A Mockingbird.” They became penpals and kept in touch until her death in 2016.

Diuguid has also published two other books, “Discovering the Real America: Toward a More Perfect Union” (2007) and “Our Fathers: Making Black Men (2017).”

He also has plans for another book influenced by some trips with NAME.