COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) Three black trailblazers at the University of Missouri have been honored on the Columbia campus.
The university on Friday named residence halls for Lucille Bluford and George C. Brooks, and an atrium for Gus T. Ridgel.
The Columbia Missourian reports Bluford was denied entry in the university’s journalism graduate program in 1939 because she was black. Bluford sued and when the Supreme Court ruled in her favor, the university closed the graduate program, preventing Bluford from ever enrolling. She was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in 1989.
Brooks was the director of financial aid at Missouri, where he worked for 17 years. And Ridgel was the first black graduate at Missouri. The atrium inside Bluford Hall was dedicated in his honor. Ridgel earned his master’s degree in economics in 1951.
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