One by one, students gathered in a classroom at a job center on Madison’s southwest side took their turns answering interview questions. Addressing about 20 of their peers, some felt self-conscious and nervously referred to notecards or stumbled over prepared statements.

But they all participated.

“I get really nervous in interviews,” said Kiana Cline. “They put us on the spot, which I feel like is good practice to get over our anxiety.”

Cline, 20, graduated from Verona Area High School in 2017 and took a few courses at Madison College before her mom encouraged her to apply to a six-week course at the job center, organized by the Urban League of Greater Madison.

James Buford, a 28-year President and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis (St. Louis, MO), known for his bow tie and for bridging tense and wide racial gaps between blacks and whites in St. Louis, has died.

"I'm a black person with an ability to get on with whites, but I'm black," he told the Post-Dispatch in a 1992 interview. "The way I learned to relate to whites and not intimidate them — maybe I can use that. I think I can shuttle back and forth and be the bridge."

Mr. Buford died early Friday at Barnes-Jewish Hospital after a brief illness, his family said.

Mr. Buford was 75.

Mr. Buford was born in 1944 in St. Louis' Grand Center, then a middle-class black neighborhood. His father was one of the city's first black policemen.

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By Chris King, The St. Louis American

James H. Buford, longtime National Urban League leader in St. Louis and nationally, died Friday, Nov. 28 at age 75.

“Jim Buford was a giant in the St. Louis community who served with distinction and honor in countless roles impacting countless people,” Michael Patrick McMillan, current president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, stated while expressing condolences for Buford’s wife, Susan Buford, and family on social media.

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