Historic gathering draws hundreds to Dallas: first Joint Conference of Librarians of Color.

The seed was planted in 1998 and blossomed into what Steering Committee Co-Chair Kenneth A. Yamashita, division manager at the Stockton-San Joaquin County (Calif.) Public Library, described as "the Emerald City at the end of a multicolored brick road." The end result: 1,134 librarians and exhibitors, including many library directors and their staff members as well as American Library Association leaders, who gathered October 12-15 in Dallas for the first Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC), which carried the theme "Gathering at the Waters: Embracing Our Spirits, Telling Our Stories."

ALA's five ethnic affiliates--the American Indian Library Association; the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association; the Black Caucus of the American Library Association; the Chinese American Librarians Association; and Reforma, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking--sponsored the event with support from the Association's Office for Literacy and Outreach Services.

"It was a challenging process," noted Steering Committee Co-Chair Gladys Smiley Bell, director of Hampton (Va.) University's Harvey …