After careful consideration of several sites, the Organization of American Historians announced today that it will move its Annual Meeting registration, book exhibits, and nearly all its sessions to the campus of Saint Louis University. Beautiful, compact, and convenient to downtown St. Louis by MetroLink, the university campus has been an anchor for urban renewal efforts in the area. Historians and other conference goers will find the university a perfect setting for the 2000 Annual Meeting on 30 March - 2 April.

The meeting had been scheduled to take place at the Adam's Mark Hotel, but last week the organization decided to shift sessions and events offsite. Its goal is to ensure that all OAH members and participants feel welcome during the conference and to protest the hotel's record of racial discrimination toward guests and employees.

Responses from hundreds of OAH members and other meeting participants during the past three weeks indicate a widespread unwillingness to enter the Adam's Mark and a growing concern that the hotel had created a hostile atmosphere. Allegations of differential treatment for African American guests at various Adam's Mark locations and a 1996 judgment for employment discrimination against the hotel in St. Louis have been particularly disturbing. The continued refusal of Adam's Mark to sign consent decrees with the U.S. Department of Justice and the NAACP to resolve racial discrimination lawsuits has made it impossible for the OAH to conduct its international scholarly meeting in its entirety at the hotel as planned.

With only five weeks before the meeting, the OAH will be unable to return its sessions and events to the Adam's Mark should an agreement be reached between the hotel and the Justice Department. The days remaining will be used to ensure the smooth running of the conference now scheduled at Saint Louis University.

OAH is not canceling the contract it signed in 1995 with the Adam's Mark. Rooms for OAH members at hotels in downtown St. Louis, including the Adam's Mark, are still available. Members are encouraged to make their hotel reservations soon, however, since other conventions are meeting in the city at the same time and rooms will soon be scarce.

OAH, along with its cosponsors, the National Council on Public History and the Missouri Conference on History, is delighted with the new arrangements at Saint Louis University. OAH particularly thanks UM-St. Louis, Washington University, St. Louis Community College, and St. Charles Community College for their assistance. Given the clear support of the city's educational and political leadership and the enthusiasm of the entire St. Louis community, this could easily be one of the best OAH annual meetings ever.
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