March 15 Update

March 8 Update

2000 Annual Meeting

Dear OAH Member:

As part of the final weekly update before the St. Louis Annual Meeting we are including the following press release:

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, 22 March 2000
12:00 noon EST

Justice Department and Other Plaintiffs Settle Lawsuit
Against Adam?s Mark on Eve of OAH Annual Meeting

Yesterday the U.S. Department of Justice, the Florida Attorney General, and the NAACP settled their lawsuits with the Adam?s Mark Hotel chain. The chain will pay an $8 million penalty to the parties and have an independent group appointed to monitor compliance with civil rights laws.

The Organization of American Historians is pleased to have played a role with other local and national groups in encouraging Adam's Mark to settle the racial discrimination claims. We hope that the penalty and monitoring provisions will encourage the Adam?s Mark in the future to adhere to the spirit of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Our decision to move the annual meeting was controversial, but necessary. One of our principal activities as a professional organization is an annual meeting. We have a responsibility to our members to provide a welcoming and professional meeting place. After we learned of the Justice Department's charges and the hotel?s history of racial discrimination lawsuits, we felt it was our obligation to do all we could to ensure that our members would not encounter a hostile environment.

We are deeply grateful to Saint Louis University for providing on very short notice an alternative to our original meeting site and we look forward to a great annual convention on its campus next week. We thank all our members, other scholarly organizations, and citizens of the St. Louis community who continue to support us as we take this stand for racial justice.

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OTHER NEWS
Final Update Before the St. Louis Meeting

PREREGISTRATION is nearly 1,600 for the annual meeting--150
more than last year!

Although the pre-registration deadline has passed, you may
register on-site during the conference.

METROLINK operates light-rail trains that run every eight minutes from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m.; every ten minutes from 9:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.; every eight minutes from 4:15 to 6:00 p.m.; and every fifteen minutes from 6:00 to 11:15 p.m on weekdays. On Saturdays, trains run every ten to fifteen minutes between 7:30 a.m. and 11:00 p.m.; on Sundays, every fifteen minutes between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Trains stop running between midnight and 5:00 a.m. on weekdays and Saturday, 11:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. on Sundays. MetroLink maps will be available at registration and at the hotels. You can view them at the OAH website
http://www.oah.org/meetings/2000/
http://www.bi-state.org/MetroLinkmap2.html

FARE is $1.25 one-way from all stations except the Airport, which is $3.00. Exact change is not required. A one-day pass is available for $4.00, and a weekly pass costs $13.00. A Transit Information Center is located in the America's Center at 7th and Washington Streets, one block west of the Convention Center MetroLink Station. For customer service, call (314) 982-1495.

ARVARH STRICKLAND, Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri-Columbia, will moderate the PLENARY SESSION, "Discrimination and Politicization of Scholarly Associations." Participants include William Chafe of Duke University; Paul Hutton of the University of New Mexico; Richard Kirkendall of the University of Washington; and Bennet Wall of the University of Georgia.

. . . REMINDERS FROM LAST UPDATE . . .

ROOM and BUILDING locations for each session and event, as well as campus maps, have been posted on the OAH website: http://www.oah.org/meetings/2000

SHUTTLES will circulate every thirty minutes between the Radisson, Adam's Mark, Marriott Pavilion, and Hyatt Regency Union Station hotels and the Simon Recreation Center on the SLU campus. Shuttle service will operate on Thursday, March 30 from 11:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Friday, March 31 from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.; Saturday, April 1 from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; and Sunday, April 2 from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. A shuttle supervisor will be stationed at the SLU campus, and dispatchers will be stationed at the hotels.

GUIDES will be stationed at information tables in the lobbies of the Radisson, Adam's Mark, Marriott Pavilion, and Hyatt Regency Union Station hotels to answer questions and help direct you to sessions and events.

A COMMUNITY COLLEGE session, "Teaching the American Survey," and reception will be held at the Saint Louis Community College Cosand Center, located on the corner of Clark and Broadway Streets, on Friday, March 31. The session will be from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. and the reception follows from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Shuttle service will be provided to the Cosand Center.

Both FRIDAY and SATURDAY RALLIES will be held at 11:30 a.m. at Luther Ely Smith Park next to the Adam's Mark Hotel and in front of the Old Courthouse.

SHOES AND UMBRELLAS: Although the weather is quite pleasant in late March and early April, it would be advisable to bring umbrellas and comfortable walking shoes.

WATCH YOUR CLOCKS: St. Louis is on Central Standard Time, but will be switching to Central Daylight Time the Saturday night/Sunday morning of our meeting. In other words, we'll be "springing forward" an hour. This is especially important for those flying out of St. Louis on Sunday, 2 April.

REQUEST FOR DONATIONS: The costs of moving the meeting from the Adam's Mark Hotel to the SLU campus are substantial. We welcome all gifts large and small to help us meet these expenses. Please send contributions to OAH Special Fund, 112 North Bryan Avenue, Bloomington, Indiana 47408-4199.

See you in St. Louis.

Lee W. Formwalt
Executive Director, OAH