Colin Powell Keynotes ALA Conference
in New Orleans
Retired General Colin Powell gave the keynote address June 26 at the American Library Association’s Annual Conference in New Orleans, where 22,482 librarians and library supporters gathered from around the country and the world for a week of programs, meetings, and special events.
While a handful of attendees at the hall entrance protested his appearance with signs denouncing “U.S. militarism,” Powell told an enthusiastic crowd of several thousand that “it was soldiers who got us that First Amendment in the first place.” He pointed out that “George Washington was a general before he was a president.”
Ann K. Symons capped her year as ALA president by hosting “A Conversation on the First Amendment,” featuring Playboy Enterprises CEO Christie Hefner, ACLU President Nadine Strossen, and attorney Bruce Ennis, who argued the successful challenge to the Communications Decency Act before the Supreme Court. Symons’s “Scholarship Bash,” with entertainment by the Neville Brothers, garnered over $100,000 for ALA scholarships for library school students.
At conference end, the Association inaugurated Sarah Ann Long as its 1999–2000 president. A full report on the conference is scheduled for the August issue of American Libraries.
Posted July 5, 1999.
|
