This Vital Signs issue focused on Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence. Below is an excerpt from an article written by Felecia Ward about her experience at the first Black and Female: What is the Reality? Conference held at Spelman College in 1983.
"I arrived with two thousand other black women, looking all the ways we look, with nappy hair and straight hair, skin in shades from golden to ebony, bodies full or lean and all beautiful. I felt as if I had stumbled upon some ancient village since I never before had experienced so many black women in one place at one time. I felt renewed and hopeful in the presence of so much darkness. Spelman's dark red brick buildings, the lush green darkness of the trees and the dusky darkness of my sisters. Something was calling me, something achingly familiar. I could feel myself waking up inside, waking to the possibilities of myself and my sisters."