Home › A.A. questions, from the books › People and history

What happened at the St. Louis convention in 1955?

In short:

  • A.A. held its twentieth-anniversary convention in St. Louis on July 1–3, 1955, the second International Convention after Cleveland in 1950 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957; Pass It On, 1984).
  • At four o'clock on the last afternoon, about 5,000 members and families in the Kiel Auditorium voted that A.A. had "come of age": the General Service Conference became the guardian of the Twelve Traditions, ran A.A.'s world services, and became the permanent successor to the co-founders (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • Bill W., speaking for himself, the late Dr. Bob and the old-timers, handed A.A.'s Three Legacies of Recovery, Unity and Service to the whole fellowship (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957; P-44). Afterwards he wrote: "Clearly my job henceforth was to let go and let God. Alcoholics Anonymous was at last safe—even from me." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • The second edition of the Big Book had just been published when the convention met (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill's book A.A. Comes of Age (1957) is his own record of the three days.

Where the account comes from

There is no Big Book page on St. Louis. The Foreword to the Second Edition, written the same year, gives the fellowship "as it was in 1955" (p. xv), "nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far above 150,000 recovered alcoholics" (p. xv), but doesn't mention the convention. The main source is A.A. Comes of Age (1957), whose first part is "a panoramic sketch of the historic St. Louis Convention" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), whose second part is Bill's three talks there, edited and enlarged, and whose third part prints the addresses of A.A.'s nonalcoholic friends (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill wrote it two years after, "to make sure that nobody misunderstood what had happened at St. Louis," as Pass It On (1984) puts it (Pass It On, 1984).

Why it was held: the founders' worry

The question in everyone's mind, Bill writes, was what would happen when the founders and old-timers had gone: "Would A.A. now be able to take over from the old-timers, from Dr. Bob and from Bill? If so, by what agency, and just how?" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). In the early years, he said at the convention, he, Dr. Bob and their friends had been "self-appointed guardians" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), "a sort of a double-headed papacy and a college of cardinals" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), and such a hierarchy "must somehow be connected with the great sea of democracy all about it" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

The answer had been worked out over the previous five years. In 1950 the trustees authorized Dr. Bob and Bill to devise the plan for a General Service Conference of delegates from the U.S. and Canada (P-44). It first met in April 1951 for a five-year trial (P-44; A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). By 1955 Bill thought it had proved itself. P-44 notes that the Conference meets each April in New York, "Except for 1955 Conference held in St. Louis, Missouri." (P-44). See: What happened at the 1950 Cleveland convention?

The three days

Bill's account, walked through in order:

  • Friday to Sunday, July 1–3. Sessions on A.A. in industry, in prisons and mental hospitals, clubs, intergroup offices, money, loners, how to start a group, the Grapevine, and the New York headquarters staff (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). On money, Bill reports, the meeting rejected the idea that keeping A.A. "simple" meant cutting services that cost money (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). There was a medical panel (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), and Al-Anon Family Group meetings that many A.A.'s found "among the biggest eye-openers of the Convention" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • Bill's three talks. Pass It On gives their titles: Friday evening "How We Learned to Recover," Saturday evening "How We Learned to Stay Together," and the third, on Service, How We Learned to Serve (Pass It On, 1984). In A.A. Comes of Age they became the chapters on Recovery, Unity and Service (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • Sunday morning, "God as We Understand Him." Dr. Jim S. told of starting the first group among Black alcoholics (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); Father Ed Dowling of St. Louis and the Rev. Sam Shoemaker spoke (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Among the telegrams that came to the convention was one from President Eisenhower (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See: Who was Father Ed Dowling, and why is he in A.A.'s story?
  • Who was there. On the stage were the Conference, the trustees, staff, Lois W., and Bill's mother (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Ebby was there too, "my sponsor Ebby, who had first brought the word" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Dr. Bob had died in 1950; his son, his daughter, and A.A. number four were there, and A.A. number three was represented by his widow (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See: Who was the old school friend in "Bill's Story" (Ebby)?

Four o'clock Sunday afternoon

Bernard Smith, chairman of the trustees, opened the Conference's last session and asked Bill to read the resolution (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Before reading it, Bill said: "We stand on the brink of a momentous decision." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The resolution, in the words of the text printed in the book:

  • The members of the convention "declare our belief that our Fellowship has now come of age and is entirely ready to assume full and permanent possession of the Three Legacies" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • As of July 3rd, 1955, the General Service Conference was to be "the guardian of the Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), the perpetuator of its world services, the voice of the group conscience of the whole fellowship, and the sole successor to Dr. Bob and Bill (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • Neither the Twelve Traditions nor the warranties of Article XII of the Conference Charter were to be changed without first asking the registered groups of the world, allowing at least six months, and receiving the written consent of at least three-quarters of the groups that respond (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • The Conference bound itself never to become "the seat of perilous wealth or power" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957) and never to make laws binding on A.A. or any group or member (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

The convention carried it by acclamation, and the Conference confirmed it by a show of hands: "A simple show of hands expressed the consent of the Conference and marked the exact moment when A.A. came of age. It was four o'clock." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The minutes printed in the book record the motion as carried unanimously (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The Concepts, written later (1962), refer back to it: in 1955 the groups "confirmed the permanent charter for their General Service Conference" (P-16, 2018, printing Concept Two). See: What are A.A.'s Three Legacies?

What Bill and Lois said at the end

Lois spoke for the families (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See: Who was Lois W., and what did she do in A.A.'s beginning?

Bill spoke last. He likened the moment to parents letting grown children go: "No more would I act for, decide for, or protect Alcoholics Anonymous." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He told the convention that he and Lois were "trying not to overstay our time" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He then gave what he called admonitions (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957): that if A.A. ever had a grievous problem "it will center about false pride and anger" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); that A.A. must never suppose it had invented a new religion, since its principles were borrowed from ancient sources (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); that it is not a cure-all, even for alcoholism (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); and that "Our society, therefore, will prudently cleave to its single purpose: the carrying of the message to the alcoholic who still suffers." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

His summary of what it meant for him is the line quoted at the top: "Clearly my job henceforth was to let go and let God. Alcoholics Anonymous was at last safe—even from me." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). P-44 ends Bill's account of the Conference's first years (through the renaming of the Foundation as the General Service Board) with nearly the same words: "I became entirely sure that Alcoholics Anonymous was at last safe — even from me." (P-44). See: Is "let go and let God" in the Big Book?

The Big Book's second edition

At the convention Bill told the members: "Everyone here at St. Louis knows that we have just published the second edition of the book" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). It enlarged the story section, but "of course the old familiar text of the book stands unchanged" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He reported on the twenty-eight first-edition story writers: twenty-three had recovered, and fifteen had never relapsed (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The edition's new foreword is dated by its own first line to 1955 (p. xv). See: What changed between the four editions of the Big Book?

What came after (later accounts)

Pass It On (1984) says that this time Bill "seems to have met with no opposition to his plan for letting go" (Pass It On, 1984), and that after 1955 "the depression that had plagued him for so long lifted" (Pass It On, 1984). It calls St. Louis "another centrally located city" that, for Bill personally, had the added advantage of being Father Dowling's home city (Pass It On, 1984). A.A. Comes of Age itself was published in October 1957 (A.A. Comes of Age, the reprint's chronology). The chronology in our reprint appears to list, for 1956 (its columns are scrambled in this copy), the creation of a Public Information Committee to take over the public relations Bill had handled (A.A. Comes of Age).

Where the sources differ, or don't settle it

  • How many members A.A. had. The 1955 Foreword says nearly 6,000 groups and "far above 150,000" members (p. xv). A.A. Comes of Age, written in 1957, says more than 7,000 groups and over 200,000 members (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), with a note that the figures are as of 1957. Pass It On gives 131,619 members in 1955 (Pass It On, 1984; its group count is illegible in our copy).
  • How many people were in the hall. Bill gives "about 5,000" at the final session (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Our sources have no attendance figure from any other source.
  • "Mr. Grassroots." Several pages of Bill's account are told by "Mr. Grassroots" of "Centerville, U.S.A." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill says he is "a sort of composite character" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), "our created character" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), not a real person, so his words are Bill's picture of the convention's mood, not a member's testimony.
  • What the Conference received. In 1955 the Conference took over the guardianship of the Traditions and the world services. The Big Book's 1955 Foreword says the Traditions had already been "confirmed by our first International Conference held at Cleveland" in 1950 (p. xix); St. Louis handed their keeping to the Conference, it did not adopt them.

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
Alcoholics Anonymous, Foreword to the Second Edition xv, xix 1955
P-44, A.A.'s Legacy of Service (Bill W.) — around 1955; pamphlet © 2018
P-16, The A.A. Group (Concept Two) — Concepts 1962; pamphlet © 2018
A.A. Comes of Age (Bill W.; the resolution and the closing talks) — 1957 ( is a later reprint's chronology)
Pass It On — 1984

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). A.A. Comes of Age and Pass It On are cited by the file-page markers in our copies (f.), not printed pages.

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, P-16, P-44, A.A. Comes of Age and Pass It On are © A.A. World Services, Inc.

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.