Building Bridges in Black and Brown (B4) began in July of 1993 in San Antonio, Texas when Mr. Roberto Pina, Fr. Clarence Williams and Deacon Wyatt Jones began a series of inquiries into why Black and Hispanic\Latino people were not enjoying a closer and/or a more collegial understanding. In our society many of the ill visit their people, and why was there not an on-going conversation about their concerns between them. From these conversation at the Mexican American Cultural Center, the three decided to broaden this discussion. At the first Conference, which we held at the Mexican American Cultural Center, the focus of the conference was racism and how it affected the Black and Brown communities.

At that time the co-conveners of Pina, Williams and Jones planned to have four regional conferences to broaden the conversation. San Antonio, Texas would become the southern experience in a heavily Hispanic\Latino region. Deacon Jones volunteered to have the second in Detroit, Michigan a Midwestern city with a heavy Black population (1994). The third conference convened in Rochester, New York to experience other regional perspectives (1996). The East Coast represented a dialogue with a heavily Caribbean and Latin American presence. The fourth conference convened in Los Angeles, California and was reflective of the most highly concentrated populations of African-American and Hispanic/Latinos (1997).