By 1975, there were a fair number of black graduates of the University of Michigan Business School’s BBA, MBA, and Ph.D. programs. At the time, the students of the BBSA decided that there was a need to organize an event to bring black alumni of the business school back to campus in order to share their experiences, knowledge, and insight with current students. A secondary goal was to provide a forum for alumni and students to network amongst themselves. Lastly, the conference would be a time when the outstanding business achievements of the many successful alumni could be recognized. Accordingly, the BBSA organized its first Annual Conference and Alumni Weekend in March 1976.
Over the past thirty years, the BBSA Annual Conference and Alumni Weekend has grown from its initial fifteen participants to several hundred annually, making it one of the most outstanding student-run business school alumni conferences in the nation.