[1] The society was formed in response to the perceived practice at the Modern Language Association's annual conference American Literature section of discussing only works by white men.

At the conference the following year (1974), society members formally proclaimed their demand, "We must expand the canon of American literature!"

At this time, the society's goals included the recovery of lost works by minority authors, the compilation of bibliographies of minority literature, and the enlisting of the aid of ethnic studies scholars in all fields, as well as publishing book reviews, connecting scholars, and printing abstracts on ethnic studies dissertations.

The founding editor-in-chief was Katharine D. Newman, who was succeeded by Joseph T. Skerrett, Jr., then by Veronica Makowsky, and, most recently, by Martha J.

These conferences feature "panels, workshops and round tables on all aspects of the multi-ethnic literatures of the United States".