The Cincinnati branch of the NAACP will hold its annual Freedom Fund Dinner at a site outside downtown after receiving a call from national President Kweisi Mfume, encouraging the local group to “share the organization's policy on boycotts.”

William Kirkland of Bond Hill protests at the NAACP's offices Wednesday. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        That policy, according to a statement issued by the Cincinnati NAACP branch, is to honor “boycotts led by companion civil rights organizations.”

        While about 20 demonstrators paraded outside the meeting Wednesday night, the executive board voted to switch sites, according to Norma Holt Davis, president of the Cincinnati branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

        Ms. Davis has come under fire in recent weeks from groups promoting a boycott of the city. Boycott leaders have accused Ms. Davis of trying to violate the boycott by earlier refusing to move the October dinner from the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown.

        “The NAACP should have done this a long time ago,” said Michael Riley, a former Cincinnati City Council candidate who joined protestors Wednesday outside the NAACP offices in Bond Hill. “The NAACP should have been the first one on the side of the boycott.”

        The Cincinnati NAACP chapter was invited to join the downtown boycott last year. But the NAACP had declined to join the boycott or publicly take a position on it.

        Members of the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati, a boycott group, met Monday with Ms. Davis and other officers to request that the dinner be moved. Ms. Davis declined then, saying the decision did not oppose the boycott.

        Coalition member Nathaniel Livingston Jr. said his group is pleased with the decision to move the event.

        “I think it is the correct thing to do,” he said. “I'm sad that it took pressure and protest to change the decision.”

        Many of the protestors carried Confederate flags Wednesday as symbols of what they perceived as the NAACP's inconsistent position on the boycott of the city.

        The national organization is boycotting South Carolina for its continued use of the Confederate flag, which many blacks view as a symbol of racism.

        “The national organization is protesting the Confederate flag, and we're dealing with the same issues the flag represents, but the NAACP still wants to hold a dinner here. What kind of hypocrisy is that?” asked Amanda Mayes, co-chair of the coalition.

        Ms. Holt Davis would not say that the local group's decision to pull its 47th Annual Freedom Fund dinner out of downtown was an endorsement of the boycott.

        Neither would she concede that the decision not to hold the event as planned was influenced by protests from boycott groups, including the Cincinnati Black United Front and others.

        “The consultation was with our national organization,” Ms. Davis replied when asked if the protestors were a factor in the branch's decision to move the dinner out of downtown.

        A new site for the dinner has not been selected.

Cents of balance, or penny-ante rule?
Ben-Mar partner accused of hiding home fixtures
Deaths pile up along I-75 in N.Ky.
Ft. Thomas schools weigh hefty tax hike
NAACP changes plans for dinner
Elementary school, college link up
Evelyn Hampton, 94, helped church lift every voice
Grand jury testimony in Twitty case starts Monday
Investors told: Think regionally
Let us know about 9-11 ceremonies in Tristate
Norwood may have to vote again on city levy
Reading voters dodge tax
Tristate A.M. Report
Area man tested for West Nile virus
HOWARD: Some Good News
PULFER: James Levine
RADEL: Immigrant prejudice
Businessman may change guilty plea
Fairfield council OKs community center deal
High-growth Deerfield Twp. could grow some trustees
Schools tighten budget
Talawanda scales back levy, building plans
Counties must spend less on welfare-to-work
Ex-professor blames lover for child porn
GOP lawmakers working to put limits on jury awards
Hagan: No money for TV ads in gov. race
Lawmaker wants to put stop to double-dip
Mother of sunburned children released from jail
Ohio Dems split on gambling
Shroud of Turin tests are flawed, say researchers
Erlanger's new $7M library nearly ready
Robber uses ransom ruse