By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The son of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has asked the city and the Cincinnati Arts Consortium not to hold the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Dreamkeepers Award Breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown.

Martin Luther King III, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, wrote the arts consortium and e-mailed Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken in November "suggesting, requesting, even begging (them) to use every possible means to prevent such a planned event."

Mr. King said to hold an event that violates the nonviolent boycott called by local African-American civil rights groups is a "defilement" of his father's dream. Members of the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati and Cincinnati Black United Front contacted him about the event.

"Each January, over 125 nations around the world stop to pay homage to my father and to the ideals and principles for which he lived and died," said Mr. King. "I am therefore very troubled by communities or political leaders who use the occasion to divide rather than unite citizens around love and nonviolence, espoused by him.

"I am alarmed when a city would take a breakfast in my father's honor ... to violate the nonviolent boycott."

The annual breakfast is scheduled for Jan. 20. The breakfast traditionally kicks off the city's yearly King Day celebration, which includes a march through downtown and culminates with a program and speeches at Music Hall.

Mr. King made no request to discontinue the march or the program.

Sharon Hardin, executive director of the arts consortium, could not be reached for comment.

However, in an email to boycott leader Amanda Mayes, Ms. Hardin said "the decision to go forward is final."

She said the art consortium board discussed the boycott and the problems facing the city extensively, but decided they could not jeopardize the group's biggest fund raiser.

"Our community and the schools depend upon the Arts Consortium to deliver quality programs," she said in the email. "Without the financial support of our community, the ACC will not have programs to deliver."

Mr. King has been one of the staunchest national supporters of the Cincinnati boycott.

He has visited the city on at least three occasions since the April 2001 riots to speak against police brutality and economic injustice.

His organization, the SCLC, also presented the Rev. Damon Lynch III, president of the BUF, with the 2002 Rosa Parks Award for nonviolent action to combat discrimination or violence at its 44th annual convention in Cleveland last year.

E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com