Saying the racial climate in Cincinnati is growing worse, the Progressive National Baptist Convention announced Saturday it is pulling its 10,000-member session out of Cincinnati this summer.

        “It's unfortunate, but there just is no indication the city is serious about addressing the issues of racial justice this city faces,” said the Rev. Otis Moss, a member of the African-American church's executive committee.

Moss

        The church's decision to go elsewhere for its annual session in August — it will announce a new site within two weeks — is a major victory for the Black United Front and the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati, the groups organizing the boycott of downtown businesses.

        The Rev. Damon Lynch III, president of the Black United Front, said he agrees that the climate in Cincinnati “is not conducive for their people to come here.”

        “They have seen first-hand that the city hasn't been willing to make substantive change and they don't want to bring people here to be exposed to this kind of climate,” the Rev. Mr. Lynch said.

        “I applaud them for that.”

        Mayor Charlie Luken said the city did “everything we could to keep them here.”

        “We want to be friendly; we want to welcome people, but we can't let every group that is coming run the city,” Mr. Luken said.

        The loss of the weeklong convention, with more than 10,000 Progressive National Baptists from around the country attending, will mean the loss of millions to Cincinnati businesses.

        In addition to the cancellation of concerts by entertainers Bill Cosby, Wynton Marsalis and others, the boycott has cost the city the planned 2005 convention of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, a union representing 37,000 government employees.

        But the decision by the Progressive National Baptist Convention, which represents about 2.5 million church members worldwide, is ironic in that the group was born in Cincinnati.

        It was founded here in 1961 by the Rev. L. Venchael Booth, the father of Cincinnati Councilman Paul Booth.

        “It saddens me that the convention that started here can't come back. But I understand the decision,” the Rev. Mr. Booth said.

        In a statement released Saturday night, Progressive National Baptist leaders said they will consider coming back to Cincinnati “if the hostile racial climate in Cincinnati is resolved and economic parity for the African-American community is attained.”

        The Rev. Mr. Moss, a Cleveland minister who once pastored a Baptist church in Woodlawn, said a meeting in February with city leaders to discuss the Progressive Baptists' concerns about race relations in Cincinnati produced little of substance.

        The Rev. Mr. Moss — who announced the pullout at a dinner honoring his friend, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth — said the convention had asked city officials to take seven actions to keep the annual session here. Among them:

        • Negotiate immediately with black leaders.

        • Implement all the recommendations for reforming the Cincinnati Police made by the U.S. Justice Department.

        • Lift the curfew this summer so young people could participate in convention events.

        • Organize a “Freedom, Justice and Reconciliation Summer 2002” program.

        “The only thing they were willing to talk about was the curfew, and that was inconclusive,” the Rev. Mr. Moss said.

        Martin Luther King III, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said his group supports the boycott.

        Mr. King, who attended the Rev. Mr. Shuttlesworth's dinner, said his group has a database of 5,000 organizations that are sympathetic to racial issues in Cincinnati. He said his group is prepared to send letters asking those organizations not to come to Cincinnati until substantial change takes place.

        Mr. Luken said city council agreed to push back the teen curfew in Cincinnati from 10 to 11 p.m. but could not agree to “unconditional negotiations” with the boycott groups.

        “We have to keep control of city government,” Mr. Luken said.

        Vice Mayor Alicia Reece called the Progressive National Baptist decision “unfortunate.”

        “I've worked as much as I possibly could to keep this convention in town,” Ms. Reece said. “We still have more people who haven't canceled than have.”

       Enquirer reporter Kevin Aldridge contributed.
       

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