Federated Department Stores Inc., one of the Cincinnati NAACP's biggest corporate sponsors, said Thursday that it would stick by the civil rights organization despite the decision to move its major fund-raiser out of downtown to respect a boycott.

        Norma Holt Davis, president of the local NAACP, had expressed concern about attendance and corporate sponsorship after pulling the 47th annual Freedom Fund Dinner out of the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown. NAACP officials wondered whether businesses that have fought to end the boycott and support downtown would open their pocketbooks in support of the dinner, which is in search of a new location.

        Mrs. Davis said the NAACP plans to ask corporations that have already made $60-per-person reservations if they still want to attend the October banquet. The annual Freedom Fund Dinner typically draws about 1,100 guests and in the past has received financial contributions from downtown corporations such as Procter & Gamble, Federated Department Stores and Fifth-Third Bank.

        “We have a duty to go back to those folks who have already paid and see if they are still willing to support us,” Mrs. Davis said. “We are concerned about backlash, but we have a responsibility to our sponsors. We hope that at least 90 percent of them will say we support you no matter what.”

        At least one longtime corporate sponsor already has.

        “We will be sticking by the NAACP,” said Carol Sanger, a spokeswoman for Federated Department Stores. “It is the event and what the NAACP stand for that we are supporting, not the location of the event.”

        A spokesman for Procter & Gamble said Thursday the company has not made a decision on whether it will sponsor the dinner again this year. Whether the NAACP's decision will play a factor in the final decision is unknown.

        Michael Fisher, president of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, said many of the city's leading companies have long admired and supported the NAACP's mission of promoting equality and progress.

        “As a business community, we would hope that kind of support continues,” Mr. Fisher said.

        Local NAACP officials voted Wednesday to hold their annual dinner at a site outside downtown after receiving a call from national President Kweisi Mfume. He strongly encouraged the local group to “share the organization's policy on boycotts.” That policy, according to a statement issued by the Cincinnati NAACP branch, is to honor “boycotts led by companion civil rights organizations.”

        A year ago, three grassroots organizations called for a boycott that asked conventions, tourists and entertainers to avoid visiting or spending money downtown. Members of these groups claimed the local NAACP was threatening to violate their boycott by having its fund-raiser at the Hyatt.

        The hotel has played host to the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner for the past eight years, including last year following the April riots.

        Mrs. Davis said the decision to move the fund-raiser was not easily reached. In fact, she said if it had been left up to the local chapter alone, the event might have remained downtown.

        “It has not been a great past 24 hours,” Mrs. Davis said. “I think there will be people who see us as having capitulated, but I don't think they will see it as an endorsement of the boycott. A real concern for us is that we have 900 to 1,100 people who usually come, but in the face of all this negativity we may not have that many people this year.”

        Mayor Charlie Luken said it's unfortunate that Mr. Mfume chose to honor the boycott without first considering what he termed the positive strides Cincinnati has made in the past year. Mr. Luken said he sent a letter and a copy of the city's collaborative agreement with the Department of Justice to Mr. Mfume earlier this month to update him on the city's progress.

        The mayor said he never got a response. “He never contacted me or expressed any interest in what was happening here,” Mr. Luken said. “All we can do is the right thing. We just have to continue to try to make positive change.”

        Councilman Paul Booth, a former president of the Cincinnati branch of the NAACP, said the national NAACP's stance comes as no surprise, given that the organization is conducting its own boycott in South Carolina. Mr. Booth said he believes the local NAACP was faced with a no-win scenario.

        “If they don't honor the boycott, they will alienate part of their constituency. And if they do honor the boycott, they will alienate another part of their constituency. It's a double-edged sword,” Mr. Booth said.

        Earlier Thursday, Mrs. Davis discussed the decision to move the dinner on WDBZ 1230-AM. During an interview with talk-show host Lincoln Ware she detailed how protesters demonstrating in front of the NAACP's Reading Road offices forced their way into the executive board meeting, breaking the front door and beating on walls.

        Mrs. Davis compared the behavior of protesters, many of whom she said were adults, to that of the dozen or more youths who beat up civilians and destroyed property downtown following last weekend's Black Family Reunion.

        “I was furious at the thuggish nature of what happened,” she said.

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