A Cincinnati social services agency has reversed its decision to honor the boycott of Cincinnati.

        The Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency is expected to announce today that it will hold its annual dinner at the Westin Cincinnati Hotel in spite of the boycott.

        Councilwoman Minette Cooper, a member of the agency's board, said she was informed of the decision Tuesday.

        Board Chairwoman Judith Warren refused to comment on the reversal, saying she hadn't planned to announce the decision until today. “We're still ironing out the details,” she said.

        Ms. Cooper said the agency's executive board reached the decision over the weekend, following the resignation of Nathaniel Jones, the retired federal appeals court judge, from the agency's foundation board last week. Judge Jones said he “could not be part of an organization that would capitulate” to threats and intimidation by boycott groups.

        Judge Jones said Tuesday night that he had not been informed of any change in the board's decision. He would not comment further beyond what he wrote in his letter to the board last week: “My decision will remain so long as the CAA adheres to its decision to bow to the threats of those who, without legitimate cause, demand that the dinner be moved from downtown Cincinnati.”

        The two major boycott groups, the Cincinnati Black United Front and the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati, are urging conventions, entertainers and other groups to stay away to pressure the city to enact a list of demands — a list that at last count stood at 30.

        Tyrone K. Yates, a Democratic candidate for state representative who served on the board when he was a city councilman, also stepped up the pressure over the weekend.

        He said the agency's decision to honor the boycott “lacks courage and common sense,” and would likely put the agency under unwanted scrutiny from donors about why its board engaged in boycott politics.

        The agency gets more than $24.7 million in federal and state funding to run programs like Head Start and the Home Weatherization Assistance Program.

        Judge Jones was honorary co-chairman of the campaign to build a new West End learning center to be named after Theodore Berry, the city's first black mayor who died in 2000.

        Ms. Cooper said several donors had said they would withhold contributions if the agency didn't reverse its decision. She did not name those donors, but said they represented more than $1 million in gifts.

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