Civil rights group to move its convention from KC
By DEANN SMITH and GLENN E. RICE

A national civil rights organization co-founded by Martin Luther King Jr. is pulling its 2008 national convention from Kansas City to protest decisions by the mayor.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference thinks Mayor Mark Funkhouser showed racial insensitivity when he appointed a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps to the park board and when he tried to oust City Manager Wayne Cauthen, an African-American, without consulting with the City Council.

Local SCLC members also have criticized Funkhouser and his wife, who allegedly called a mayoral aide “Mammy.â€