Civil Rights Group Blasts Regents’ Decision : Minorities: Leader of National Urban League criticizes UC policy reversal on affirmative action. It has already canceled ’96 convention in Los Angeles.

The president of the National Urban League on Sunday blasted the UC regents’ vote to end affirmative action as a “regressive decision” particularly hurtful to African Americans and defended his group’s decision to pull next year’s convention out of Los Angeles.

“What on earth can California Gov. Pete Wilson and his Board of Regents be thinking?” asked Hugh B. Price as he delivered the keynote address to about 4,000 delegates meeting here.

“How can his state prosper if its universities are prevented by the ban on affirmative action from educating academically qualified Latinos” and other minorities, he asked.

“The bottom line for me is that no urbanized and multiethnic society like ours can be competitive and cohesive if it isn’t compassionate and inclusive as well,” he said.

The National Urban League, one of the nation’s largest civil rights organizations, announced last month after Wilson signed an executive order abolishing a number of the state’s affirmative action programs that it would not meet in Los Angeles as planned next summer. The cancellation could mean a loss of up to $10 million in convention-related business.

Delegates from 113 cities are attending the four-day convention in Miami to share information and listen to debates on crime, education, drugs and the media and their effects on urban youth, the theme of this year’s convention. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) is to address the group Wednesday.

“We want to transmit a clear signal to California’s tourism industry . . . that their governor’s opposition to affirmative action and thus his indifference to the inclusion of women and minorities in the California mainstream is simply unacceptable,” Price said.

Since the Republican gains in November’s congressional elections, a conservative assault has been waged on affirmative action, and it escalated as a political fight as Wilson, a GOP presidential candidate, pushed the vote last week. But Price indicated it is early in the political war.

Price said he realizes that moving his group’s 86th annual convention out of California next year “admittedly hurts minority workers and firms in the short term.”

“But our constituents and the entire state will be far worse off over the long haul if thousands of our young people who are qualified and can do the work are denied admission to the University of California system,” he said.

Price lamented the widening gap between the “haves and have-nots” in the United States and urged renewed commitment to building urban communities.

While ruling out quotas, Price advocated a program in which “gender or race needn’t be the deciding factors, but they definitely should be among the criteria.”

“We must make America work for all Americans, and not just white Americans,” he said.

As delegates left the convention hall after the address, many supported Price’s call for recommitment to affirmative action.

Joanna Tokley of Tampa, Fla., said she credits the policy for her son’s success at UCLA. Her son, Tyrone Granderson Jones of Los Angeles, now has a master’s in drama, she said. “I doubt very seriously if he could have gotten into school out there without affirmative action,” Tokley said.

Gretchen Hunter, also of Tampa, said: “If we wanted to find a way for this nation to self-destruct, doing away with affirmative action would be a good start.”

Other delegates echoed Price’s praise of President Clinton, who on Wednesday upheld the Administration’s support for the principle of increasing opportunities for women and minorities.

Price praised Clinton for “standing so tall and so strong on an issue that matters so very much to Americans. Some detractors say affirmative action doesn’t work. That’s nonsense.”

Price said that in 34 years, black enrollment at predominantly white colleges and universities has increased nearly tenfold, from 134,000 in 1961 to 1.2 million today.

“Affirmative action is being blamed for many ills,” said Dianna Green of Pittsburgh, Pa. “But the real issue is lack of opportunity. I’m glad that President Clinton and now Mr. Price have put the debate back on the platform where it should be.”