ST. LOUIS -- Nearly 10,000 members of the Progressive National Baptist Convention (PNBC) will head to St. Louis this summer for the group's annual meeting, according to the Kansas City Star. The African-American group decided this month to pull the convention from Cincinnati, where it was founded, citing racial tensions.

The Convention, which has 2.5 million members, will bring millions of dollars in business to the St. Louis area during the Aug. 5-9 gathering at the Americas' Center, according to PNBC officials. Black activists have called for an economic boycott of Cincinnati, claiming racial tensions still exist following the April 2001 riots that broke out after a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black man as he ran from police.

PNBC, now based in Washington, D.C., had planned for several years to hold this year's convention in Cincinnati, but switched the meeting site to St. Louis just months before the annual gathering. If racial tensions improve, the convention would consider Cincinnati again, PNBC officials said.

A primary concern for PNBC officials was downtown Cincincinnati's youth curfew. City officials declined to adjust the curfew for those youth attending the PNBC conference, according to a PNBC press release detailing its decision to find another conference site.

Social issues have dominated the convention agenda since it was formed in 1961. The primary issue in the 1960s was the civil rights movement and the group's support of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. In recent years, the agenda has included discussions on AIDS, drug abuse, the prison system, and racial discrimination.