Tourney Moved in Protest of Wilson Policy

Organizers of a prestigious African American golf and tennis tournament that was to be held near Palm Springs will move the event to Florida to protest recent attacks on affirmative action in California by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Black Enterprise magazine Publisher Earl G. Graves announced the move of the Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf and Tennis Challenge at a Los Angeles news conference Tuesday.

Graves said moving the tournament from the La Quinta Hotel and Resort to the Doral Resort and Country Club in Miami expresses the magazine’s opposition to a proposed ballot initiative that would forbid the state government to consider race, sex or ethnicity in hiring or contracting, as well as a July vote by the University of California Board of Regents to abolish race-based admissions, hiring and contracting. Both the proposed ballot measure and the regents’ vote were backed by Wilson.

The tournament, which will be held over the Labor Day weekend, typically draws a diverse group of prominent African Americans, including professional basketball player Moses Malone and former New York Mayor David Dinkins.