Donor Pressure Forces Senator to Decline Charity’s Honor

Sen. George Allen, Republican of Virginia, said Thursday he will decline to accept an award from the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, a group in New York that supports higher education for black Americans, after several donors to the charity said they would withhold contributions if Mr. Allen received the prize, reports The Washington Post.

The fund chose Mr. Allen, who was criticized recently for making remarks that some people called racially insensitive, for his support of historically black colleges and universities.

The senator, who is in the midst of a re-election campaign, said that to avoid harming the fund, he would not accept the award.