BALTIMORE (AP) — A museum director is defending his decision to disinvite a civil rights leader to a panel discussion after she questioned the inclusion of a former Black Panther who killed a Baltimore policeman.

WJZ-TV reports (http://cbsloc.al/1thqXAM ) that Skipp Sanders, director of the state-subsidized Museum of Maryland African American History, said the panel and coinciding portrait exhibit were meant to explore both the militant and the nonviolent sides of the civil rights movement. So he believed it was appropriate to include Eddie Conway, who spent 44 years in prison for killing the policeman.

Helena Hicks, a leader in the sit-in efforts to desegregate Baltimore’s lunch counters, said it was wrong to include Conway.

Sanders said Thursday he disinvited Hicks to Wednesday’s panel discussion because he thought she would be disrespectful to Conway.

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Information from: WJZ-TV, http://www.wjz.com/

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