The long list of demands by groups calling for a boycott of Cincinnati is unlike most others in the history of the U.S. civil rights movement.

        While previous well-known boycotts have sought single and sometimes symbolic concessions, the Cincinnati boycott seeks a variety of remedies.

Juleana Frierson

        They include a complete reform of the way council members are elected, amnesty for rioters, and millions of dollars for inner-city development projects and programs to benefit African-Americans.

        Critics say the sheer number of demands — made by two main boycott groups with overlapping areas of concern — makes it unlikely that the city could ever completely resolve the issues.

        And even some civil rights leaders inclined to support the boycott's goals say the list of demands is too long to be effective.

        “I would agree that the list is very, very long, and it makes it very, very difficult for the community to get behind the demands and support them,” said Norma Holt Davis. She is president of the Cincinnati chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the aunt of the main boycott leader, the Rev. Damon Lynch III.

        “There has to be a light at the end of the tunnel, so that we can see where we're going,” she said.

        The first demands emerged in July, three months after the police shooting of an African-American man in Over-the-Rhine sparked protests and rioting. But the boycott movement was mostly dormant through the fall's city election campaign and the acquittal of the officer involved in the April shooting.

        The boycott gained new life last month when comedian Bill Cosby canceled a show here, and the boycott's “Artists of Conscience” campaign is targeting other big-name performers and conventions as a way to bring attention to their cause.

        Mayor Charlie Luken has said he will not negotiate demands with boycotters. But even if he wanted to, he said, he wouldn't know where to begin.

        “Depending on what Web site you look at, there are 300 or 400 demands,” he said.

        Enquirer research shows there are about 30 — a number which has changed over the last eight months as boycott groups have dropped some demands and added new ones.

        Most of the demands have similar themes. Boycotters want accountability in the Cincinnati Police Department, “economic inclusion” of African-Americans in the city's budgetary and development decisions, civil rights and election reform.

        But beyond those generalities, the boycott demands are often vague, sometimes confusing and, in some cases, elusive.

        When city officials presented evidence last week that they had spent $2.3 million on work-force development through the Citizens Committee for Youth — more than the boycott demand of $2 million — boycott leaders said it wasn't enough.

        “What we're saying is, it needs to be $2 million annually,” said Juleana Frierson, the Black United Front's chief of staff. “Because as soon as we turn off the heat, things are going to go right back to the way they were.”

        The demands aren't aimed only at the city. Many deal with issues under the jurisdiction of the Cincinnati Board of Education, the Hamilton County Commissioners, the Ohio General Assembly, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

        Even on those issues, boycotters say they want action from the city — if only in the form of a resolution from City Council calling for a federal investigation of specific police officers.

        Within the boycott movement, there are differences on the demands and how they will be negotiated.

        The Black United Front, for example, continues to demand amnesty for people arrested and convicted in last April's “rebellion.”

        “A lot of the charges against our youth were trumped up charges, and we're not going to abandon our youth,” said Ms. Frierson .

        But the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati, led by the Rev. James W. Jones, sees amnesty as a non-issue that gives Mr. Luken a convenient excuse not to take the boycott seriously.

        Like Mr. Luken, some boycotters also see little use for negotiations.

        “Until a "living wage' ordinance is passed, and until 10,000 jobs appear, there will be no need to talk, or for negotiations,” the Rev. Stephen Scott told 500 supporters at a “Sanctions Summit” last week.

        The Rev. Mr. Lynch, pastor of the New Prospect Baptist Church in Over-the-Rhine and leader of the Black United Front, spoke of the history of boycotts as a means of “social, non-violent change.”

        He cited examples of boycotts in Montgomery, Ala., Arizona and South Carolina. All those boycotts had a single, narrowly defined demand: end segregation in the bus system, acknowledge a Martin Luther King Day holiday, take the Confederate flag down from the Statehouse.

        But the Rev. Mr. Lynch also cites the tourism boycott of Miami, Fla., which began when the mayor snubbed Nelson Mandela because of Mr. Mandela's support for Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

        That boycott, too, began with one demand: that Mayor Xavier Suarez welcome the South African leader with a proclamation and a key to the city.

        Mr. Suarez refused, and the boycott snowballed. Miami boycotters developed a growing list of demands, including an investigation into police treatment of Haitian protesters, a federal review of Haitian immigration policy, and single-member voting districts in Dade County.

        They also demanded, and received, promises of set-asides for African-American contractors, scholarships for African-American youth, and city support for an African-American-owned hotel.

        The Miami boycott ended in 1993 after secret negotiations, though Mr. Suarez never fully apologized for snubbing Mr. Mandela.

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