By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

To the outside world, the 22-month-old boycott of downtown Cincinnati might appear to be one black united front with enough influence to persuade big-name entertainers and conventions not to visit the city. But inside the movement, the solidarity seems to have cracked.

In the past week, Victoria Straughn and Juleana Frierson - principals in the Cincinnati Boycott Council - have taken out court-issued anti-stalking orders against Nate Livingston and other members of the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati, saying they fear for their safety.

The orders prohibit Livingston and the others from entering the building, grounds or parking lots around the home, school, business or place of employment of Straughn or Frierson and their families. The orders also prohibit them from harming, harassing, threatening or even contacting the two women.

The court filings are just the latest in an increasing number of public squabbles that have exposed the fractured and sometimes volatile relationship that exists among leaders of the groups supporting a boycott. The move also raises questions about the stability of a movement that is trying to garner national support.

"We've been forced into taking out these orders," Frierson said. "And I really resent having to take the time out to deal with this because it takes the focus off of what we are supposed to be doing - seeking justice."

According to Straughn, members of the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati "have been becoming more and more aggressive in their behavior toward us."

"They are trying to taunt us into a physical confrontation," she said. "If they cannot discredit our character or our work, then they want to egg us into some kind of confrontation."

On May 10, Straughn's group, Concerned Citizens for Justice, invited Ava Muhammad of the Nation of Islam to speak at New Friendship Baptist Church in Avondale. Several members of the Coalition for a Just Cincinnati protested that the event violated the boycott.

About an hour into the protest, Amanda Mayes, co-chair of the coalition, got into a scuffle with the mother of another boycott activist. Shortly after that altercation, Livingston, who co-chairs the coalition, tussled with a different woman.

The woman struck Livingston in the forehead with a shoe. Police were called, but no arrests were made. Livingston said police took his statement and photographs of his bleeding forehead.

Straughn filed for an anti-stalking order against Livingston a few days later.

"I don't know what their end game is, but all we are asking for is it to stop," Straughn said.

Frierson, chief of staff for the Cincinnati Black United Front and until recently a participant in the collaborative agreement to address police-community issues, filed a similar complaint against Livingston, Mayes and several others. Frierson accused them of harassing her at a recent boycott event by shaking her car and pounding on the windows, trunk and hood as she drove away.

Livingston called the court filings "ridiculous" and "hilarious." He said if anyone should be filing court documents, it should be him for getting slapped in the head with a shoe.

"Whatever the accusations are, I know they are false," he said. "I guarantee whatever options I have for addressing the filing of a false complaint, I'm going to pursue."

Coalition members claim the Black United Front and other groups were attempting to "sell out the movement" by consolidating their demands to end the boycott.

The coalition tried to protest at last week's public hearing against racial discrimination at the University of Cincinnati, conducted by the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based legal and human rights group. However, the protection orders taken out by Frierson and Straughn stopped the demonstration, and protesters were asked to leave.

Why the bad blood?

"It's simple: We don't trust the Black United Front," Livingston said.

Straughn said she regrets that the disputes have gone public.

"We had hoped to keep this in-house," Straughn said. "We are trying our best to take the legal route to deal with these individuals."

E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com