By Kevin Aldridge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

After nearly two years of straddling the fence, the Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP will demand today that Mayor Charlie Luken settle the two-year-old boycott of downtown.

The civil rights organization will hold a 10 a.m. news conference where President Calvert Smith is expected to elaborate on the group's position.

"The NAACP believes that the citizens of Cincinnati are hurting, our great city has suffered financially, and the residents have lived under intense spiritual and social constraint because of the boycott for far too long," a statement issued Monday said. "It is time to cease fire."

In a dueling written statement, Luken said he agreed with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that the boycott should be over.

"The city has a record of accomplishments second to none in the country," the mayor said. "The boycott groups with their ever-changing and still incomplete list of demands have never acknowledged the great accomplishments we have made. ... Instead, one boycott group still threatens to intensify 'their' boycott if we so much as talk to the other group."

Over the past two years, the NAACP has been criticized by some African-Americans for remaining silent during some of the city's toughest times. Some said the NAACP had lost its relevance, taking a back seat on local civil rights issues to upstart, grass-roots groups such as the Cincinnati Black United Front.

But a leadership change in January appears to have triggered a change in the organization's attitude toward the boycott, which began in July 2001 and has deterred some entertainers, conventions and speakers from coming to Cincinnati.

The Rev. Damon Lynch III, president of the Cincinnati Black United Front, applauded the NAACP involvement.

Smith declined to comment Monday, saying he would make the NAACP's rationale in making this demand clear today.

Smith, who assumed the presidency in January, pledged the NAACP's support to the movement in the following statement made in April at a boycott summit:

"Whether we disagree with this movement or not, the bottom line is that if it is successful, we all (African-Americans) benefit," Smith said.

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E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com