Prophets and peacemakers
When racial unrest erupted in Cincinnati in April, African-American ministers were caught between being prophets and peacemakers. They clashed at times not only with city authorities but with members of their own communities.
On the second day of rioting, black clergy intervened to keep a group of angry protesters from entering the downtown business district, where widespread looting and vandalism had wreaked havoc a day earlier. For this action, the clergy, many of them veterans of the civil rights movement, found themselves vilified by protesters as tools of the establishment.