Barack Obama is the nation's first black President, but maintains that the racial divide in this county is "deeply rooted." A recent Bloomsberg Politics poll bears him out. According to the study, 89 percent of black Americans strongly disagree with a Ferguson, Mo., grand jury report that refused to charge a white police officer with killing an unarmed black teenager. Yet 64 percent of white Americans believe it was the right call. Some NFL football players now come onto the gridiron with their hands raised. But in the Christmas City, a tiny spark of hope was ignited on Sunday.

The NAACP and mostly black preachers joined hands with blacks and whites, including Bethlehem Police Chief Mark DiLuzio, to pray for peace and justice.

The prayer vigil, held at Bethlehem's Payrow Plaza, was organized by Bethlehem NAACP President Esther Lee. She led a group of about sixty people, and ticked off several recent examples besides Ferguson. These include 12 year old Tamir Rice, who was shot and killed by police after pranking people in a Cleveland park with an airsoft toy gun. They include 43-year-old Eric Garner, who was placed in a fatal chokehold by New York City police for selling illegal cigarettes. They include 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, shot by a Neighborhood Watch volunteer after going to the store for skittles and ice tea.

What these victims all have in common, Lee implied, is the color of their skin.

On one extreme is Esther Lee, who rhetorically asks whether it is "the intention of our system to eliminate black males and our culture through genocide?" On the other side are anonymous police officers at Police One, an Internet site for police officers, who have made racist remarks.

Somewhere in the middle is everyone else, including Bethlehem Police Chief Mark DiLuzio.

"I've known Esther for years," the chief said of the always-outspoken Lee. "I know her commitment to the city and the people who live her."

He then pointed to a young man running with a sign that says "Pray for Peace and Justice."

"I think that's what everyone wants," he said, before holding hands with a black woman standing beside him during prayer.

He defended police officers.

"All they want to do is their job and come home to their family like everyone else," he said, but he agreed that something's wrong.

"We need to figure out what the hell went wrong and discuss it," he added.

DiLuzio believes there are numerous issues, from poverty to a lack of education.

"We need to be honest," he concluded.

Wearing a black "Man of God" baseball hat, Second Baptist Church Pastor Edward Thompson spoke of Billie Holiday's song about lynchings in the deep South, called "Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees."

But he asked God to bless the policeman.

"Help him understand young people," Thompson prayed. "Help us to stop killing one another."

The Rev. Paul Watson, who grew up in Bethlehem but is Senior Pastor at New Christian Harvest Church in Whitehall, brought several young men with him and directed some remarks to DiLuzio.

"We will not tolerate injustice in our cities by excessive force from police officers," he said. "We cannot allow things like that to happen. We don't want it here."

But then he implored the crowd to police their own children.

"Ask your kids the questions," he said. "Are thy being bullied? Are they doing their homework?"

"I don't know why people are afraid of black folk," Lee said as the vigil ended. "It's worse now than ever."