National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Celebrates First Year
CINCINNATI
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center opened a year ago this month hoping to address freedom and diversity issues everywhere, not just in a city where the Black and White divide erupted in riots in 2001.
Officials expected about 260,000 visitors the first year. Instead, it drew 280,000 to become one of the city’s biggest attractions.
With an annual budget of more than $10 million, the Freedom Center’s ability to sustain itself has yet to be tested. Museums tend to get their biggest crowds when they’re new, said William Billingsley, executive director of the Association of African-American Museums, which has more than 240 member museums.
“There’s a wonderful exhibition at the Constitution Center (in Philadelphia) on Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War period,” said Spencer Crew, the center’s president and executive director. “There’s also a really wonderful exhibition at the Holocaust Museum (in Washington, D.C.) on the Sudan.”
Although the Underground Railroad was very active around Cincinnati before the Civil War, the city also has a record of racial problems. Just four years ago, there were three days of riots following the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black man who fled from a White police officer trying to make an arrest.
