More on the Freedom Center
Here’s a follow-up post about the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center from Sharon Morgan, editorial assistant to the editorial board.
I’m a native Cincinnatian. When I heard about the Freedom Center coming to our city I was excited but also skeptical that it would be embraced by this city.
When it opened four years ago, I visited several times and had taken my out-of-town guest to the facility. I’m looking forward to going back; I’m waiting for that urge! It’s an emotional journey through time but necessary to move forward. However, there are many who want things to remain the same. I believe people are afraid to take that emotional journey and afraid to be judged by their neighbor for seeking out the truth about African-Americans’ historical information that was left out of textbooks. The Freedom Center brought that knowledge here to Cincinnati.
In my lifetime, I have experienced in this city unpleasant encounters in certain communities when I was judged not by my character but by my skin color. However, it did not deter me from volunteering in the community to help our youth to believe in themselves and to excel in their achievements.
The Freedom Center belongs here in Cincinnati and deserves to be supported by everyone. Instead of wishing it wasn’t here or thinking it’s not worth visiting, take a chance to learn something new because it’s not in the textbooks.
--Sharon Morgan
posted by David Wells at 9:53 PM
18 Comments:
at 11:10 PM, February 15, 2008 
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at 10:06 AM, February 17, 2008 
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at 11:03 AM, February 18, 2008 
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at 12:30 PM, February 18, 2008 
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at 2:02 PM, February 18, 2008 
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at 8:53 PM, February 18, 2008 
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at 9:26 AM, February 19, 2008 
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at 12:24 PM, February 19, 2008 
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at 6:17 AM, February 20, 2008 
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at 11:21 AM, February 20, 2008 
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at 12:56 PM, February 20, 2008 
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at 8:26 PM, February 20, 2008 
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at 8:50 PM, February 20, 2008 
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at 11:17 PM, February 20, 2008 
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at 1:15 PM, February 21, 2008 
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at 4:49 PM, February 21, 2008 
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at 11:18 AM, February 27, 2008 
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at 8:22 AM, February 28, 2008 
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Post a Comment*Ms. Sharon Morgan, please motivate me to attend the Freedom Center. Is there is a wealth of knowledge to be learned within the Center that we have not learned from our formal education or the thousands of TV documentaries and Books? Please name only five NEW historical facts that may entice us to attend to learn more.
Most of todays Americans (relatives) came here after 1880. Slavery was in the South and ended in 1865. Why do black Americans think otherwise? The Freedom Center (slavery) is just a reason to justify failure in some and crime in others. Turn the page. Get over yourself and remove yourself from your own imagined slavery. Be productive. Be an American first and be happy that you are an American. And teach your children this.
PS> Forward this message to Mr. Smitherman
Not counting forced attendance by "school trip" attendees, are there attendance figures and attendees' demographics published for the Freedom Center?
Whether it is a worthy pursuit or whether it is not (and I believe it is the latter), it absolutely does not merit a luxurious home on the riverfront in a free-standing structure.
If ANYTHING, park it in a corner of the Museum Center. Then, it won't suck the city/state/federal coffers dry; and, those who choose to see it can see it.
For the life of me, how can ANYONE not see this as a huge mistake in its current configuration...??
It is just an absurdity the way it now exists.
That plush building would not go to waste, either.....
How could i support something that is based upon lies to begin with?
"We will be self supporting"
Anon 2:02pm ...You have missed the point. By today's socialist standards, living off of the government (public tax money) is considered: "We will be self supporting".
In response to the question about attendance, the Freedom Center had 162,000 paid visitors in 2007. This included 55,000 kids who came as part of school group tours.
Wow! All this wasted money, effort and emotion over 107,000 annual voluntary attendance. And attendance is declining.
For a $3 million plus annual subsidy we're paying each attendee $25 to attend the museam ($3mm/107k). Ms. Morgan please explain the common sense and economics of this expenditure of tax money?
Actually, attendance at the Freedom Center in 2007 matched 2006, so there wasn't a decline.
The kids who come to the Freedom Center as part of school group tours are most often quite happy to be out of the classroom and able to learn more about an important chapter of American history.
The Freedom Center receives no subsidy of any kind from any level of government. The single largest source of public funding is $1,000,000 from the U.S. Department of Education, which is used solely to underwrite a number of history and social studies programs offered to area schools. To say that the Freedom Center operates on a "$3 million subsidy" is completely erroneous.
I will post the same thing I posted under the other Freedom Center Blog....
Let's fact it the size of the Freedom Center was overly ambitious. The firefighters museum downtown is MAYBE a little bigger than MY HOUSE! The FC is a huge COMPLEX! The first time I saw it, I was quite simply shocked at the size. I am not going to say I have the best business mind, but it was obvious to me that this was way too big of project to be financially viable.
I would liken it to buying an entire shopping mall and only putting a single Footlocker store inside. I would call that poor decisionmaking, wouldn't you?
To Anonymous - Feb. 15, 11:10 PM, your ignorance is showing. EVERY museum showcases what has been learned in books, on TV, in the classroom, etc., not just the Freedom Center. Do you honestly not realize that fact? Do you really not understand that museums enhance the knowledge we have gained in school, from documentaries and books? In that case, I imagine you don't have any use for the Cincinnati Art Museum, Taft Museum or the Museum Center at Union Terminal either. What a pity.
The museums I've visited around the world display original artifacts of broad historical significance and interest. You're fortunate to live in American where you are free to assume whatever you please, at your peril. Enjoy!
I'm not privy to the FC books. Maybe you'll believe this published recent article and financial review?
Financial freedom
You may choose to believe as you wish. Isn’t this freedom for all within America great!
if attendance is not declining, as someone stated, then why is the Freedom Center requesting financial help to relocate the front entrance to boost its suffering attendance? I have been to the Freedom Center twice and I still cannot seem to figure out why the musuem merits this riverfront multi-million dollar property. Considering the size of the building, it seems almost empty. after i finished viewing the displays, I questioned myself: "Is that it? The building seems a lot bigger?" Move the Freedom Center to Union Terminal and turn it into a movie theater (that would actually be a great assest to downtown and the banks: entertainment instead of an oversized, financially unstable, half empty museum)
"In my lifetime, I have experienced in this city unpleasant encounters in certain communities when I was judged not by my character but by my skin color. However, it did not deter me from volunteering in the community to help our youth to believe in themselves and to excel in their achievements."
me too...and I'm white
This political correctness of only holding american whites responsible for slavery is dishonest. Wouldn't it be more productive to attempt to actually stop the practice of slave ownership overseas that exists today?
Historically both blacks and whites have owned slaves as practiced worldwide. We stopped the practice of slavery, by some of our ancestors in the USA. Do we move forward and rejoice in our accomplishment of Abolitionism or do we continue to wallow in the dispair of the past? How much longer must we wait?
I can't keep my comments about the Freedom Center any longer. The only reason it is there today is because it was a bribe to achieve "racial peace" We gave up our prime real estate on the river to build it. We supported every minority contractor that we could. and did we get "racial peace"...No.
What we got was a constant reminder that will consistantly divide us. A Center that can not support itself and will be another taxing reminder of ineptitude of our city leaders. The mortar is not even dry and it "needs remodeling" What a waste!
It should have a condom placed over it so that every day, the citizens of Cincinnati can be reminded of the screwing they got over this nighrtmare that will never end.
What does it say about a city when this topic receives more comments than any other on the board to date? The only close runner-up is the story about Cunningham...another racially motivated topic. So it would seem that Cincinnati indeed still has race issues. Last time I checked, the only 'race' is the human one, and we are a highly assorted group complexionally.
By the way, 6/7 of the population of Earth is not 'white'. And last time I checked, the Crayon box had white as a color, too.
How very tragic. Think of all the really important things we could be discussing, yet we're stuck ranting on about something over which none of us has any control.
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