National Underground Railroad Freedom Center - United States

Set to open in 2004, the Freedom Center museum will feature a history gallery section, along with education, social, and civic components that will tell the stories of individuals who participated in the Underground Railroad. The stories will be told using pictures, interactive educational exhibits, and through live performances by storytellers and singers. There will also be an area where visitors can reflect on and discuss modern-day issues of freedom.

In the meantime, the Freedom Center website provides information and encourages people to act up against injustice. The interactive site is designed to enable citizens to contribute and exchange knowledge, as well as share their perspectives and encourage action. A special section for educators includes various resources and opportunities to exchange experience. For example, FreedomQuests aim to build higher-level thinking skills, make use of the resources related to freedom and Underground Railroad topics already available on the Internet, and disseminate curriculum materials electronically to teachers and students nationwide. In addition, teachers are encouraged to share their lesson plans related to slavery, the Underground Railroad, and freedom and diversity issues. Photographs of teachers and their classrooms are posted with submissions. In this vein, the effort to design a new national monument to the Underground Railroad is relying on the participation of schools and youth groups. A section of the site designed for students in Grades 5 through 8 offers a "2004 Monument Challenge" contest. Entrants are asked to submit design packages for this monument, which will honour participants in the Underground Railroad and those who helped them.

Researchers may access information and collaborate with each other through the Freedom Station portal. This service offers access to tools and archives, opportunities for collaboration, and a venue for ongoing discussion of the themes of freedom and race. When the museum opens in 2004, there will be over 60 physical Freedom Stations throughout the United States.

Ordinary citizens are a focus of the Freedom Center, as well. The Power of One Voice advertising campaign involves television spots that focus on prejudice and injustice. (These ads may be viewed on the Freedom Center site). The online campaign asks citizens to explore 10 scenarios involving issues such as inter-racial dating. They are urged "to test the strength of your voice" by asking "what would you do if...". A Freedom Forum features weekly discussion topics and offers the opportunity to "share your story". Citizens may research and preserve their family history using an online Research Toolbox. A fundraising walk ("Walk as One") and golf tournament are on the 2003 calendar, as is a conference (Freedom in the Florida Territory: American and Caribbean Connections to the Underground Railroad).

Racism, Rights, Education.

Before 1863, the Underground Railroad was a system of cooperation among African American slaves, free African Americans, abolitionists, and sympathetic Whites and Native Americans. This system was designed to help slaves escape. According to a recent study by the National Park Service, "...this informal system arose as a loosely constructed network of escape routes that originated in the South, intertwined throughout the North, but also extended into western territories, Mexico and the Caribbean."

The effort to establish a National Underground Railroad Freedom Center began in 1994 as a golden anniversary project of the Greater Cincinnati Region of the National Conference for Community and Justice (founded as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Inc.), a human relations organisation dedicated to fighting bias, bigotry, and racism in America.