DiversityInc - February 2010

BLACK HISTORY: WHAT DOES I T

MEAN?

INSPIRATION

National Underground
Railroad Freedom Center

www.freedomcenter.org

Histo ry

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, based in Cincinnati where the Underground Railroad operated extensively during
the Civil War, is dedicated to telling
the story of the struggle for freedom,
both historically and in modern times.

Bordering on a slave state, “the same
issues that divided the nation at that
time divided Cincinnati. We had abo-
litionists and pro-slavery people living
right next to each other. You had free
slaves working and you had escaping
slaves hiding … so from a historic
standpoint, this is an ideal location for
the museum.”
The 158,000-square-foot, three-
pavilion museum’s largest exhibit,
Black and mirrors its customer base,
the consumer-products giant has not
only been a corporate foundation
donor, it regularly holds sales meet-
ings at the facility and “often brings in
suppliers to experience the museum,”
adds Bernish.

The museum’s narratives focus on the antebellum activity, in which enslaved Blacks fled to freedom and were often helped by sympathetic whites who were “conductors” along the Underground Railroad’s informal network of escape routes and safe houses.

“From Slavery to Freedom,” covers the nation’s history of slavery of all people from the 1500s to the Civil War and includes the economic, social and cultural underpinnings of slavery. The most popular exhibit is a two-story slave warehouse, originally built in Mason County, Ky., that held upwards of 70 people.

“The Ohio river was a major com-
mercial artery as well as a cross-
ing point for slaves,” says Chief
“For most that come here,
it’s a stark and dramatic
confrontation with the history
of slavery in America,” says
Communications Officer Paul Bernish.

Bernish.

One of the Freedom Center’s biggest benefactors, he says, has been Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble (No. 11 in the DiversityInc Top 50). With a work force that’s 11 percent

TOP: A two-story slave pen, origi- nally built in Kentucky, on display in Cincinnati's National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; BOTTOM: a close-up view inside of a shackle ring.