With great fanfare and high hopes, celebrities Oprah Winfrey, Muhammad Ali and Laura Bush helped break ground for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in downtown Cincinnati in June 2002.
Two years later, the $110 million center, 10 years in planning, opened with exhibits on how enslaved African-Americans risked their lives to make the northward trek to freedom. Yet, the project suffered declining attendance and budget cuts. Within the last three years, the center has eliminated about 30 percent of its staff.
Today, however, a comeback is imminent. The center is shifting its focus while serving as an educational focal point, research asset and change agent. Area universities use it to research human rights, advance digital technology as a teaching tool and help train future educators.
In a new twist, the center has become a starting point for research and advocacy involving 21st-century slavery and human trafficking.
“We try to convey that slavery didn’t end with the Civil War,” says center spokesman Paul Bernish.
Modern-day slavery can involve such events as young girls being kidnapped and forced into prostitution in India or Thailand, known for its sex tourism. Other forms involve forced labor.
“About 12 million people around the world are involved (in modern-day slavery), and about 43 percent involves the sex industry,” says Bernish.
