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Underground Railroad center hits 5 years

CINCINNATI (AP) - A museum focused on the 19th century Underground Railroad for escaping slaves and on freedom around the world celebrates its fifth anniversary with scaled-down budget and attendance expectations.

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center opened on Cincinnati's riverfront with a star-studded event including then-First Lady Laura Bush and Oprah Winfrey. There were lofty attendance projections of up to 1 million a year, but the museum has had fewer than 900,000 visitors total since opening.

Its budget and staff have been cut by about half, to $5.7 million and 50 full-time employees. Center officials say attendance has been hurt by the recession, riverfront development delays and the need to focus its mission.

"We're focusing on the fundamental message of the triumph of the human spirit," said Donald Murphy, Freedom Center CEO and president. "If you could put it into one word, we're talking about triumph. We want people to walk away from this museum inspired."

The museum gets good reviews from educators, students and others and is working to expand its appeal.

"We need more voices, younger voices involved in our forums, we need broader appeal," Murphy said. "What I'd like to see most in the next five years is the struggle for freedom told in a comprehensive manner, not in bits and pieces."

Attendance has improved this year, after the center cut admission prices, such as from $12 to $9 for adults. The center has been criticized by some conservative leaders in the region who opposed public funding for it, and by the Cincinnati NAACP leader, who says it should connect more with the region's black community.

Christopher Smitherman, president of the 3,000-member NAACP chapter, would like to see the center address economic inequality and higher rates of infant mortality and other health issues among local blacks.

The Freedom Center "needs to use its position to call attention to those issues," Smitherman said. "Economic slavery is going on right here."

Center exhibits address genocide in Darfur and child slavery in Haiti and it has hosted traveling displays on Abraham Lincoln, African Origins of American Art, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It got a boost this summer when the Cincinnati Reds hosted Major League Baseball's Civil Rights Game, which will return next year.

The center and the Reds had displays on baseball's Negro Leagues and the center hosted such sports greats as Hank Aaron and Oscar Robertson.

"We've had some fits and starts, but we've done some good things," Murphy said.

 (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)