The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2009, will honor three individuals — including Cincinnati Reds owner Bob Castellini — as “Everyday Freedom Heroes” for their commitment to community engagement, human rights and social justice.

Castellini, along with longtime journalist and TV anchor Nick Clooney and former Essence Magazine Editor Susan Taylor, will be honored at an evening reception and dinner on October 10 at the Freedom Center. The event, with the theme, “Triumph of the Human Spirit,” will conclude a day-long series of activities, including an inaugural Film Festival and related children and family activities.

All of the films and children’s activities are free with Freedom Center admission.  Admission for the evening reception and dinner is $75.00 and advance reservations are requested by September 25 by calling 1-888-778-7321 or ordering online from our giftshop.

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This weekend, the Freedom Center’s Chief Executive Officer, Donald Murphy, is receiving the Alumnus of the Year from the University of California-San Diego (UCSD). The award recognizes distinguished alumni who’ve made an impact in their community or significant career achievements.

Murphy graduated from the UCSD in 1975 with a bachelors of art degree in biology.

In an interview with San Diego public radio station KPBS, Murphy talks about the winding career path that led him from being a park ranger to the CEO of a national museum dedicated to relating the story of the nation’s struggle to overcome slavery. He also talked more in depth about the Freedom Center’s mission in this lengthy interview with Loma Linda station KCAA.

“Don Murphy is a visionary leader and steward whose relentless dedication to truth is teaching generations the meaning of freedom,” said Armin Afsahi, assistant vice chancellor for alumni affairs and executive director of the UCSD Alumni Association.

Murphy’s responsibilities at the Cincinnati-based National Underground Railroad Freedom Center include managing a $6 million budget and securing funding for programs and exhibits, which pay homage to enslaved Africans in early America as well as black and white abolitionists.

Murphy previously worked at California State Parks, where he spent six years directing the statewide system. After creating several high-profile programs in Sacramento during the late 1990s, he was recruited in 2001 by the Bush administration to serve as deputy director of the National Park Service where he managed a budget of more than $2.3 billion and 30,000 employees.

In response to the historic occasion of the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America, Mr. Westmoreland interviews a variety of citizens who were at the National Underground Freedom Center to watch the inauguration.  Please view the individual interviews below.

Introduction by Carl Westmoreland

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One of the exhibition's interactive games

Update:  Here’s the Cincinnati Enquirer’s quick take on the exhibit.

Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War is an exhibition that appeals to everyone from school groups to Civil War history buffs and human rights scholars.

Please Note the Following Important Schedule Information: The Freedom Center is closed on Mondays and in addition, we also will be closed on the following Sundays while the Lincoln Exhibition is showing:

October 19, November 2, November 16 and November 30, December 14 and December 28.

The exhibit provides a succinct yet masterfully comprehensive review of Abraham Lincoln’s brief term as President.  It was a time fraught with unparalleled challenges, any one of which would have overwhelmed even the most capable of leaders. That Lincoln was able — with sheer determination and incomparable vision — to steer a course that brought the nation through a bitter civil war, preserved the Constitution, and set in motion the abolition of slavery is one of history’s watershed accomplishments.

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With Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and a who’s who lineup of Cincinnati business and political leaders looking on, ground was broken this week for the new, $80 million Cincinnati Riverfront Park that will be located on a sweeping, 45-acre expanse along the Ohio River just in front of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

The park, as currently envisioned, will feature fountains, walkways, gardens, event lawns, playgrounds and restaurants, and will extend from Great American Ballpark on the east to Paul Brown Stadium on the west, with the iconic Roebling Suspension Bridge serving as a symbol of geographic unity. It will be built in phases and eventually, it will link to the Cincinnati Banks project, a multi-million dollar riverfront real estate development project that is now underway after more than a decade of delays.

Cincinnati Parks will oversee the planning, development and building of the park as well as ongoing maintenance.

The park will be funded by up to $80 million from local, state and federal governments.  Another $30-$40 million needs to be raised privately to complete the full park plan and endow future operations.

The 2008 Presidential election has captured the world’s attention. What is especially compelling this year is that, for the first time, an African American candidate has won the nomination of a major political party.

The selection of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party nominee was the culmination of an intense and lengthy political process that brought unprecedented focus on the age, gender, religion, culture, and race of the various candidates of both parties. It’s also spurred any number of news articles probing the question of race in America, and whether Obama’s candidacy will help foster meaningful dialogue on racial issues, or lead to further divisions.

These questions will be at the heart of a Community Forum at the Freedom Center on September 2. “Moving Beyond Race in the Presidential Election” will explore the news media’s influence on attitudes about race through the filter of the 2008 Presidential campaign. Hosted by Senior Curator Carl Westmoreland, the forum will feature three local media panelists:

Peter Bronson, editorial columnist for the Cincinnati Enquirer;

Jeri Tolliver, radio host on 1230 The Buzz;

Michele Hopkins, reporter, WLWT Channel 5.

The forum will be held in the Harriet Tubman Theater from 6 – 8 p.m. It is free and open to the public. For more information about Community Forums please contact acorley@nurfc.org or 513.333.7518.

Two elderly Chinese women in Beijing, ages 79 and 77, have been sentenced to a year of labor and “re-education” for attempting to get a permit to protest what they claimed was inadequate compensation for their homes that were demolished to make way for the Olympics.

It’s the kind of story that will quickly be buried beneath the avalanche of feel good news about Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and the USA basketball team. Yet it stands as a harrowing reminder that individual freedoms and human rights for China’s 1.3 billion citizens are by no means safeguarded.

With the world’s attention focused on China and the Beijing Games, people are learning — and seeing for themselves on wall-to-wall television coverage a rapidly growing, market-driven (and sports-crazy) economic juggernaut, but also the globe’s largest and nearly last remaining Communist-controlled government. Its leaders eagerly attempt to project a progressive, ultra-modern image (reflected in the astonishing architecture of many of the Olympic venues), while simultaneously maintaining strict and pervasive control over virtually every aspect of the lives of its citizens.

The famous image of the student blocking a Russian Army tank on a Beijing boulevard in 1989 remains perhaps the picture that most people in the world envision about China. And no wonder. From its repressive policies towards Tibet and religious minorities within its borders to its laissez faire handling of the genocidal regime in the Sudan, China has earned a worldwide reputation as a nation that cares little about fundamental human rights or personal liberties. The shocking revelations earlier this year that thousands of young Chinese were held as work slaves in remote manufacturing plants was, for many, only additional proof that this is a nation where the rights of the individual have no relevance or meaning.

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Mr. Westmoreland interviews guests Malcolm and Beverly McCoy from Lima Ohio. In light of the Independence Day celebrations Mr. Westmoreland and the McCoy’s discuss independence as it relates to the civil rights movement.

Click here to listen to the archive of this show.

Listen to the inspiring voice of host Carl Westmoreland, “Carl”, Doctor of the Underground Railroad, on the Freedom Station Radio Show every Tuesday from 2:00pm to 4:00pm Eastern Standard Time.

Submit a question or comment during the show by using the comment form below.

Members, thank you for your interest in joining us on our first ever Member outing to the historic Ripley, Ohio. Prices for the day include all our transportation, tickets to the historical houses, our specialized tour guide and lunch on the scenic Ohio River! Come travel with the Freedom Center for only $50 per adult and $40 per child. This memorable and educational outing is appropriate for all ages. Mark your calendars and RSVP today! Here is our itinerary for the day.

To RSVP for the trip or for more information please call our membership department at 513-333-7583. You can also RSVP online.

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