Over the holidays, if you and your family happen to be eating at a Frisch’s Big Boy Restaurant in Greater Cincinnati, check out the tray liner.  The hamburger chain is supporting the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center’s new exhibit, Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War with a Lincoln coloring sheet.

Leave some time for your kids to color in the trayliner — but don’t leave it on the table.  Instead, bring it with you to the Freedom Center and receive one free admission ticket.

Here are a few of our favorites, so far:

Logan Age: 5

Joshua Age: 8

Hollis Age: 5

One person with a lifelong interest in law and justice witnessed the election of Barack Obama with a deeply personal sense of fulfillment.

Retired U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Nathaniel R. Jones said of that evening, “You can’t overestimate the importance to the future of our country as it relates to civil rights and the rule of law. Barack Obama—in addition to his qualities, and there are many—comes to the Office of the President with a deep respect for the rule of law, and how law has shaped our society. Right now, in the immediate days after the election, this may not be as apparent as it should be. But to people who have spent their lives immersed in our legal system, his election is of historic importance.”

Judge Jones, who is a former Co-Chair of the Board of the Freedom Center (and an honorary member today), continues the practice of law as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer with Blank Rome LLP. You quickly discover in any conversation with him that law is the perspective that shapes and colors his outlook on life.

Judge Nathaniel Jones

And no wonder. Before his appointment to the appellate court, Judge Jones served as General Counsel to the NAACP from 1969 to 1979. So he knows a thing or two about the legal history of civil rights, particularly the evolution of equal protection and voting rights as enshrined in the 14^th and 15^th Amendments enacted in the years after the Civil War.

And voting, to Judge Jones, is ultimately what politics and Barack Obama’s election are all about.

“Going back many decades, the people who battled in courtrooms for voting rights had a simple belief: ‘vote-less people are hopeless people.’ One of the most fundamentally important struggles throughout the last half of the 19^th Century and most of the 20^th Century was the effort to make sure the 15^th Amendment was upheld, enabling all Americans the right to cast their ballot. It’s a battle that is still going on today.”

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Mr. Westmoreland discusses the Muslim community with Karen Dabdoub and the Jewish community with Brian Jaffee in this program recorded on February 5, 2008.

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

The National Association of Black Storytellers (NABS) National Conference is being held in Cincinnati from November 19th-23rd, 2008, and that’s good news for Freedom Center visitors.

That’s because we’re teaming up with NABS to present an afternoon of storytelling for the whole family, Saturday November 22 from 12 to 4 p.m.

The Black Storytellers group promotes and perpetuates the an art form that embodies the history, heritage, and culture of African Americans.  Black storytellers educate and entertain through the “Oral Tradition,” which depicts and documents the African-American experience.

A nationally organized body with individual, affiliate, and organizational memberships, NABS preserves and passes on the folklore, legends, myths, fables and mores of Africans and their descendants and ancestors.

The storytellers will performing through the afternoon for Freedom Center guests.  There is no additional charge.

For more information contact Chris Miller at 513-333-7562 or cmiller@nurfc.org.

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In this previously recorded program Mr. Westmoreland talks about Race and Religion Rev. Pamela Dock and historian Richard Cooper.

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There have been, and will continue to be, many thoughtful and insightful analyses of the Presidential election.  But here’s one, from Judith Warner in the New York Times, that seems especially poignant.

The 7th Annual National Conference on the Underground Railroad opens today at the Freedom Center.  The focus of this year’s conference is Lincoln’s Era: The Role of Religion in the Underground Railroad.

The keynote speaker launching the conference is Lerone Bennett, Jr., this evening at 7 p.m. at the Freedom Center. Other highlights of the conference, which runs through Saturday, Nov. 8, are lectures by Lincoln scholar Roger Billings, a Negro Spiritual Festival at Union Baptist Church, and the Children of Abraham Interfaith Service closing the conference on Sunday evening, Nov. 8 at 6 p.m.

Onsite conference registration is still available.  For more information, please call 513-333-7518.

Get more conference information here.

UPDATE

The Freedom Center is no longer accepting RSVPs for the free screening of “CALL+RESPONSE” on November 18 at which producer/director Justin Dillon will appear. 

The film, which was totally produced with donations, probes the ugly — and increasingly widespread — reality of contemporary slavery.  An estimated 27 million people worldwide are said to exist in slave-like conditions, from child brothels of Cambodia to slave brick kilns of rural India.  As CALL + RESPONSE makes shockingly clear, slavery is also becoming a huge global enterprise, with slave traders reputedly netting more profits in 2007 alone than Google, Nike and Starbucks combined.

Featured in the film are such luminaries as Cornel West, Madeleine Albright, Daryl Hannah, Julia Ormond, Ashley Judd, Nicholas Kristof, and many other prominent political and cultural figures who offer first hand account of this 21st century industry in human misery. Performances from Grammy-winning and critically acclaimed artists including Moby, Natasha Bedingfield, Cold War Kids, Matisyahu, Imogen Heap, Talib Kweli, Five For Fighting, Switchfoot, members of Nickel Creek and Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Rocco Deluca are also featured.

RSVP required as space is limited.  To RSVP please contact one of the following:

partnership@nurfc.org or call 513-333-7598

Within the framework of the mission of the National Underground Railroad Center, the election of Barack Obama as the first person of color to be President of the United States is of surpassing historical importance.

For many citizens — whites as well as blacks — the election signals the healing of a long-festering wound in our national psyche: the wound of the legacy of slavery that for too long prevented African Americans from fully participating as equal members of society.   The promise of equality, as it emerged in the aftermath of the Civil War 143 years ago, was delayed, postponed and opposed until passage of landmark civil rights legislation in the 1960s.  But even then, rights guaranteed in the law did not always or everywhere translate into full acceptance or acknowledgment.  While voters claimed that they had gotten “over race,” it was clear from the meager number of blacks elected to national office (only one African American U.S. Senator in the 20th Century) that the white majority, for whatever reason, could not or would not affirm the principle of racial equality.  Just how much of a struggle it has been for blacks in America to achieve equality is poignantly described in this New York Times article.

Today, with the nation grappling with two wars and confronting an economic crisis that is prompting fear of another Great Depression, voters have placed their confidence and trust in a man with an inspiring vision of hope and inclusion and a clear purpose to bring the nation together in common cause.  The parallel to another, now distant time, is worth remarking upon:  in 1861, with the United States in crisis, voters turned to a man with inspiring vision and clear purpose to prevent the nation from splitting apart.  Abraham Lincoln, from Illinois, became the nation’s 16th President and set in motion actions that not only changed the course of history, but opened the long, winding path that has now culminated in the election of an African American as President of the United States.

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There is much analysis and opinion online and in print about the meaning and significance of the Presidential election.  Tom Friedman’s column in the New York Times is especially relevant in the way he links Obama’s election to America’s long struggle with the vestiges of slavery.  Also, here’s an editorial from Galesburg, Illinois, about the symbolic meaning of Obama’s victory.

“Our nation’s racial wounds have not disappeared, but in one day — Nov. 4, 2008 — Americans put distance between the horrors and civil injustices that haunt our past.”  Tom Martin, Editor, Galesburg (IL) Register-Mail

We welcome your thoughts on this historic moment.  Please post your comments and thoughts about what this election means to you.

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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.

While you are working or researching, you can listen with the rest of the Freedom Center community via the Internet to a powerful and informative show featuring hot freedom topics, Underground Railroad activists and Freedom Center guests and news direct from the national center in Cincinnati, Ohio!

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

The 2008 Voices of the Future Conference was a great success. The one-day conference brought youth from across the region to learn, discuss, and become empowered to fight racism and injustice. The Youth Conference’s keynote speaker was Jeff Johnson. Mr. Johnson is a political motivator. He is a writer, political Strategist and keen cultural observer. Learn more about Jeff Johnson at Jeff’sNation.com

Click here to listen to the keynote address at the 2008 Voices of the Future Conference.

Earlier this week, we posted a commentary on the Freedom Blog suggesting that race — although talked about by the news media as a potential issue in the Presidential election — would probably not play a significant role in how voters choose between Barack Obama and John McCain (at least in the views of most political observers).

We should have known better, it appears.  With just five days left in the election campaign, race is becoming a hot topic.

You don’t have to look far for the evidence.  On Wednesday, an effigy of Obama was found hanging from a tree on the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington.  Police are investigating, and UK and state officials all expressed outrage and embarrassment over the incident.  At a McCain rally in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, demonstrators were videotaped uttering contempt for Obama . . . with one man shockingly suggesting that if the Illinois Senator became President, he might soon be shot.

It is worth emphasizing that GOP nominee McCain has and continues to condemn these kinds of outbursts.  He told CNN’s Larry King that in his view, only a “teeny, tiny” minority of people will vote solely on the basis of race, and that economic worries are by far the overriding issue of the election.  Political observers also point out that race could in fact propel Obama to victory as African Americans flock to the polls to cast their ballots overwhelmingly for the Democratic candidate.

Still, a truism of today’s political environment is that anyone (whether part of a candidate’s campaign or simply acting on their own) can access the megaphone of the media spotlight or the Internet to inject prejudice, hate or fear into the quadrennial Presidential election event.  A young white woman who faked an attack by an African American man got her 15 minutes of fame in the national news media, and soon faded from view.  Yes there are undoubtedly some (many?) people who heard or read about the incident and took it to heart as confirming their worst fears about people not like them.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, attempting to create a dialogue about race, chimed in with a column quoting at length from a research study indicating that many people subconsciously believe that dark or black skinned people are “foreign,” or “less American,” and that this perception could impact the Nov. 4 voting.  Incredibly, the research found that respondents — California college students — perceived that Obama was less an American than former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Kristof concludes his column by suggesting that the 2008 election “creates an opportunity” for serious discussion about “the murky complexities of race.”  That’s a noble — necessary — goal.  But as the election draws to a close, it is becoming increasingly likely that voters will have to first endure a last minute assault of racial animosity and fear as they decide whether to take the historic step of electing a man of color to the White House.

Postscript:

The latest NY Times/CBS national poll (which indicates a 51% to 40% Obama lead), shows that Obama’s candidacy has changed some perceptions of race in America. Quoting from the Times:  “Nearly two-thirds of those polled said that white and black people have an equal chance of getting ahead in today’s society, up from the half who said that they thought so in July. And while 14 percent still said that most people they know would not vote for a black presidential candidate, a question pollsters often ask to try to gauge bias, the number has dropped considerably since the campaign began.”