Do you enjoy museums? Social Media? The Civil War? Or simply being one of the first people to see something new?

Join us at the NURFC for the Liberty on the Border social media preview! We are looking for bloggers, Tweeters, Facebookers and Flickr-ers alike.

When: Thursday, September 8th from 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Where: The Jack H. Skirball Gallery in the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

NURFC Director of Exhibitions and Collections, Dina Bailey, will join us for a brief introduction to the exhibition and will be on hand to answer your questions.

Pizza and soda will be provided.

Interested?

Send an email to jglavic@nurfc.org to RSVP.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, September 7th at noon. RSVPs are required.

There is a spark within each of us, Fan the Flame.

The Siege of Petersburg was one of hardest fought Virginia campaigns in the Civil War, and on the 25^th of August, it began to reach a tactical head. The Union occupied Ream’s Station, which was situated squarely on a Confederate supply line to the besieged city of Petersburg. Union troops ensured that the 14 miles of track that made the railroad useful to the Confederacy were destroyed beyond conceivable wartime repair. Supply lines to the city of Petersburg were reduced to one railroad from the South.

One would conclude that the Confederates would no longer worry about Ream’s station, as the tracks were a loss from there. However, General Robert E. Lee realized that the station gave the Union a position to block his army’s potential retreat route by taking the county seat, Dinwiddie Courthouse. This would force the Confederates to abandon Petersburg and Richmond, the capital of Virginia, Lee’s home state.

Hancock’s exhausted II Corps was assigned the defense of Ream’s Station and the destruction of the railroad tracks that were the confederate supply lines. He led one Division against the railroad tracks, leaving the other under the command of Brigadier General Gibbon to defend the station from the earthworks there. General A.P. Hill was assigned by General Lee to take a column of men, including two cavalry divisions, to take the station.

General Meade, overall commander of the Union Army of the Potomac while General Grant was ill, made the unfortunate tactical decision of reinforcing the Union line everywhere except at Ream’s Station, where he must have assumed that Hancock could hold the station with the resources at his disposal. The lines of Hancock’s Second Corps, exhausted from destroying railroad tracks and forced marches, broke under the Confederate assault. Dismounted Confederate cavalry conducted a surprise attack that drove off many of General Gibbons’ men, which allowed them to flank the rest of the line, under Brigadier General Miles. It was only Hancock’s well-timed counterattack that allowed the Union to retreat in an orderly fashion.

What does this fairly unremarkable battle tell us today? Hancock’s troops were exhausted, and had received little rest. If you want to see why, even encamped, it would have been difficult for them to rest, check out one of the latest Civil War exhibits at the Freedom Center, a model of a Civil War encampment.

Though they had lost the field, the Union made the battle worth fighting. The Confederate supply lines into Petersburg had been reduced to one railroad. Taking a personal loss to ensure a tactical victory holds no shame. Abraham Lincoln knew this well. Had he not re-supplied Fort Sumter with an unarmed ship, the Confederacy would not have been revealed as the aggressors in the Civil War at the outset. He took a lot of criticism for his choice, but secured the tactical victory of forcing the Confederacy to fire the first shots.

Taking a personal loss, whether the conflict is an argument or a battle, may not be desirable, but it does not mean that all is lost. How can you do this while still keeping your goals in sight? History is full of those who took the long view and had it pay off, so learn from it.

Remember, there is a spark within each of us. Fan the Flame!

The month of August marks the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall.  The wall, built by the GDR (German Democratic Republic), cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin.

The mere mention of the Berlin Wall conjures up images of a large concrete barrier, guard towers and Reagan’s famous words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Did you know?

• The Berlin Wall began as a wire fence in 1961.
• It did not become a concrete wall until 1965.
• In 1975 construction began on the 87 mile long, 12 foot tall concrete barrier between East and West Berlin.

A 12 ft x 4 ft piece of the Berlin Wall is on permanent display at the NURFC.

Why the NURFC?

Because the Berlin Wall is a symbol of unfreedom.

The NURFC challenges visitors to embrace their common humanity and to realize their individual power in advancing freedom for ALL people. In September 2009, at a press conference announcing the NURFC as the site for the Berlin Wall Monument, Mayor Mark Mallory stated, “The Freedom Center sits on the banks of the Ohio River, another barrier to freedom that eventually fell. It is natural that this institution that celebrates freedom should serve as the home for another symbol of the ongoing struggle for freedom and justice.”

On Saturday, August 13th, Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Christian Wulff, and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit gathered at Bernauer Straße Memorial Park to remember the lives lost, the families divided and the triumph of Berlin over the Wall.

Below are two powerful quotes from the commemoration:

“It is our shared responsibility to keep the memory alive and to pass it on to the coming generations as a reminder to stand up for freedom and democracy to ensure that such injustice may never happen again.” -Mayor Wowereit

“No wall can permanently withstand the desire for freedom.” -President Wulff

The Freedom Center Berlin Wall Monument honors those individuals, past and present, who have died seeking to live in freedom without walls. The struggle for freedom continues. What will you do to Fan the Flame?

There is a spark within each of us, Fan the Flame.

This summer the Freedom Center launched a new tour titled Faith to Freedom.  The tour looks at the important role that faith played in helping break the bonds of slavery.   Many people ask how we develop new tours.  The first phase is developing a theme for the tour. The second phase is researching and development of the content, and then we go through multiple revisions of the tour with historians, scholars, and subcommittees, and finally we go through a number of test tours with members of the community.  The tour is finalized and given to the public approximately six months to a year after the first stage has been completed.

The best part of the process is the research phase.  This is where we get to dig through hundreds of documents and books to find the most powerful stories-that will hopefully relate to the Freedom Center visitors.  During this stage, there are normally a couple of bumps in the road, because of different points of view.  This was the case during the research for the Faith to Freedom tour.  We were faced with the complexity of individuals from both sides – those that supported slavery and those against slavery-believing that God supported their side.  We chose to deal with this issue by using multiple primary sources (documents written from a person that experienced the event) throughout the experience.  For example, we used excerpts of individuals debating biblical scripture and the institution of slavery.  This approach has made the tour very powerful, because not only does it speak to the power of faith in helping guide individuals, but it also comes from the individuals’ own words.

“I found the Faith to Freedom tour inspirational and moving.  The stories of key figures in the abolitionist movement come sharply into focus through understanding how their faith was put into practice….”  Barron Witherspoon, author The Fallacy of Affinity.

I hope this gives everyone a picture of the detail and many hours it takes to create the tours that the Freedom Center offers.  From more information about the Faith to Freedom tour please visit the Freedom Center Faith to Freedom webpage.

There is a spark within each of us, Fan the Flame.

Greetings everyone! I know, it has been WAY too long since I’ve been in this particular corner (for those of you who don’t even remember, this would be the curator corner)…. It’s gotten a little dusty, but what better time to clean it and begin anew than when we are all thinking about what Freedom means?!?! Happy belated 4th of July everyone. Now, admittedly, not everyone celebrates the fourth of July; admittedly, not everyone was free in 1776 when the colonies declared their independence (and not free after the declaration either). And, admittedly, we don’t all view the fourth of July with the same perspective.

Recently, I was thinking about the complexity involved in the celebration of freedom when I had a meeting with a man I greatly respect; he’s seen a lot of life. He knows his parents’ stories and his grandparents’ stories and his great-grandparents’ stories and beyond. He was heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement. His great-grandfather was 100 in 1914 – he would have clearly remembered both slavery and the Civil War. Mr. Westmoreland has pride in these stories. He knows where he’s come from and he has passed that down to his sons. In the context of speaking about a potential exhibition, I listened enthralled as he told a story about Timbuktu, a story about a black renaissance man during the Civil War, and finally a story about today’s families. He spoke about how education was held sacred through generations, then denied for generations, then revered, and finally ignored. Entwined in all of these stories was the necessity of education to freedom. 

To many of us, this is not a huge surprise.

In 1100 A.D., Timbuktu was the important cultural learning center. Africa was the place to be to get an education – and make no mistake, people traveled from around the world to visit Timbuktu and learn from its masters. Research now shows that many Africans were brought to the Americas with recognition of significant agricultural and engineering skills (to name only a very few). Once brought to the Americas, Africans were denied formal education – and so utilized the use of storytelling to educate others. In the years after 1865, African Americans fought hard to become formally educated and to make sure that their children were not only educated, but had equality in education. But, at some point, many of us have lost that drive for education; many of us have also lost the knack of “true” storytelling. We, as a community – even more as a nation – have begun to ignore the necessity of education in how we: make decisions, communicate and relate to people who are different from us, and lead individually as well as collectively.

It is time that we re-recognize the importance of education. We must remind our young people that it is not only cool to be educated, it is essential. One of the unFreedoms that we focus on at the Freedom Center is Illiteracy. I hope that I’ve challenged and inspired you to take a courageous step for freedom (insert education/literacy) today.

There is a spark within each of us… Fan the Flame.

Beginning in July, 2011 the Freedom Center will be the host site for the new Civil War traveling exhibit developed by the Ohio Historical Society entitled, Ohio and the Civil War: 150 Years Later. This panel exhibit features stories from Ohio’s rich Civil War Era history; including well known generals, the Underground Railroad, the African American experience, the anti-war movement, cultural changes, and the industrial growth that flourished as a result of the war. One of the key components of the exhibit that makes it a great fit with the mission of the Freedom Center is the way each story on each panel is connected with contemporary issues in an effort to reveal the common thread in our society, both past and present, to continue the struggle for freedom for all people.

Ohio’s Civil War story is lesser known to many than that of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and others. However, it is clear that Ohio lead the nation in the Civil War in its significant contributions not only to the war itself, but in the areas of industry, culture, and politics as well. This new exhibit from the Ohio Historical Society brings all of this to light as it focuses on three very critical themes: democracy, transformation, and commemoration.

Ohio and the Civil War will be here July 1 through August 13, and it will be a great complement to our next Civil War exhibit, Liberty on the Border, scheduled to open in September. You can find out more about Ohio’s Civil War story by visiting www.ohiocivilwar150.org

What do you know about Ohio’s Civil War history? What is the most significant contribution of Ohio during this time period? How does Ohio’s story affect our society today? And how has it impacted the continuing struggle for freedom?

There is a spark within each of us, Fan the Flame

Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits closes this month – you do not want to miss this exhibiton!

They were activists… Sojourner Truth and MLK
They were athletes… Ali and Jesse Owens
They were musicians… B.B. King and Sarah Vaughan
They were educators… George Washington Carver and W.E.B. Dubois

They were change makers.

Have you seen Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits?

For more information about the exhibition click here.

There is a spark within each of us, Fan the Flame.

Have you seen the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center’s current exhibition Let your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits? The exhibition features 69 powerful photographs of leading African American intellectuals, artists, athletes, and professionals. Being a music lover, I was strongly drawn to the haunting and beautiful photographs of a section in the exhibition called “Exalted Acclaim.” This section features powerful African American artists, actors, performers, and entertainers. More importantly, the exhibition highlights these artists’ push for change through artistic and cultural expression. They did not hesitate to use their exalted acclaim to make this nation a more equal and acceptable place for African Americans to live.

In conjunction with Jazz History Month (April), I will highlight four extraordinary jazz artists that are featured in the Resistance exhibition: Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Wynton Marsalis.

Sarah Vaughan performed with some of the most leading jazz performers of her time, including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Earl “Fatha” Hines. Because of her rich voice and distinctive style, Vaughan sold more than three million albums by 1950. Nicknamed” Sassy” and “The Divine One,” Vaughan was inducted into American Jazz Hall of Fame in 1988.

Ella Fitzgerald is known as the “First Lady of Song.” She is most famous for her scat singing ability, as well as her astounding vocal range of three octaves. She won 13 Grammy Awards and had an incredible singing career that lasted almost sixty years. She is also known for her interpretation of the Great American Songbook, featuring songs like “Someone to Watch Over Me” and “Summertime.” In her honor, Tony Bennett said: “She was the lady who taught us all how to sing.”

Louis Armstrong, also known as “Satchmo,” is one of jazz’s most influential figures. As a trumpet player, he shifted the focus from collective improvisation to solo performance. He was one of the first African American musicians to “cross over,” especially in a time when America was racially divided. He was also a big private supporter of the Civil Rights movement. Some of his most recognized songs include “Georgia on My Mind” and “What a Wonderful World.” In 1990, Armstrong was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Wynton Marsalis is an internationally acclaimed trumpeter, composer, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He comes from a musical family, and has won nine Grammys (in both the jazz and classical categories) and a Pulitzer Prize for Music for a jazz recording. Marsalis is a strong believer in music education for children. In 1995, Marsalis wrote and presented Marsalis On Music, an educational television series on jazz and classical music, which was premiered by PBS. Marsalis has also written five books, including: Sweet Swing Blues on the Road, Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life, and To a Young Musician: Letters from the Road.

Tell us, who is your favorite jazz musician and why?

Illustrated Truth: Expressions of Wrongful Convictions contains the artwork, poetry and letters from prison of men and women who were wrongfully convicted and sent to prison for crimes they did not commit. The exhibition tells the story of these remarkable individuals and displays their artistic efforts expressing pain, anger, love and redemption. This powerfully moving exhibit is the first collection displayed anywhere of “outsider art” of the wrongfully convicted.  Illustrated Truth will be on display from April 7 to July 9.

The exhibition is opening in conjunction with the 2011 Innocence Network Conference, hosted at the Freedom Center April 7 – 10.  The Freedom Center will be closed to the public on Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9. This is the first-ever conference dedicated to exploring the phenomenon of wrongful conviction of the innocent in the international arena.

For more information about the 2011 Innocence Network Conference click here.

Curator’s corner! Yes, my friends, I have returned… for better or worse! So, today, I don’t really need to search through my vast corner for a topic – there’s one shoving it’s way out of the corner and into the… changing gallery (I crack myself up, but you’ll catch up in a minute – and roll your eyes!).

Today, the Freedom Center opens its latest changing exhibition – Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits (have you caught up yet?!?!). Motto, as I fondly like to call it, is the inaugural traveling exhibition of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Yes, it’s a portrait exhibition – who doesn’t like photographs? Yes, I’ve added a few fun artifacts from our uber-mysterious Collections Room. And, yes, music will be involved. I’m sure you’re all excited just thinking about it – and will want to visit the Freedom Center as soon as possible. That being said, let’s discuss its potential as an inspiring and thought-provoking experience, since I know that’s what you are all searching for deep down inside.

Henry Highland Garnet

This exhibition is based on a quote, an idea really, from Henry Highland Garnet. At the National Negro Convention of 1843, my pal Henry concluded his speech with these “thundering words”: “Let your motto be Resistance! Resistance! RESISTANCE! No oppressed people have ever secured their liberty without resistance. What kind of resistance you… make you must decide by the circumstances that surround you.” Seen as a whole, Motto reveals, reflects, and strives to illuminate the variety of creative and courageous ways that African Americans have resisted, accommodated, redefined, and struggled in America. Whew! The goal is twofold – to help us all rethink and reposition our notions of resistance, and to help us all remember the richness and diversity of African American life in the 19^th and 20^th centuries (and hopefully beyond!). I certainly leave it up to all of you to be the judges of whether this exhibition has reached its potential….

Two more extremely important ideas to bring up – I’ll just throw them out into “blog space” and see if they grow! First, please keep in mind that there is a distinction between an idol and an icon. Think American Idol versus Louis Armstrong. Idols can be worshiped and discarded; icons endure. Icons survive because of their ability to meld with others – and the ability of all of us others to really become a part of them. The individuals in this exhibition – whatever their form of resistance – are true icons. The second, and perhaps final idea, is that the majority of these icons were in the 20s and 30s when the portraits were taken. Where are our resistance leaders today, I ask?!?! Let’s step it up my friends! I mean – if not you, then who… and if not now, then when?

There is a spark within each of us – Fan the Flame.

Author Siddharth Kara, a former business executive who turned in his suit and tie to write about the growth of global human trafficking, is speaking at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on November 2.

Kara is the first Fellow on Trafficking at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the author of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery, which was published in 2009 and had received worldwide acclaim for its penetrating analysis of the scope, causes and possible solutions for human trafficking – especially the trafficking of women and girls into sex slavery.

His appearance, which is free and open to the public, is at 6:30 p.m. in the Freedom Center’s Harriet Tubman Theater.  It is part of a series of public events the Freedom Center is hosting in conjunction with the opening of Invisible: Slavery Today, the world’s first, permanent installation on modern forms of slavery and human trafficking.

Kara’s interest in trafficking began in 1994 while he was a junior at Duke University.  He has lived in refugee camps and investigated brothels in South Asia, documenting the horrors of sex trafficking as told to him by shattered survivors. He will present a case study of a sex trafficking survivor and answer audience questions.

With limited seats available, interested parties are asked to RSVP their attendance by calling 513-333-7705.

The new Invisible: Slavery Today exhibition at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is important for the way it casts light on the little-known presence of slavery in the world today.

Just as important, the exhibition — or perhaps more accurately, the setting of the exhibition — is a reminder of how important current events can be linked to our historical past.

The Freedom Center’s main exhibitions focus on America’s early struggle with the ugly, and lawful, presence of chattel slavery.  It was an especially brutal and spirit-draining form of exploitation that, thankfully, was outlawed in the United States as the result of the four-year Civil War, a conflict that settled the issue of slavery at the cost of more than 660,000 lives.

Yet slavery did not end.  That is to say, exploitation of humans did not end but in fact has flourished in the world under many forms and guises.  Now, in the same museum where the history of slavery is explored in such detail, the new exhibition brings visitors up-to-date with what’s happened to slavery in the modern world.

As Invisible makes clear, some 12 million people, and perhaps twice that number, are working under some kind of forced labor all over the world, including not just adults but also children.  There are many differences between historical slavery having mostly to do with its legality and underlying economics.  But the coerced nature of exploitation — then and now — offer an important lesson about the long threads of history.

The widely-read antislavery website Change.org emphasizes this essential point in its review of Invisible.  Well worth reading, and sharing, to anyone who wants to take up the cause of modern abolitionism.