Picture the Ohio River nearby, once crossed by thousands seeking freedom here at this Freedom Center, opened in 2004. This museum, rooted in the history of the Underground Railroad, opened in 2004 and pays tribute to all efforts to "abolish human enslavement and secure freedom for all people. It belongs to a new group of "museums of conscience" alongside the Museum of Tolerance, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the National Civil Rights Museum.
The center offers insight into the struggle for freedom in the past, in the present, and for the future, and it deliberately challenges visitors to contemplate the meaning of freedom in their own lives. Its very location recognizes Cincinnati's significant role in that history: thousands of enslaved people escaped to freedom by crossing the Ohio River from the southern slave states, and many found refuge here, some staying temporarily before heading north to Canada. After ten years of planning, fundraising, and construction, the $110 million (about $175 million in 2024) Freedom Center opened to the public on August 3, 2004; official opening ceremonies took place on August 23.
This $110 million museum joins the Holocaust Memorial Museum and other museums of conscience, its story of freedom still unfolding for you.