HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — Modern technology and pre-Civil War artifacts will mesh when the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center opens on Cincinnati's riverfront in mid-2004.

        “I think our primary task here is to get people to look at the world in a different way,” said Spencer Crew, the museum's executive director and CEO. Rather than be a bystander when it comes to racial harmony and interaction, the center will promote involvement in one's community, he said.

        “By visiting the center, I hope that people realize that there was a wide variety of individuals willing to risk everything for the concept of freedom,” Mr. Crew said.

        Center officials unveiled the first detailed look at the museum's interior and its exhibits at a public forum Wednesday night at Northern Kentucky University attended by 13 people of diverse backgrounds and occupations.

        Three other public meetings are to help gauge how visitors want to experience the saga of the Underground Railroad, a secret network of African-Americans, white abolitionists and their allies who helped slaves escape from the South to freedom in the North.

        As they relive the journey to emancipation, the center's visitors will be asked to imagine themselves in the various roles of America's slave history: ally, freedom seeker, bystander, victim or oppressor, said Rita C. Organ, director of exhibits and collections.

        The 158,000-square-foot museum will feature five major exhibits, including an authentic two-story log slave jail, an interactive theatrical experience, and a concluding forum.

        “It will incorporate the best practices from some of the premiere institutions around the country,” said Ernest Britton, museum spokesman.

        The Freedom Center will consist of three linked pavilions to be built starting next summer at the foot of the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge on the Ohio River's northern bank.

        The museum's two floors of exhibits, which tentatively will incorporate multi-media exhibits, large murals, photos, paintings and centuries-old artifacts from the slave trade, will be accessible via a centrally located circular stairway and elevators.

        One of the first exhibits visitors will see is an actual slave jail moved from a Mason County, Ky., farm. The two-story log structure, which once served as a holding pen for slaves who were being taken to the South for sale, will be the center's dominant artifact.

        “A key reason for having (the slave jail) is that it's clear evidence that this area was part of the slave trade,” Mr. Britton said.

        Among the suggestions offered by participants at Wednesday's forum: Rely on experts on African history to tell the story of slavery in West Africa, include information on the exploitation of other peoples, such as Native Americans, document the international destinations of some escaped slaves, and integrate individual stories reflective of Tristate families' multiple heritages throughout the center.

        “Our belief is it will be a better project because of the time and effort you gave us tonight,” Mr. Crew told forum participants.

        Freedom Center officials have raised $71 million of the $110 million needed for the project, and they expect to raise the entire amount by late 2002. That effort will be helped today when Deloitte & Touche, a New York-based professional services firm, announces a major gift, Mr. Britton said.

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