By Kevin Aldridge
Enquirer staff writer

A group of civil rights activists will hold events on Fountain Square on Sunday and Monday to counter the star-studded grand opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

"The People's Freedom Center: A Living Museum of the Missing Pages of History and Contemporary Struggle," will take place at 5 p.m. Sunday on Fountain Square. National and local speakers are slated to offer remarks, and those who attend will march by candlelight to the Freedom Center.

The group, which includes organizations involved in an economic boycott of downtown, said an alternative event is necessary to tell the "true" story of the struggles and triumphs of the Underground Railroad. The group said the center underplays the heroic nature of the African struggle for freedom and "lionizes the role of whites."

"Local government and the business community of Cincinnati point to the Freedom Center as evidence that all is well in Cincinnati. All is not well," said Dwight Patton, president of the Cincinnati Black United Front. "Nine blocks from the Freedom Center lie communities of extreme poverty."

Activists demanded that Freedom Center officials rescind their invitation to President Bush to attend the opening, calling him "an enemy of freedom." They also asked that Freedom Center officials incorporate the names of prominent black civil rights leaders such as Malcolm X and W.E.B DuBois onto their "Freedom's Heroes" list and exhibits.

"This (Freedom Center) is a softer version of our fight for freedom designed to make it more palatable," said Victoria Straughn, of Concerned Citizens for Justice. "They are watering down the culture and history of what did occur."

Several of the activists said they had not been inside the Freedom Center. But many said other members of their organizations had, and gave the Freedom Center less than rave reviews.

Ernest Britton, director of external affairs for the center, said he doesn't anticipate that the alternative event will take away from the Freedom Center's grand opening Monday.

"We hope that they will come down and really walk through and explore the exhibits so that they understand the full range of programs," Britton said. "Anyone who's actually had a full visit to the Freedom Center knows that Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and others are included in our stories."

E-mail kaldridge@enquirer.com