By Ari Bloomekatz
Enquirer staff writer
Three men beat drums, and a small crowd holding banners and signs demanding racial freedom in Cincinnati watched women in dazzlingly green, pink and yellow African dress dance barefoot onstage on Fountain Square Sunday.
The rally could easily have been an early celebration of today's grand opening of Cincinnati's National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
Instead, it was to protest the attention the center has received in recent months, and to give notice to racial inequalities that several local black organizations and civil rights groups say still exist.
"This Freedom Center represents nothing more than riverfront development," said the Rev. Damon Lynch III, pastor of New Prospect Missionary Baptist Church in Over-the-Rhine.
Lynch said the city of Cincinnati hopes the Freedom Center will wipe away racial stigmas that have evolved over the years. He added that the black community continues to face poverty and concerns over police relations.
"All is not well in Cincinnati," Lynch said.
The crowd marched from Fountain Square to the Freedom Center, where beneficiaries in formal dress had come for a $1,500-a-plate dinner the night before the grand opening.
Henry Tate, 52, of Roselawn, said he came to support the Black United Front. He said the $110 million used to build the Freedom Center could have been better spent in poor communities.
Tate added he thought celebrities and the center's beneficiaries were not getting a real taste of what life is like in Cincinnati.
"I don't think a lot of them have been informed of the real issues surrounding Cincinnati," Tate said.
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E-mail abloomekatz@enquirer.com
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