Rosa Parks presented National Underground Railroad Freedom Center's first International Freedom Conductor Award

Jet, Nov 2, 1998

Civil rights heroine Rosa Parks recently was presented the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center's (NURFC) first International Freedom Conductor Award during ceremonies in Cincinnati, OH.

Several hundred national leaders representing business, education and government, along with Freedom Center advisors and friends participated in the black-tie event at the city's Westin Hotel.

The prestigious award, modeled after the Nobel Peace Prize, consisted of $25,000 and a sculpture designed by New York conceptual artist Fred Wilson.

The award honors those whose public and private actions, written and spoken words reflect the spirit and courageous actions of the conductors on the Underground Railroad. The recipients are contemporary individuals who have made significant contributions to freedom and human rights around the world.

Mrs. Parks, 85, is best known for refusing to surrender her seat to a White passenger on a Montgomery, AL, bus on Dec. 1, 1955, and her subsequent arrest which sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The boycott resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court a year later declaring segregation on public transportation unconstitutional.

"Rosa Parks was prepared to risk everything 43 years ago when she challenged the strict Jim Crow laws of segregation. In one simple act of defiance, she spoke out for the millions of people throughout the nation who were being denied the basic freedoms that our Constitution guarantees," said Edwin J. Rigaud, president and CEO of NURFC.

"I am honored that the Freedom Center has selected me as the first International Freedom Conductor Award recipient," Mrs. Parks said. "I have committed my life to freedom for all people, and will do as much as I can for as long as I can."

During slavery, the Underground Railroad was a loose system of cooperation among Black slaves, free Blacks, and sympathetic Whites and Native Americans to help slaves escape to freedom.

The National Park Service notes that it consisted of "a loosely constructed network of escape routes that originated in the South, intertwined throughout the North, and eventually ended in Canada. Escape routes were not just restricted to the North, but also extended into western territories, Mexico and the Caribbean."

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a national distributive museum and educational center opening in Cincinnati in 2003. It will develop the historic themes of the Underground Railroad as they relate to contemporary society through commemoration, education and inspiration, and celebrate hope courage and freedom's promise through stories of the Underground Railroad.

Its projects already include a traveling exhibition, web site, and creation of a lecture series on public policy.

The center's headquarters, which will sit along Cincinnati's revitalized riverfront, will house space for exhibitions, educational programs, offices, a library, performance space, art studio, classrooms, and an assembly hall.

Appropriately, the city of Cincinnati was chosen as the site of the Freedom Center because of its integral role in assisting slaves who were seeking freedom. The Ohio River was called the "River Jordan" and was the legal and symbolic dividing line to escaping slavery.

Throughout Ohio and across the country, free Blacks, Whites and Native Americans aided escaping slaves in their quest for freedom.