Entertainer Harry Belafonte has agreed to serve as a spokesman to help raise money for a museum that will commemorate the network that helped slaves escape to freedom, the museum said.
Organizers already have raised millions in public and private pledges and hope to open the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in April 2004 along Cincinnati's Ohio River shore, where slaves stopped on their way to northern free states in the 19th century.
Belafonte, who was active in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and '60s, will help the Freedom Center's campaign to solicit smaller donations from the general public.
Construction of the $110 million museum is to begin by May 2002. The center will commemorate the safe houses and secret routes used by slaves on their way to freedom.