Ohio museum sets age limit on lynching exhibition

CINCINNATI (AP) — A Cincinnati museum is restricting young children from seeing a new exhibit featuring photographs of black people being hanged in front of large crowds of whites.

The images are so graphic that the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is limiting attendance to people 14 and older. Any student who attends on a field trip must have written permission of a parent or guardian.

Freedom Center President Donald Murphy says the exhibit takes a look back on a violent period in U.S. history.

The centerpiece is a series of photographs and postcards taken at lynching events from 1882 to 1968, when an estimated 5,000 blacks were hanged, set afire, castrated or otherwise tortured.

The photographs previously were shown in New York, Chicago and other cities.