WASHINGTON - The National Park Service today announced $12.259 million in African American Civil Rights grants to fund 44 projects across 17 states that will preserve and highlight stories related to the African American struggle for equality in the 20th century.
“Through the work and engagement of public and private partners, these grants will preserve a defining part of our nation’s diverse history," National Park Service Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith said. “By working with underrepresented communities to preserve their historic places and stories, we will help tell a more complete narrative of the African American experience in the pursuit of civil rights."
Congress appropriated funding for the African American Civil Rights Grants Program in 2018 through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF). The HPF uses revenue from federal oil leases on the Outer Continental Shelf, providing assistance for a broad range of preservation projects without expending tax dollars. Grant-supported projects include surveys and documentation, interpretation and education, oral histories, architectural services, historic structure reports, planning, and physical preservation.
Projects receiving grants this year will preserve resources, places, and stories like the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama; the African American Women’s Suffrage experience in Mount Vernon, New York; and the rehabilitation of the Juanita Craft Civil Rights House and Memorial Garden in Dallas, Texas. Grant projects also include surveys to identify lesser-known civil rights sites associated with Connecticut’s Southern Students Work Projects, the March on Frankfort, Kentucky, and an African American Civil Rights Trail in Cleveland, Ohio.
Projects receiving an African American Civil Rights grants include:
State
Projects
Grantee
Award
Alabama
Auburn
Edmund Pettus Bridge: Historic Structures Report
Auburn University
$50,000
Alabama
Birmingham
Rehabilitation of St. Paul United Methodist Church
St. Paul United Methodist Church
$500,000
Alabama
Birmingham
Preservation and Rehabilitation of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church: Phase 3
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
$500,000
Alabama
Birmingham
Rehabilitation of the Historic Bethel Church Parsonage
Historic Bethel Baptist Church Community Restoration Fund
$258,209
Alabama
Marion
Stabilization and Roof Replacement of the Historic Lincoln Normal School Gymnasium: Phase 1
Lincolnite Club, Inc.
$500,000
Alabama
Montgomery
Rehabilitation of the Historic Moore Building: Phase 2
Alabama Historical Commission
$500,000
Alabama
Montgomery
Freedom Rides Museum Exhibit Plan
Alabama Historical Commission
$50,000
Alabama
Selma
Rehabilitation of the Amelia Boynton Residence
Gateway Educational Foundation, Inc. & Brown Chapel AME Church
$500,000
Alabama
Selma
Preservation of Historic Brown Chapel: Phase 3
Brown Chapel AME Historical Preservation Foundation
$500,000
Alabama
Selma
Oral Histories of the Untold Tabernacle Story
Tabernacle Baptist Church - Selma, AL Legacy Foundation, Inc.
$37,950
Alabama
Selma
Tabernacle Baptist Church: Historic Structure Report and Stained Glass Assessment
Tabernacle Baptist Church -Legacy Foundation, Inc.
$50,000
Alabama
Tuskegee
TISEP/TICEP: History and Impact
Tuskegee University
$50,000
Arkansas
Little Rock
Rehabilitation of Central High School: Phase 3
Little Rock School District
$499,582
Connecticut
Hartford
Survey of Connecticut’s Southern Students Work Projects During the Early Civil Rights Movement
Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development
$30,000
Kentucky
Frankfort
March on Frankfort: Oral History Project
City on Frankfort
$50,000
Florida
St. Augustine
Preservation of Excelsior High School Building
Friends of Lincolnville, Inc.
$500,000
Georgia
Americus
Rehabilitation of the Americus Colored Hospital
Americus-Sumter County Movement Remembered
$494,880
Georgia
Atlanta
Fountain (Stone) Hall Rehabilitation Project
Morris Brown College
$500,000
Louisiana
New Orleans
New Orleans African American Civil Rights Movement Traveling Exhibition
Kemper and Leila Williams Foundation, Inc.
$50,000
Louisiana
Shreveport
Rehabilitation of Old Galilee Missionary Baptist Church
City of Shreveport
$500,000
Michigan
Lansing
King Solomon Church Roof Replacement
Michigan State Housing Development Authority
$500,000
New York
Mount Vernon
The African-American Civil Rights and Women’s Suffrage Experience in Mount Vernon, NY: Identifying, Evaluating and Nominating Historic People, Sites, Events and Locations
City of Mount Vernon
$50,000
North Carolina
Charlotte
Freedom Fighters of the West End: Research and Interpretation of Charlotte’s Historic West End Civil Rights Activists
Johnson C. Smith University
$49,741
North Carolina
Elizabeth City
Restoration of the Northeastern North Carolina African American Research and Cultural Heritage Center
Elizabeth City State University
$498,872
North Carolina
Fayetteville
Interpreting the Historical Significance of the Briggs v. Elliot (1952) Case in the African American Civil Rights Movement
Scotts Branch High Alumni Association, Inc.
$50,000
North Carolina
Raleigh
Rehabilitation of the Charlotte Hawkins Brown State Historic Site
North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
$481,150
North Carolina
Raleigh
Restoration of Southern Railway Car No. 1211, a Jim Crow era segregated car
North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
$287,442
Ohio
Cleveland
Developing African American Civil Rights Trail in Cleveland
Cleveland Restoration Society
$50,000
Oregon
Portland
Restoration of the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church
Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church
$350,000
Pennsylvania
Hinsonville
Rehabilitation of the Lincoln University Heritage Center in Hinsonville
Lincoln University of Pennsylvania
$500,000
South Carolina
Charleston
Rehabilitation of the Pine Tree Hotel on Mosquito Beach, James Island
Historic Charleston Foundation
$490,861
South Carolina
Columbia
“Justice for All" Exhibit: Connecting South Carolina’s Involvement in Demanding Justice for African American Rights Throughout the Civil Rights Movement
University of South Carolina
$37,088
South Carolina
Columbia
Reinterpretation of the Modjeska Monteith Simkins House in Columbia
Historic Columbia Foundation
$49,500
South Carolina
Orangeburg
Rehabilitation of the Historic Trinity United Methodist Church: Phase 2
Trinity United Methodist Church
$500,000
South Carolina
St. Helena Island
Oral history project to collect 30 civil rights histories of key civil rights workers who were with King at Penn Center between 1963-1967
Penn Center, Inc.
$50,000
Texas
Dallas
Rehabilitation of the Juanita Craft Civil Rights House and Memorial Garden
City of Dallas
$500,000
Texas
Marshall
Classroom Culture in the Ark-La-Tex: Locating, Tecording, and Publicizing the African-American Civil Rights Stories of Ark-La-Tex
Bishop Blue
$50,000
Virginia
Gordonsville
Rehabilitation of St. John Rosenwald School
St. John Family Life and Fitness Center, Inc.
$75,000
Virginia
Hampton
Rehabilitation of the Thomas C. Walker House
Hampton University
$104,000
Virginia
Lynchburg
Rehabilitation of the Mary Jane Cachelin Science and Library Building
Virginia University of Lynchburg
$483,850
Virginia
Lynchburg
Rehabilitation of Graham Hall
Virginia University of Lynchburg
$50,000
Virginia
Richmond
Rehabilitation of Third Street Bethel AME Church, Richmond: Phase 3
Virginia Department of Historic Resources
$400,000
Virginia
Richmond
Restoration of Virginia Union University’s Belgian Building for its Associations with the African American Civil Rights Movement
Virginia Union University
$500,000
West Virginia
Huntington
Civil Rights Era Stories of African Americans in Appalachia
Marshall University Research Cooperation
$30,875
17 states
44 projects
$12,259,000
www.nps.gov
About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 419 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit us at www.nps.gov, on Facebook www.facebook.com/nationalparkservice, Twitter www.twitter.com/natlparkservice, and YouTube www.youtube.com/nationalparkservice.
Tags: historic preservation fund historic preservation grants african american civil rights
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
