News Release
Photo courtesy of Andrew Jameson, 2012, Wikipedia
News Release Date: April 6, 2020
Contact: NewsMedia@nps.gov
WASHINGTON – The National Park Service (NPS) today announced $14 million in African American Civil Rights Historic Preservation Fund grants to fund 51 projects across 20 states and the District of Columbia that will preserve sites and history related to the African American struggle for equality in the 20th century.
“These grants will fund important projects that document, interpret, and preserve sites that tell the stories of the African American experience in the pursuit of civil rights,” said National Park Service Deputy Director David Vela, exercising the authority of the Director. “Thanks to the coordination of public and private partners, these projects will help connect Americans to historic places that preserve American history.”
Congress appropriated funding for the African American Civil Rights Grants Program in 2019 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.
“From 1923 to 1953, the Americus Colored Hospital was the only medical facility in the South where black medical professionals could practice and serve people of color. This hospital was vital to African Americans during Jim Crow and produced more trained professionals than larger cities like Atlanta, New York, and Chicago. During the Civil Rights Movement in Americus, the building became a Freedom Center and continued to serve the African American community in a new way,” said Georgia Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. “I am pleased this grant will preserve the Colored Hospital so future generations can learn about the strong civil rights history in southwest Georgia.”
“The preservation of these projects is an invaluable investment in the campuses, communities and individuals they serve,” said South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn. “I am pleased that these funds will continue to allow our communities to learn from the Civil Rights Movement and the important role that South Carolina played in making America’s greatness apply more fairly and equitably to all of its citizens.”
"This grant from the National Park Service is great news for the advancement of the 1908 Springfield Race Riot location as a site of historic importance and furthers our efforts to designate it as a National Historic Monument," said Illinois Congressman Rodney Davis. "I look forward to seeing these funds raise awareness and understanding of the site with the general public."
“Completed in 1918, Taborian Hall became a centerpiece of the African American community in central Arkansas and, during its heyday, showcased musical greats like Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, B.B. King, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dizzie Gillespie. In recent decades, Taborian Hall had fallen into disrepair and would have likely been demolished had Kerry McCoy and Friends of Dreamland not purchased it with the vision of restoring it to its former glory,” said Arkansas Congressman French Hill. “I commend the National Park Service for allocating nearly $500,000 to renovate and preserve this site and recognize its importance in the struggle for equality.”
Projects receiving grants this year will preserve resources, places, and stories like the Shepard Library at Stillman College, the Albert Kahn House in Detroit, Michigan, and the Greenwood Center buildings in Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Grant projects also include surveys across the country from Montgomery, Alabama to Muskegon, Michigan to identify lesser-known civil rights sites.
For more information about the grants and the African America Civil Rights Grant Program, please visit https://www.nps.gov/preservation-grants/civil-rights/. Applications for $15.5 million in FY2020 funding will be available in the fall of 2020.
Awards:
|
State |
Projects |
Grantee |
Award |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Alabama |
Preservation and Repair of St. Paul United Methodist Church |
St. Paul United Methodist Church |
$500,000 |
|
Alabama |
Rehabilitation of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Phase 4 |
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church |
$500,000 |
|
Alabama |
Rehabilitation of the Historic Bethel Church |
Historic Bethel Baptist Church Community Restoration Fund |
$345,400 |
|
Alabama |
Montgomery, Alabama Civil Rights Multiple Property Nomination |
Alabama Historical Commission |
$50,000 |
|
Alabama |
Freedom Rides Museum Exhibit Fabrication |
Alabama Historical Commission |
$50,000 |
|
Alabama |
Rehabilitation of Mount Zion A.M.E. Zion Church Memorial Annex |
Mount Zion Center Foundation, Inc |
$500,000 |
|
Alabama |
Preservation of the Bertha Pleasant Williams Library |
Montgomery City-County Public Library |
$470,601 |
|
Alabama |
Moore Building Second Floor Rehabilitation |
Alabama Historical Commission |
$500,000 |
|
Alabama |
Oral Histories: Selma's Voting Rights Women Foot Soldiers |
Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church Selma AL LegacyFoundationInc |
$37,000 |
|
Alabama |
Critical Repairs to Tabernacle Baptist Church-Phase I |
Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church Selma AL LegacyFoundationInc |
$500,000 |
|
Alabama |
Talladega College and the Civil Rights Movement: A Watershed in History |
Talladega College |
$50,000 |
|
Alabama |
Foster Hall Interior Rehabilitation |
Talladega College |
$500,000 |
|
Alabama |
Preservation Planning for Sheppard Library |
Stillman College |
$50,000 |
|
Arkansas |
Survey and Nomination of University Park Subdivision, Little Rock, Arkansas |
City of Little Rock |
$35,000 |
|
Arkansas |
Taborian Hall Preservation and Access Project |
Friends of Dreamland |
$499,723 |
|
California |
Summer of Civil Rights: Chronicling the Black Movement in Santa Ana, CA |
Heritage Museum of Orange County |
$24,830 |
|
District of Columbia |
Black Power in 20th Century Washington, DC: A Context Study |
DC Preservation League |
$50,000 |
|
District of Columbia |
‘Ain't No Back to a Merry-Go-Round’ Documentary Film Project |
Women in Film & Video, Inc. |
$50,000 |
|
Florida |
Survey of the African American Brownsville Sub-division, Miami, FL |
Dade Heritage Trust, Inc. |
$50,000 |
|
Florida |
Historic Structure Report for Evans' Rendezvous |
Nassau County Board of County Commissioners |
$28,180 |
|
Georgia |
Rehabilitation of the Americus Colored Hospital Phase 2 |
Americus-Sumter County Movement Remembered Committee, Inc |
$499,697 |
|
Georgia |
Stayed on Freedom: Oral Histories of the Civil Rights Movement at Spelman College |
Spelman College |
$50,000 |
|
Georgia |
Restoration of the Historic West Hunter Street Baptist Church- Phase 3 |
Ralph David Abernathy III Foundation, Inc. |
$499,980 |
|
Georgia |
Rehabilitation of Fountain (Stone) Hall |
Morris Brown College |
$500,000 |
|
Georgia |
Oral History of African American WAC Battalion at Fort Oglethorpe |
Friends of the 6th Cavalry Museum Inc |
$28,578 |
|
Illinois |
1908 Springfield, IL Race Riot Augmented Reality Ap |
Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition |
$50,000 |
|
Kentucky |
Quinn Chapel AME Church Masonry Stabilization |
Louisville Jefferson County Metropolitan Government |
$500,000 |
|
Louisiana |
McDonogh 19 Historic Cafeteria, Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans |
Leona Tate Foundation for Change, Inc. |
$500,000 |
|
Massachusetts |
Interpretive Exhibit Design for the Historic Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church in Great Barrington, MA. |
Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area, Inc. |
$50,000 |
|
Michigan |
Restoration of the Detroit Urban League Headquarters / Albert Kahn House |
Urban League of Detroit and Southeastern Michigan |
$500,000 |
|
Michigan |
Rehabilitation of the Grandstands of Historic Hamtramck Stadium |
Charter County of Wayne, Michigan |
$490,729 |
|
Michigan |
Muskegon County Historic Resource Survey |
Michigan Strategic Fund |
$50,000 |
|
North Carolina |
A Virtual Sense of Place: Critical Black Urbanism in Charlotte, NC |
Johnson C. Smith University |
$35,000 |
|
North Carolina |
Rehabilitation of Mary Potter School Shop Building 76-C |
National Mary Potter Club, Inc. |
$500,000 |
|
North Carolina |
The Untold Stories of the Struggle for Civil Rights in the Places of Northeastern North Carolina: A Research Study |
NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources |
$50,000 |
|
North Carolina |
Rehabilitation of the Benbury-Frinks House |
NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources |
$241,940 |
|
North Carolina |
Preservation of Historic Monroe Street School |
Livingstone College |
$500,000 |
|
New Jersey |
William R. Allen School Rehabilitation |
City of Burlington |
$500,000 |
|
New Jersey |
Rehabilitation of the Franklin Street School |
City of Cape May |
$500,000 |
|
New York |
Michigan Street Baptist Church Protection and Rehabilitation |
Buffalo Niagara Freedom Station Coalition, Inc. |
$204,845 |
|
Ohio |
Union Baptist Cemetery Historic Preservation Project |
The Union Foundation |
$400,000 |
|
Ohio |
Adaptive Use of Summit Street Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) |
Early Visions |
$500,000 |
|
Oklahoma |
Rehabilitation of the Greenwood Center Buildings in historic "Black Wall Street" Tulsa, OK |
Greenwood Community Development Corporation |
$500,000 |
|
South Carolina |
John Henry McCray and the Role of the Black Press in the Civil Rights Movement |
Allen University |
$43,897 |
|
South Carolina |
Booker T. Washington High School Auditorium Building Preservation Project |
University of South Carolina |
$500,000 |
|
South Carolina |
Starks Center Rehabilitation Project |
Benedict College |
$500,000 |
|
South Dakota |
The Green Siblings Project: Oral Histories of the Little Rock Nine Siblings |
Black Hills Special Services Cooperative |
$25,000 |
|
Texas |
Fair Park Hall of Negro Life Research and Discovery Project |
City of Dallas |
$50,000 |
|
Virginia |
Rehabilitation of First Baptist Church |
Virginia Department of Historic Resources |
$240,000 |
|
West Virginia |
Historic Memphis Tennessee Garrison House Rehabilitation Project |
The Carter G Woodson Memorial Foundation, Inc. |
$146,100 |
|
West Virginia |
Preservation & Restoration of the First Free Black School and Star Lodge No. 1 |
City of Charles Town, West Virginia |
$118,500 |
|
21 States |
51 projects |
|
$14,065,000 |
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. Learn more at www.nps.gov, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube
Last updated: April 7, 2020