News Release
Date: October 17, 2022
Contact: Dana Hunt
ATLANTA – The National Park Service (NPS), in partnership with Jefferson National Parks Association (JNPA), announced the award of $335,166 in grants for 23 projects promoting cultural heritage preservation across NPS’s 7-state Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative (LMDI) region.
Through the Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative grant, NPS supports grantees with up to $25,000 in funding for a broad range of projects related to cultural resource preservation and heritage tourism,” said Timothy S. Good, superintendent, Lincoln Home National Historic Site and chair, Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative for the National Park Service. “The LMDI grant funds building preservation projects, historical marker installations, preservation plans development, archeological site stabilization and heritage festivals.”
“We are pleased to partner with the National Park Service in ensuring that communities throughout the Lower Mississippi Delta region have an opportunity to preserve and promote the culture and heritage of this vibrant region,” said David A. Grove, President and CEO of JNPA. As the co-administrator of the program, JNPA is responsible for managing the online application process and distributing grant funding to recipients.
The LMDI grants fund a variety of projects from building studies and museum exhibits to music heritage and cultural programming. This year’s grants will support projects such as the stabilization of the Indianola Freedom House, significant for its connection to Freedom Summer of 1964 and registering African Americans of the Mississippi Delta to vote; the No Tears Project outreach program, which connects the legacy of civil rights heritage in Jackson, Mississippi; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Memphis, Tennessee, using music and conversation; and in Lafayette, Louisiana, funds will be used to help efforts to inclusively share the stories, culture and ongoing struggle for sovereignty of the area’s indigenous people.
Established in 1994, the Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative has provided more than $3 million in grants to organizations exempt from federal income tax, such as non-profit organizations, tribal groups, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and state and local governments. The Lower Mississippi Delta region includes 219 counties across the state of Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.
Administered by the NPS in partnership with JNPA, LMDI funds may be appropriated by Congress to support the Delta’s cultural entities in their work toward research, interpretation and preservation goals for the region’s cultural resources.
Learn more about the LMDI grant program, including geographic parameters and how to apply for future grants on the program website: https://www.nps.gov/locations/lowermsdeltaregion/what-we-do.htm.
About the National Park Service’s Lower Mississippi Delta initiative: The Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative is a comprehensive and innovative effort established by Congress through Public Law 103-433 to preserve the Delta Region’s significant cultural and historic resources. Federal funding for this program is provided by the National Park Service and administered in partnership with Jefferson National Parks Association, official non-profit partner of the LMDI Program.
Last updated: October 17, 2022