News Release
Charles Lawrence, Lord Aeck Sargent
News Release Date: May 25, 2023
Contact: NewsMedia@nps.gov
WASHINGTON – The National Park Service (NPS) awarded $21 million today to 37 projects in 16 states as part of the Historic Preservation Fund’s African American Civil Rights grant program, which funds preservation projects and efforts of sites tied to the struggle of African Americans to gain equal rights.
“The National Park Service is proud to award this grant funding to our state and local government, and nonprofit partners to help them recognize places and stories related to the African American experience,” said NPS Director Chuck Sams. “Since 2016, the African American Civil Rights program has provided over $100 million to document, protect, and celebrate the places, people and stories of one of the greatest struggles in American history.”
This year’s grants will support the preservation of sites like the Ashby Theatre, St. Paul United Methodist Church and the Americus Colored Hospital.
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Atlanta’s Ashby Theatre opened in 1934 offering African Americans a state-of-the art experience and welcomed them through the front door to watch movies on the main level. Herman Perry, a successful African American entrepreneur who founded Citizens Trust Bank, which is among the largest African American-owned financial institutions in the country today, built the theater. Grant funds will support removal of hazardous material, building assessments, stabilization, and exterior improvements.
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During the Birmingham demonstrations in 1963 against racial segregation, St. Paul hosted mass meetings and held training sessions in nonviolent civil disobedience for the young demonstrators who participated in the Children’s Crusade marches. Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, who established the Southern Christian Leadership Conference along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was pastor of the church. The grant funding will improve mechanical and plumbing systems. The applicant is providing $26,000 in matching funds.
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The Americus Colored Hospital in Georgia provided high-quality, full-service health care to African Americans from 1923 to 1953 and was a facility where black medical professionals could train, practice, and serve. With a significant population of health professionals, Americus had a thriving African American middle class. In the 1960s, the building became one of two Freedom Centers to help people register to vote. This grant will fund installation of new electrical and HVAC systems and provide interior repairs.
Congress appropriated funding for the African American Civil Rights Grant Program in fiscal year 2022 through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF). The HPF uses revenue from federal oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf to assist with a broad range of preservation projects and mitigate the loss of nonrenewable resources by funding the preservation of other irreplaceable resources without expending tax dollars. Established in 1977 and authorized at $150 million per year through 2023, the HPF has provided more than $2 billion in historic preservation grants to states, Tribes, local governments, and nonprofit organizations.
Administered by the NPS, Congress may appropriate HPF funds to support a variety of historic preservation projects to help preserve the nation’s cultural resources. For fiscal year 2023, $24 million will be available for African American Civil Rights grants in the summer of 2023.
For more information about NPS historic preservation programs and grants, please visit nps.gov/stlpg/.
Awards
| State | Project | Grantee | Award |
| Alabama, Anniston | Story Mapping and Formalization of Operations and Maintenance for the Anniston Civil Rights Trail | City of Anniston | $74,800 |
| Alabama, Birmingham | Historic Bethel Baptist Church: Preserving the Past to Secure the Future | Historic Bethel Baptist Church Community Restoration Fund | $750,000 |
| Alabama, Birmingham | Preservation, Rehabilitation and Repair of St. Paul United Methodist Church | St. Paul United Methodist Church | $750,000 |
| Alabama, Montgomery | Repair, Rehabilitation and Preservation of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and Parsonage | Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church | $750,000 |
| Alabama, Montgomery | Freedom Rides Museum Vintage Greyhound Bus Virtual Reality Experience | Alabama Historical Commission | $75,000 |
| Alabama, Montgomery | Moore Building 2nd Floor Rehabilitation | Alabama Historical Commission | $750,000 |
| Connecticut, Bridgeport | Historic Preservation and Rehabilitation of the 1848 Eliza Freeman House | The Mary and Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community | $750,000 |
| Florida, Pensacola | Ground Penetrating Radar Survey and Interpretation of a Possible 19th Century Unmarked African American Cemetery in Pensacola, Florida | City of Pensacola | $22,160 |
| Georgia, Americus | Rehabilitation of the Historic Americus Colored Hospital to create the Americus Sumter County Civil Rights Museum and Cultural Center | Americus-Sumter County Movement Remembered | $749,200 |
| Georgia, Atlanta | Interpretive programming about the church and the key role of Rev. Dr. Ralph David Abernathy in the Civil Rights Movement | Ralph David Abernathy III Foundation, Inc. | $75,000 |
| Georgia, Atlanta | Rehabilitation of the Historic Ashby Theatre as part of a multi-use business and community center in westside Atlanta | Atlanta Business League Foundation, Inc | $749,000 |
| Georgia, Atlanta | Prince Hall Masonic Lodge Rehabilitation Project | The Trust for Public Land | $750,000 |
| Georgia, Savannah | Springfield Terrace School Rehabilitation Plan | Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah | $50,000 |
| Georgia, Warm Springs | Saving the Last Rosenwald School; The Eleanor Roosevelt School | Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation | $694,522 |
| Kentucky, Louisville | Brown Memorial CME Church Building Rehabilitation | Louisville Preservation Fund | $750,000 |
| Maryland, Baltimore | Survey of Civil Rights in Baltimore | Maryland Department of Planning, Maryland Historical Trust | $50,000 |
| Mississippi, Marks | Marks Rosenwald School Rehabilitation: Phase 3 | Quitman County School District | $408,500 |
| Mississippi, Meridian | Renovation/Rehabilitation Wechsler School 1951 Addition Cafeteria/Multipurpose Area | The Wechsler Foundation | $750,000 |
| Mississippi and Illinois, Various sites | Emmett Till Landmark – a Digital, GPS-enabled Guide to 23 Sites | Emmett Till Memorial Commission of Tallahatchie County, Inc. | $74,096 |
| New York, Rye | Rye African American Cemetery Pre-Preservation Initiative | Town of Rye | $35,450 |
| North Carolina, Elizabeth City | ECSU Rosenwald Practice School and Principal's House Rehabilitation/Northeastern North Carolina African American Research and Cultural Heritage Institute | Elizabeth City State University | $750,000 |
| North Carolina, Elizabeth City | ECSU Rosenwald Practice School and Principal's House/Northeastern North Carolina African American Research and Cultural Heritage Institute Exhibit Design and Construction | Elizabeth City State University | $75,000 |
| North Carolina, Sedalia | Preservation of the Tea House at Charlotte Hawkins Brown State Historic Site | NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources | $555,334 |
| North Carolina, Southern Pines | Trinity AME Zion Church Rehabilitation Project | Triangle J Council of Governments | $748,303 |
| North Carolina, Southern Pines | Museum Exhibition Planning and Research for the West Southern Pines Cultural Center | Southern Pines Land & Housing Trust Inc. | $67,200 |
| Ohio, Cleveland | Phase II: Masonry and Terracotta Repairs for Cleveland's Top Civil Rights Landmark, Cory United Methodist Church | Cleveland Restoration Society, Inc. | $529,038 |
| Ohio, Cleveland | Pre-preservation Work on the Historic Sidaway Bridge | Neighborhood Progress, Inc. | $75,000 |
| Pennsylvania, Washington Crossing | Calling Forth the Legacy of Jacob Francis: The Revolutionary Road to the Civil Rights Movement | Friends of Washington Crossing Park | $61,955 |
| South Carolina, Columbia | Booker T. Washington High School Auditorium Building Rehabilitation | University of South Carolina | $5,000,000 |
| South Carolina, Ninety Six | Stabilization and Preservation Planning of the Former Edgewood School, an "Equalization School," Now Serving as Edgewood Community Center | South Carolina Rural Education Grassroots Group | $750,000 |
| South Carolina, Orangeburg | Phase II Preservation of All Star Bowling Lanes | Center for Creative Partnerships | $750,000 |
| South Carolina, Orangeburg | Preservation and Repair of Historic Trinity United Methodist Church: Phase IV | Trinity United Methodist Church | $750,000 |
| South Carolina, Sumter | 2022 Lincoln High School Preservation Application - Phase II | Lincoln High School Preservation Alumni Association | $750,000 |
| Texas, Galveston | Elevation of the 1859 Ashton Villa | Galveston Historical Foundation, Inc. | $750,000 |
| Virginia, Sutherland | Historic Rocky Branch School Initial Building Stabilization Project | Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities | $288,000 |
| Virginia, Various sites | Sanctuaries of Governance and Social Structure: A Collaborative Project to Recognize the Role of African American Churches from Reconstruction to Civil Rights | One Shared Story | $74,942 |
| West Virginia, Various sites | African American Experience of Struggle and Achievement in West Virginia's Allegheny Highlands | Friends of Blackwater | $65,000 |
| 16 States | 37 Projects | $21,097,500 |
About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 424 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: August 8, 2023