News Release

National Park Service awards $1.25 million to recognize historic underrepresented communities

The Whitney Institute in Louisiana will amend the Whitney Plantation Historic District nomination using the Underrepresented Communities grant to include African American history from slavery through reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights era.

Courtesy of  Elsa Hahne, The Whitney Institute

News Release Date: February 8, 2024

Contact: [e-mail]

WASHINGTON –The National Park Service today announced $1,250,000 to 21 projects in 19 states and the District of Columbia for the survey and nomination of sites and districts associated with communities that are underrepresented in the National Register of Historic Places.    

“The National Register is the official list of our Nation’s historic places that are worthy of preservation,” NPS Director Chuck Sams said. “The National Park Service is proud to work with our Tribal, State, and local partners through the Underrepresented Communities grant program to ensure that the National Register better reflects the important places and significant stories of all Americans.”     

This years’ grants include:  

• The survey and development of an LGBTQIA2S+ Historic Context in the Puget Sound, and the National Register of Historic Places nomination of an outstanding representation of queer history in Washington State.  

• A migrant farm worker historic context study and National Register nomination in Miami-Dade County, Florida.  

• An amendment to the Whitney Plantation Historic District’s National Register nomination in Wallace, Louisiana to rectify the exclusion of African Americans and the site’s role in the history of slavery. More than 350 people were enslaved at the plantation in the 18th and 19th centuries. The updated National Register listing will more thoroughly document this nationally significant site’s history through slavery, reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights era.  

• A survey and National Register nomination for the Annie (Nicolai) Wickersham homesite by the Chickaloon Native Village in Alaska, significant for its association with the Dene experience during the first decades of direct Euro-American contact, as well the Prohibition Era experience of the Dene.   

The Underrepresented Communities grant program began in 2014 and has provided $7 million to State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices and Certified Local Governments to work towards diversifying the National Register of Historic Places through surveys and nominations.  

For more information about the Underrepresented Communities grant program, please visit http://go.nps.gov/urc.   

Underrepresented Communities Grant Awards  

State	Project Title	Organization	Funded Amount
Alaska	Survey and National Register Nomination of the Annie (Nicolai) Wickersham Homesite	Chickaloon Native Village	$74,454
Alabama	Survey and National Register Nomination for the Titusville Community	City of Birmingham	$75,000
Arkansas	National Register Nomination for Dunbar Junior and Senior High and Junior College in Little Rock	City of Little Rock	$17,700
Colorado	Intensive Survey and National Register Nomination of LGBTQ+ Sites in Colorado	State Historical Society of Colorado dba History Colorado	$58,798
District of Columbia	Multiple Property Document and Nominations of Significant Sites Designed by Black Architects in Washington, DC	DC Preservation League	$75,000
Florida	Migrant Farmworker Historic Context Study and Nomination	Miami-Dade County	$75,000
Indiana	Survey, Documentation and Multiple Property Document for Indiana's Green Book Sites	State of Indiana	$75,000
Louisiana	Updated National Register Nomination for Whitney Plantation Historic District to include African American History	The Whitney Institute	$70,400
Massachusetts	Provincetown Historic District National Register Nomination Amendment to add Social History: LGBT	Provincetown Community Compact	$49,999
Michigan	Auburn Hills National Register Nomination	City of Grand Rapids	$60,000
Minnesota	Minneapolis African American Historic and Cultural Context Study and Nomination	City of Minneapolis	$75,000
Missouri	Kansas City African American Heritage National Register Multiple Property Submission	City of Kansas City	$75,000
North Carolina	National Register Nominations for McCrorey Heights and Oaklawn Park: African American Civil Rights Leadership	City of Charlotte	$21,500
North Carolina	Lincoln Park Neighborhood National Register Nomination	City of Lexington	$26,000
Nebraska	Women in the Trades Context Study and National Register Nomination	City of Lincoln	$73,000
Nevada	Northeast Reno African American Historic Resource Survey and National Register Nomination	City of Reno	$55,000
New York	National Register of Historic Places Amendment for Hotel Chelsea to add Social History: LGBT	Fund for the City of New York, Inc.	$25,000
Ohio	National Register Recognition for Cleveland's Historic Black Churches	Cleveland Restoration Society, Inc.	$52,149
Rhode Island	African American Civil Rights in Rhode Island: Phase Three	Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission of Rhode Island	$66,000
Virginia	African American Schools in Virginia Multiple Property Document and National Register Nomination	Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Historic Resources	$75,000
Washington	LGBTQIA2S+ Historic Context and National Register Nomination in the Puget Sound	Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation	$75,000
19 States and   Washington DC	21 Total Projects	Total Funded	$1,250,000

The Underrepresented Communities grant program is one element of the Historic Preservation Fund. The HPF uses revenue from federal oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf to assist with a broad range of preservation projects without expending tax dollars, with the intent to mitigate the loss of a nonrenewable resource to benefit the preservation of other irreplaceable resources.  

Established in 1977, the HPF is authorized at $150 million per year through 2023 and has provided more than $2 billion in historic preservation grants to states, Tribes, local governments, and nonprofit organizations. Administered by the NPS, HPF funds may be appropriated by Congress to support a variety of historic preservation projects to help preserve the nation’s diverse cultural resources.  
  
For more information about NPS historic preservation programs and grants, please visit go.nps.gov/grants. 

About the National Park Service: More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 428 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.