News Release

NPS Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program awards $500,000 in grants

A grant will enable the F. Julius LeMoyne House to produce an exhibit about the journey of a freedom seeker.

Photo credit Midnightdreary

News Release Date: October 13, 2023

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WASHINGTON – The National Park Service National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program, in collaboration with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), has awarded $500,000 in grants to 14 current or prospective program members in 11 states. The funds will support projects that enhance the preservation or interpretation of sites connected with the Underground Railroad, one of the nation’s earliest civil rights movements.  

“Since its establishment in 1998, the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program has been committed to uncovering, conserving, and sharing the stories of courageous individuals who sought freedom, as well as those who selflessly assisted them,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. “These grants will fund research, restoration, and outreach activities that recognize their feats, expand our knowledge, and connect communities with their heritage.”      

The grants will help fund a variety of projects, including the development of curriculum-based lesson plans for a barn in Kansas that sheltered freedom seekers, creation of an exhibit for a house in Pennsylvania that was a center of antislavery activity, and a humanities program and community festival dedicated to honoring the enduring legacy of the Black Seminole settlement 'Angola.' The grants also support essential research to facilitate the creation of new Network to Freedom applications. 

The Network to Freedom Program honors, preserves and promotes the history of resistance to enslavement through collaboration with individuals, organizations, local, state and federal entities. It has more than 750 listings with verifiable connections to the Underground Railroad that serve as a catalyst for innovation, partnership, and scholarship that advances the idea that everyone has the right to self-determination and freedom from oppression.     

“The Association for the Study of African American Life and History salutes the 2023 Network to Freedom grantees for their tenacity and commitment in disseminating knowledge of the African American experience as it involves the Underground Railroad and its vast tentacles of freedom,” said ASALH Executive Director Sylvia Cyrus. “In the spirit of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the founder of ASALH, who observed that ‘Knowledge is power,’ the research, public discourse and collaboration with diverse partners helps different communities learn more about history and about themselves.”     

The grant recipients by state are:   

Florida 

• $61,00 to the Angola Maroon Community for a festival and workshops that commemorate a historic community of freedom seekers. 

Illinois 

• $99,500 to Crete Cemetery and Crete Congregational Church to help stabilize and restore a historic church with ties to the Underground Railroad. 

Kansas 

• $12,000 to Grover Barn to develop curriculum-based lesson plans for primary, intermediate, and high school classes.  

Maryland 

• $23,000 to Mount Clare to expand middle school curriculum about the historic train station and provide educational opportunities for students and teachers.  

Massachusetts 

• $80,000 to the African Meeting House to develop and share information about the oldest surviving black church structure in the nation. 

Minnesota 

• $5,000 to the Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldier Memorial Cemetery to research for the city's oldest existing cemetery which includes the gravesite of a former slave and conductor of the Underground Railroad.   

New York 

• $5,000 for the Cataract House site to conduct research into Underground Railroad activism in Niagra Falls. 

North Carolina 

• $43,000 for Guilford College Woods for ethnobotany project to produce signage and exhibits for an Underground Railroad trail.  

Ohio 

• $92,000 to Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church to restore and return the building to service as a historic site and community center.  
• $3,500 to Oviatt House to help restore and preserve the home of a family that assisted abolitionist John Brown.   

Pennsylvania 

• $45,000 to the F. Julius LeMoyne House for an interpretive exhibit about the journey of a freedom seeker. 
• $8,000 to the Heinz History Center to support a symposium.  

Texas 

• $18,000 to the San Antonio African American Community Archive & Museum to develop Network to Freedom applications. 
• $10,000 to Galveston Historical Foundation to document the stories of freedom seekers and develop a Network to Freedom application.     

www.nps.gov   

About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 425 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.