The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently announced a $3 million grant dedicated to preserving Black history.
Considered part of their African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, the money will support 30 vital sites that are part of Black history. The grant will be divided, with each site estimated to receive between $50,000 and $150,000. Preservation efforts will be focused on creating capital, growing staff and funding new projects. The money will also be used to help with education efforts.
Historic sites supported include the George W. Hubbard House, Erma Hayman House, Kennett Underground Railroad Center and the Nicodemus Historical Society & Museum. Pierce Chapel African Cemetery, Wabash Avenue YMCA and Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Inc will also be rewarded.
“Preserving African American culture is central to preserving and understanding American culture writ large,” said the President of the Mellon Foundation, Elizabeth Alexander, per a press release. “This new suite of Action Fund grants will provide crucial financial and strategic support to sites that further illuminate the Black voices and visions that make up our shared American past. We at Mellon are pleased to support this effort to ensure that all of us can continue to learn and experience these essential histories in our public spaces.”
The grant comes months after the National Trust for Historic Preservation released its list of endangered historic sites. Currently, the nonprofit has highlighted 11 sites that require preservation efforts.
The city of Eatonville, FL, the setting of Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” was included on the list as citizens seek to preserve their hometown. The Florida town is considered to be the first self-governing all-Black municipality in the U.S.
Roosevelt High School, now unoccupied and in destruction, is also considered to be an endangered site. Located in Indiana, alumni included members of the Jackson 5, Olympic gold medal winner Lee Calhoun and MLB player Wallace Johnson. Meanwhile, New Salem Baptist Church, known as a historic site celebrating the stories of Black coal miners, is in need of major construction surpassing the capabilities of the congregation alone.
“Seventy-five years ago, widely recognized sites of national history were largely confined to the East Coast and ‘historic preservation’ was synonymous with the great architecture of our Founding Fathers,” said Carol Quillen, the President of the National Historic Trust for Historic Preservation. “That foundation is still important, but today there’s more recognition that history ought to help us tell the full American story, including that of groups and places previously left at the margins.”
